INFLATION EASING, BIDEN ADVISOR SAYS. TRUE OR FALSE U.S. inflation will slow in the months ahead because the factors driving it are easing, Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Biden administration’s Council of Economic Advisors, said in testimony to the Senate’s banking committee last week. Inflation’s speed is fueled by strong post-COVID consumer demand outstripping industry’s...
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TURKEY’S CENTRAL BANK INTEREST RATE GAMBLE
For the second consecutive month, Turkey’s central bank has paused its practice of cutting interest rates in the face of mounting inflation, which was running at 48.7 percent in January, according to official figures that we reported in “Turkey’s Inflation Rate Nears 50 Percent” (8 Feb 2022). Analysts had expected the bank to leave the...
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EUROPEAN CONSUMERS: FUTURE IS BLEAK
The European Union’s monthly survey of Eurozone consumers’ economic outlook slipped 0.3 percent this month to -8.8, the gloomiest view since March 2021. The outlook across Europe as a whole sagged another 0.2 percent to -10.2. Analysts had expected consumer confidence to rise slightly. Residents were worried about the region’s record 5.1-percent inflation rate in...
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EUROZONE TRADE DEFICIT SETS 13-YEAR HIGH
The value of the Eurozone’s imports in December was 36.7 percent greater than a year earlier, due largely to soaring energy costs and a surprising 53-percent uptick in imports from China, according to Eurostat, the region’s statistics agency. Exports rose 14.1 percent in value during the month. The lopsided figures sent the Eurozone’s trade deficit...
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INVESTORS HOARDING CASH AMID INTEREST RATE UNCERTAINTY
Cash holdings among professional investors has edged up to 5.3 percent, compared to 5 percent in December, according to a Bank of America survey of asset managers with a collective $1 trillion under management. That proportion of cash is the highest since May 2020, when the COVID War’s turmoil was gripping the global economy, the...
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ARGENTINA’S INTEREST RATE SPIKE. WHAT’S NEXT?
On 17 February, Argentina’s central bank raised its base interest rate by 2.5 percentage points to a whopping 42.5 percent. The hike, the second this year, is part of the country’s attempt to comply with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) urgings that the country’s interest rate exceed the pace of inflation, now running at 51...
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EUROPE’S TWO LARGEST ECONOMIES SURGE IN FEBRUARY. HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN?
Germany’s private-sector economy expanded at its fastest pace in six months, driven by a pick-up in consumer spending on services; in France, both services and manufacturing perked, giving the country’s economy its best performance since last June, according to data from IHS Markit. “The slump in January proved to be short-lived,” Joe Hayes, senior economist...
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BIDEN ADDRESSES PUBLIC’S INFLATION CONCERN IN NEW COMMENTS
As public confidence in president Joe Biden’s ability to manage the economy continues to slide, he has adjusted his public comments to show empathy for households coping with ever-rising prices, The Wall Street Journal noted. Last July, he said that higher prices “were expected and expected to be temporary”; in September, he said “there is...
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FRACKERS KEEP PRODUCTION LOW AS OIL AND GAS PRICES RISE
Major U.S. producers of fracked oil and natural gas are investing only enough to keep production at current levels, despite global benchmark Brent crude oil prices briefly breaking through $100 a barrel on 16 February, its highest in almost eight years. Three leading U.S. fracking producers—Continental Resources, Devon Energy, and Pioneer Natural Resources—all reported 2021’s...
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CLIMATE CHANGE? FORGET ABOUT IT: U.S. COAL PRICES HIT CENTURY HIGH
U.S. coal prices have shot from just above $80 a ton when 2021 began to more than $230 now as the world’s post-COVID energy demand has strained producers of all kinds of fuel to keep up. Last year saw the first increase in America’s coal production since 2014. Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private coal...