By Promit Mukherjee and Fergal Smith OTTAWA (Reuters) – The Bank of Canada is shifting its focus to boosting the economy rather than suppressing inflation, which raises prospects of further interest rate cuts in the coming months, analysts say. The Canadian central bank lowered its benchmark rate for a second straight month on Wednesday, cutting…
LONDON (Reuters) – Pressure on Joe Biden to step out of the U.S. presidential election race, mounting expectations of a September Fed rate cut, Q2 earnings, an ECB meeting and Britain’s king unveiling the legislative programme of the new Labour Government. Don’t race off for that summer break just yet. Here’s what to expect in…
DUBAI (Reuters) – Net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to Saudi Arabia rose 5.6% to 9.5 billion riyals ($2.53 billion) in the first quarter of 2024, government data showed on Sunday. Inflows were up 0.6% to 17 billion riyals in the first three months compared with a year earlier, while outflows fell by 5.1% to…
MANILA (Reuters) – The World Bank said on Saturday its board of executive directors has approved $1.25 billion in loans for the Philippines’ education and public infrastructure sectors. In a statement, the World Bank said it will extend a $500 million loan for a Philippine project aiming to repair disaster-hit schools in provinces and improve…
By Maytaal Angel LONDON (Reuters) – World cocoa prices rose back above $10,000 a ton on Thursday, heading towards the year’s record peaks as the chocolate industry’s supply crisis worsened after top producer Ivory Coast halted bean exports for June and forward sales for next season. The news came a day after reports that Ghana,…
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s major state-owned banks were seen selling dollars for yuan in the onshore spot foreign exchange market on Tuesday to prevent the local currency from falling too rapidly, four people with knowledge of the matter said. China’s state banks usually act on behalf of the central bank in the country’s foreign exchange…
By Leigh Thomas PARIS (Reuters) – Standard & Poor’s (S&P) decision to downgrade its rating on France’s sovereign debt should in the short term deliver more political sting than pain in financial markets. Days ahead of a June 9 EU parliamentary election, S&P cut France’s long-term sovereign debt rating on Friday to “AA-” from “AA”,…
PARIS (Reuters) – The European Central Bank has plenty of room for rate cuts and current market expectations for easing over the long-run are reasonable, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said in a newspaper interview on Monday. After a first rate cute next month that Villeroy described as a “done deal”, debate among ECB…
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Euro zone inflation remains on track to fall back to 2% next year, so European Central Bank policymakers will likely start cutting interest rates from a record high in June, the account of their April meeting showed on Friday. The ECB left interest rates unchanged last month but made clear that its next…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for the first time in more than a month amid signs of slowing economic activity, but remain too high to provide a significant boost to the housing market. The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was down to 7.09% as of May 9, from…
