After peaking at 10.6 percent in October 2022, inflation in the 20-country Eurozone slowed to 2.2 percent in August, moving down from 2.6 percent in July and nearly reaching the European Central Bank’s 2-percent target.
Tag: inflation
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EUROZONE FACTORY ACTIVITY CONTRACTS AS ASIA, U.K. IMPROVE
The Hamburg Commerce Bank’s purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the 20-country Eurozone’s manufacturing industry rated factory activity at 45.8 in August, well below the 50 mark that separates decline from growth.
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HOUSING AFFORDABILITY TOP CONCERN
In a new Gallup survey, half the respondents in the world’s wealthiest countries—including 60 percent of U.S. residents—cited the lack of affordable housing as their chief worry, edging out education, healthcare, and other urgencies.
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FED OFFICIALS MULL HALF-POINT RATE CUT
Now that markets have priced in a 100-percent certainty that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut its policy interest rates next week, speculators are wondering how large the cut will be.
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SWEDEN’S CENTRAL BANK CUTS RATES, SAYS MORE COMING
On 20 August, Sweden’s Riksbank took a quarter point off its policy interest rate, reducing it to 3.5 percent. The bank could make as many as three more cuts still this year in an attempt to revive the country’s feeble economy, bank officials said.
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POWELL: THE TIME HAS COME
U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell virtually guaranteed the central bank will cut its key interest rates when it meets in mid-September.
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U.K. ECONOMY GROWS MORE THAN EXPECTED IN YEAR’S FIRST HALF
Britain’s GDP expanded by 0.6 percent during April, May, and June, nearly matching the first quarter’s 0.7-percent expansion and surprising analysts who had expected a more modest rise.
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RETAIL SALES GREW BY 1 PERCENT IN JULY
July’s 1-percent expansion in the U.S. retail economy was the largest month-to-month gain since early 2023, the commerce department reported, even as consumers coped with high interest rates and rising prices.
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SPOTLIGHT: JAPAN’S ECONOMY IN FLUX
On 31 July, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) raised its policy interest rate from between zero and 0.1 percent to .25 percent.
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BANK OF ENGLAND CUTS RATE A QUARTER POINT
On 1 August, the Bank of England’s (BoE’s) rate-setting committee shaved a quarter point from its policy rate by a 5-to-4 vote. The cut takes the rate from 5.25 percent, a 16-year high where it has remained since last August, to 5 percent now.