Much of the drop resulted from price declines for goods such as gas, used cars and furniture which had soared a year ago after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. | Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo
By Associated Press
U.S. consumer inflation eased in March, with less expensive gas and lower food prices providing some relief to households that have struggled under the weight of surging prices for nearly two years.
The government said Wednesday that consumer prices rose just 0.1% from February to March, down from 0.4% from January to February and the smallest increase since December.
Measured from a year earlier, prices were up just 5% in March, down sharply from February’s 6% year-over-year increase and the smallest rise in almost two years. Much of the drop resulted from price declines for goods such as gas, used cars and furniture which had soared a year ago after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
[ad_2]
#Inflation #slows #stays #high #Fed #hike
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
FRANKFURT ― The markets are jittery and inflation still needs taming. Coming together, those two things put the European Central Bank in a real bind.
Fight one fire and it could cause the other to flare. The ECB can keep raising interest rates to try to get inflation under control, but that risks fueling financial market tensions. Conversely, it can give banks some breathing space by slowing its rate-hiking, but that carries the danger of prolonging the region’s economic malaise.
Frankfurt’s official line is that it can do both with no serious consequences. Many economists in the eurozone don’t buy that.
In private, it’s a dilemma that splits the ECB’s decision-makers, and even in public differences of opinion are bubbling to the surface. Here’s what’s at stake:
Why is the ECB raising rates?
The idea is that increasing interest rates subdues inflation because it makes consumers and businesses less likely to borrow ― so that results in reduced spending.
As inflation has started to pick up since last summer, the ECB has raised interest rates at a record pace. They’ve gone from -0.5 to 3 percent as the annual rate of price rises has surged to a eurozone record 10.6 percent inOctober.
The Bank tries to keep inflation at 2 percent so it’s currently way off target.
How this contributed to the crisis
The unpleasant side effect is that with rising borrowing costs (because of higher interest rates), the value of bonds that banks hold usually fall. This gives investors a bad case of the jitters. After the collapse in March of lenders like Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse ― though their problems seemed unconnected ― it was this that prompted concerns they might not be the only institutions with troubles, and fueled contagion fears around the globe.
But Lagarde plowed on regardless
The ECB remained unfazed in the face of emerging banking troubles: It delivered a previously signaled 0.5 percentage-point rate increase in March, less than a week after SVB failed and at a time when Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse was teetering.
Following that decision, ECB President Christine Lagarde stressed that she sees no trade-off between ensuring price stability and financial stability.
In fact, she said the Bank could continue to lift rates while addressing banking troubles with other tools.
The case against
Many economists disagree with Lagarde that the battle for price stability can be pursued without risking financial stability.
The ECB delivered 0.5 percentage-point rate increase in March, less than a week after SVB failed | Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Claiming so “should be a career-ending statement,” said Stefan Gerlach, chief economist at EFG Bank in Zurich and a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Ireland. “This is the idea of the ‘separation principle’ of 2008 revisited. That wasn’t a good idea then, and isn’t now either,” he added.
What’s the separation principle?
In 2008, at the start of the financial crisis, as well as in 2011, when the sovereign debt crisis hit, the ECB adhered to the idea that interest rates could be used to ensure price stability at the same time as other measures, such as generous liquidity injections, could ease market tension.
But this just added to the problems and had to be unwound quickly.
This time around, the Portuguese member on the ECB Governing Council, whose country suffered particularly under the consequences of the sovereign debt crisis, is less blasé than Lagarde.
“Our history tells us that we had to backtrack a couple of times already during processes of tightening given threats to financial stability. We cannot risk that this time,” Mario Centeno told POLITICO in an interview.
The case for Lagarde
After the initial fears that troubles could spread across the eurozone, investor nerves have calmed and bank shares started to recover. At the same time, new data showed that underlying inflation pressures kept rising, suggesting that Lagarde and her colleagues were right to stick to their guns ― at least for now.
If that’s the case, March’s interest rate rise ― what Commerzbank economist Jörg Krämer described as “necessary” investment in the central bank’s credibility ― will have paid off.
Market turmoil actually helps
The nervous markets could help the ECB to reach its inflation target without having to raise interest rates as aggressively as previously thought.
Banks tend to slap an additional risk premium on their lending rates which raises the cost of borrowing money for consumers and business. So banks end up doing part of the tightening job for the central bank.
ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos suggested as much in an interview released last month, though he cautioned that it was too early to assess how much impact exactly it may have.
What’s the endgame?
The challenge for the ECB is to strike the right balance. If it doesn’t it risks either the repeat of 2008-style financial troubles or a return to the stagflationary period (low growth on top of high inflation) that roiled the Continent in the 1970s.
If it raises rates too aggressively, bank failures followed by a recession risks forcing the ECB into an interest rate U-turn for the third time, creating massive credibility risks. Conversely, if they don’t hike enough, the central bank may lose a grip on inflation, which is its main mandate.
The only way Lagarde can win is to deliver both price stability and financial stability. In that sense, there is no trade-off ― one without the other just won’t be enough.
[ad_2]
#tension #heart #ECB
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Chinese leader Xi Jinping had one overriding message for his visiting French counterpart Emmanuel Macron this week: Don’t let Europe get sucked into playing America’s game.
Beijing is eager to avoid the EU falling further under U.S. influence, at a time when the White House is pursuing a more assertive policy to counter China’s geopolitical and military strength.
Russia’s yearlong war against Ukraine has strengthened the alliance between Europe and the U.S., shaken up global trade, reinvigorated NATO and forced governments to look at what else could suddenly go wrong in world affairs. That’s not welcome in Beijing, which still views Washington as its strategic nemesis.
This week, China’s counter-offensive stepped up a gear, turning on the charm. Xi welcomed Macron into the grandest of settings at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, along with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. This was in sharp contrast to China’s current efforts to keep senior American officials at arm’s length, especially since U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called off a trip to Beijing during the spy balloon drama earlier this year.
Both American and Chinese officials know Europe’s policy toward Beijing is far from settled. That’s an opportunity, and a risk for both sides. In recent months, U.S. officials have warned of China’s willingness to send weapons to Russia and talked up the dangers of allowing Chinese tech companies unfettered access to European markets, with some success.
TikTok, which is ultimately Chinese owned, has been banned from government and administrative phones in a number of locations in Europe, including in the EU institutions in Brussels. American pressure also led the Dutch to put new export controls on sales of advanced semiconductor equipment to China.
Yet even the hawkish von der Leyen, a former German defense minister, has dismissed the notion of decoupling Europe from China’s economy altogether. From Beijing’s perspective, this is yet another significant difference from the hostile commercial environment being promoted by the U.S.
Just this week, 36 Chinese and French businesses signed new deals in front of Macron and Xi, in what Chinese state media said was a sign of “the not declining confidence in the Chinese market of European businesses.” While hardly a statement brimming with confidence, it could have been worse.
For the last couple of years European leaders have grown more skeptical of China’s trajectory, voicing dismay at Beijing’s way of handling the coronavirus pandemic, the treatment of protesters in Hong Kong and Xinjiang’s Uyghur Muslims, as well as China’s sanctions on European politicians and military threats against Taiwan.
Then, Xi and Vladimir Putin hailed a “no limits” partnership just days before Russia invaded Ukraine. While the West rolled out tough sanctions on Moscow, China became the last major economy still interested in maintaining — and expanding — trade ties with Russia. That shocked many Western officials and provoked a fierce debate in Europe over how to punish Beijing and how far to pull out of Chinese commerce.
Beijing saw Macron as the natural partner to help avoid a nosedive in EU-China relations, especially since Angela Merkel — its previous favorite — was no longer German chancellor.
Macron’s willingness to engage with anyone — including his much-criticized contacts with Putin ahead of his war on Ukraine — made him especially appealing as Beijing sought to drive a wedge between European and American strategies on China.
Xi Jinping sees Macron as the natural to Angela Merkel, his previous partner in the West who helped avoid a nosedive in EU-China relations | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Not taking sides
“I’m very glad we share many identical or similar views on Sino-French, Sino-EU, international and regional issues,” Xi told Macron over tea on Friday, in the southern metropolis of Guangzhou, according to Chinese state media Xinhua.
Strategic autonomy, a French foreign policy focus, is a favorite for China, which sees the notion as proof of Europe’s distance from the U.S. For his part, Macron told Xi a day earlier that France promotes “European strategic autonomy,” doesn’t like “bloc confrontation” and believes in doing its own thing. “France does not pick sides,” he said.
The French position is challenged by some in Europe who see it as an urgent task to take a tougher approach toward Beijing.
“Macron could have easily avoided the dismal picture of European and transatlantic disunity,” said Thorsten Benner, director of the Berlin-based Global Public Policy Institute. “Nobody forced Macron to show up with a huge business delegation, repeating disproven illusions of reciprocity and deluding himself about working his personal magic on Xi to get the Chinese leader to turn against Putin.”
Holger Hestermeyer, a professor of EU law at King’s College London, said Beijing will struggle to split the transatlantic alliance.
“If China wants to succeed with building a new world order, separating the EU from the U.S. — even a little bit — would be a prized goal — and mind you, probably an elusive one,” Hestermeyer said. “Right now the EU is strengthening its defenses specifically because China tried to play divide and conquer with the EU in the past.”
Xi’s focus on America was unmistakable when he veered into a topic that was a long way from Europe’s top priority, during his three-way meeting with Macron and von der Leyen. A week earlier the Biden administration had held its second Summit for Democracy, in which Russia and China were portrayed as the main threats.
“Spreading the so-called ‘democracy versus authoritarianism’ [narrative],” Xi told his European guests on Thursday, “would only bring division and confrontation to the world.”
[ad_2]
#China #Macron #drive #wedge #Europe #America
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Lahore: As Pakistanis are struggling to make the ends meet amid the rise in inflation, Lahore is seeing a massive surge in street crime, reported Dawn.
According to the official data, the crime rate in the first three-and-a-half months of the year shows that over 90 percent of them have been committed at gunpoint. This shows that robbers are fearless and brandish illegal weapons in the city to deprive the citizens of cash and valuables. The criminals are so desperate and fearless of the police action that they are even lifting bicycles too.
The data also revealed that 143 bicycles were stolen from various parts of the provincial capital during the first three-and-a-half months of this year besides 5,366 motorcycles.
Lahore has six police divisions, 35 circles, and 84 police stations. Each division is headed by a superintendent of police (SP) while circles are headed by sub-divisional police officers (SDPOs), reported Dawn.
But despite the appointment of so many police officers in such a large number, the criminals are on the rampage, looting and depriving citizens of their belongings fearlessly. The official data shows that 89 citizens have been allegedly murdered in Lahore in about the first quarter of 2023.
Most of the murder incidents – 20 each – were reported in City and Saddar divisions.
Meanwhile, in Islamabad, provincial’s Interior Minister Abdul Rehman Kanju admitted that the street crime rate has increased in the provincial capital, Dawn reported.
According to a Pakistani newspaper, Kanju claimed that the increase in the population has led to a spike in street crime cases, according to Dawn.
However, he claimed that the government was taking effective steps to ensure the safety of citizens.
The minister made these comments while responding to a calling attention notice, moved by PTI Member of National Assembly (MNA) Asiya Azeem regarding the increase in crimes against women in Islamabad, Dawn reported.
Giving details about the measures that the Pakistan government has taken to control crime, Interior Minister said that Eagle Squad had been formed to patrol streets on motorcycles, claiming that there had been a significant decline in the crime rate since the formation of the squad.
Kanju claimed that since the start of the year, not a single case of house robbery had been reported in the capital, reported Dawn. Regarding the crimes against women, Kanju claimed that it was because of the government’s directives to the police to register every first information report (FIR) in this regard.
Islamabad: Pakistans monthly inflation blew past forecasts in March and soared to a nearly all-time high level — 35.4 per cent — from a year earlier, with people feeling more pain from some of the fastest rising consumer prices amid straining budgets as cost of living continues to outstrip average incomes, according to a media report.
The fresh inflation reading issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Saturday also multiplied the prospects of a further rise in interest rates in the upcoming monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting scheduled for April 4, Geo News reported.
The pace of increase in the prices endorsed the expectations of the Finance Ministry that said inflation was expected to stay at an elevated level owing to market frictions caused by relative demand and supply gap of essential items, exchange rate depreciation, and recent upward adjustment of administered prices of petrol and diesel, the report said.
The monthly inflation rate, however, declined to 3.7 per cent in March over February.
The inflation situation has worsened to its worst, steeping the masses, whose purchasing power has eroded by leaps and bounds, into misery, as the price of almost every edible item has gone through the roof over a period of months.
Core inflation, which was calculated after excluding the volatile energy and food prices, increased in March to 18.6 per cent in urban areas and 23.1 per cent in rural areas.
Analysts believe Pakistan is now heading towards hyperinflation a situation when prices are out of control and in the territory of a 50 per cent surge, Geo News reported.
Colombo: Sri Lanka’s inflation decreased to 50.3 per cent in March from 50.6 per cent the previous month amid the ongoing economic crisis, official statistics revealed.
The year-on-year inflation of the food group dropped to 47.6 per cent in March from 54.4 per cent in February, and inflation in the non-food group increased to 51.7 per cent from 48.8 per cent in February, reports Xinhua news agency.
Inflation in the country has been dropping in the last few months.
Inflation fell to 54.2 per cent in January from 57.2 per cent in December 2022.
The country’s central bank said that inflation will be reduced to single digit by the end of the year.
As Sri Lanka is still undergoing its worst ever economic crisis since independence in 1948, the island nation last month had finally secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which came as a lifeline for the island nation that has billions of dollars in loans.
The Covid-19 pandemic, rising energy prices, populist tax cuts and inflation of more than 50 per cent has battered Sri Lanka.
A shortage of medicines, fuel and other essentials also pushed the cost of living to record highs, triggering violent nationwide protests which overthrew the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government in 2022.
As a result the country defaulted on its debts with international lenders last May for the first time in its history.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is jetting off on an ambitious diplomatic mission to woo Beijing away from Moscow. Officials in Washington wish him luck with that.
France hopes to dissuade China’s leader Xi Jinping from getting any cozier with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and wants the Chinese instead to play a mediation role over the war in Ukraine.
However, it is unclear what leverage Macron has — and the backdrop to his three-day trip starting Tuesday isn’t easy. Europe continues to reel from the impact of cutting off trade ties to Russia and geopolitical tensions are ratcheting up between China and the U.S., the world’s two biggest economies.
The French president wants to play a more personal card with his Chinese counterpart, after drawing fierce criticism for hours of fruitless phone calls with Putin last year — an effort that failed to stop Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Macron is expected to spend several hours in discussions with Xi, and the trip includes a visit to a city that holds personal value for the Chinese president.
“You can count with one hand the number of world leaders who could have an in-depth discussion with Xi,” said an Elysée advisor who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
But while expectations in France of a breakthrough are moderate, the view among other Western officials is even bleaker.
Given Macron’s failed attempts at playing a center-stage role in resolving conflicts, such as stopping the war in Ukraine or salvaging the Iran nuclear deal, there are doubts in the U.S. and elsewhere that this trip will deliver major results.
The White House has little expectation that Macron will achieve a breakthrough, according to three administration officials not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations. Xi is unlikely to act on Macron’s requests or curtail any of China’s assertive moves in the Pacific, the officials said.
White House aides ruefully recalled Macron’s failed attempts to insert himself as a peacemaker with Putin on the eve of the invasion more than a year ago and anticipate more of the same this time.
There is also some concern in the Biden administration about France’s potential coziness with China at a time when tensions between Washington and Beijing are at their highest in decades, even though the White House is supportive of the trip, the three officials said. There is no ill will toward Macron’s efforts in Beijing, they stressed.
But what might further complicate Macron’s endeavors is an emerging feud between the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is traveling with the president, and the Chinese.
Last Thursday, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen delivered a keynote address on EU-China relations at the European Policy Centre in Brussels | Valeria Mongelli/AFP via Getty Images
In a high-profile speech on EU-China relations Thursday, von der Leyen urged EU countries to “de-risk” from overdependency on China. She also implied that the EU could terminate the pursuit of a landmark trade deal with China, which was clinched in 2020 but subsequently stalled. Her remarks sparked swift blowback from Chinese diplomats. Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the European Union, said Friday he was “a little bit disappointed.”
“That speech contained a lot of misrepresentation and misinterpretation of Chinese policies and the Chinese positions,” Fu told state-owned broadcaster CGTN.
The Europeans’ visit will also be scrutinized from a human rights perspective given China’s authoritarian pivot and alleged human rights abuses across the nation.
“President Macron and von der Leyen should not sweep the Chinese government’s deepening authoritarianism under the rug during their visit to Beijing,” said Bénédicte Jeannerod, France director at Human Rights Watch. “They should use their public appearances with Xi Jinping to express strong concerns over widespread rights abuses across China, heightened oppression in Hong Kong and Tibet, and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.”
Macron’s playbook
Speaking ahead of the visit to Beijing, the French leader said his aim was to “try and involve China as much as possible to put pressure on Russia” on topics such as nuclear weapons.
But will Macron’s charm work on Putin’s “best friend” Xi?
China has sought to position itself as a neutral party on the conflict, even as it has burnished its ties with the nation, importing energy from Russia at a discount. Despite massive international pressure on Moscow, Xi decided to make the Kremlin his first destination for a state visit after he secured a norm-breaking third term as Chinese leader. Meanwhile, POLITICO and other media have reported that the Chinese have made shipments of assault weapons and body armor to Russia.
Western European leaders that were cozy with Moscow just before the war started are now calling for engagement with China, including Macron himself. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was in China just days before Macron’s arrival, saying that the world “must listen to its voice” on Russia and Ukraine.
During his visit, which aides have been discussing since at least November last year, Macron will spend several hours with Xi in Beijing, and accompany him to the city of Guangzhou. The Chinese leader’s father, Xi Zhongxun used to work there as Guangdong province governor.
“Altogether the president will spend six to seven hours in discussions with the Chinese leader. The fact that he will be the first French president to visit Guangzhou is also a personal touch, since President Xi’s father used to be a party leader there,” said the Elysee official cited earlier.
The French are hoping the time Macron spends privately with Xi will help win Chinese support on issues such as stopping Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine or halting the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children.
It’s also expected that Macron will try to test Xi’s reaction to Russia’s threat to host nuclear missiles in Belarus, a decision that flies in the face of China’s non-proliferation stance, barely a month after Beijing revealed its 12-point plan for resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
Despite massive international pressure on Moscow, Xi decided to make the Kremlin his first destination for a state visit after he secured a norm-breaking third term as Chinese leader | Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images
“It’s absolutely fundamental to have moments of private encounters,” said Sylvie Bermann, France’s former ambassador to China. “Diplomacy is about playing the long game …With China, I don’t think it is easy to strike up relationships as Westerners. But maybe it means that we’ll be able to talk when the time comes.”
Despite the show of goodwill however, the French president will not hold back from sending “some messages” to Beijing on supporting Russia, particularly when it comes to arms deliveries, a senior French official said.
“We aren’t going to threaten, but send some warnings: The Chinese need to understand that [sending weapons] would have consequences for Europe, for us … We need to remind them of our security interests.” The official said Macron would steer clear of threatening sanctions.
Antoine Bondaz, China specialist at Paris’ Foundation for Strategic Research, questioned the emphasis on trying to bond with Xi. “That’s not how things work in China. It’s not France’s ‘small fry’ president, who spends two hours walking with Xi who will change things, China only understands the balance of power,” he said. “Maybe it works with Putin, who has spent over 400 hours with Xi in the last ten years, but Macron doesn’t know Xi.”
EU unity on show as trade takes center stage
Trade will also feature high on Macron’s priorities as he brings with him a large delegation of business leaders including representatives from EDF, Alstom, Veolia and the aerospace giant Airbus. According to an Elysée official speaking on condition of anonymity, a potential deal with European plane maker Airbus may be in the works, which would come after China ordered 300 planes for €30 billion in 2019.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire and Foreign Affairs Minister Catherine Colonna are also traveling with the president.
With the EU facing an emerging trade war between China and the U.S., the presence of von der Leyen, will add yet another layer of complexity to the mix. The French president said in March that he had “suggested to von der Leyen that she accompany him to China” so they could speak “with a unified voice.”
“I don’t have a European mandate, as France has its independent diplomacy — but I’m attached to European coordination,” he said.
A joint trip with the EU head sets him apart from Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor whom French officials criticized in private for hurrying to China for a day trip with Xi last year, focusing more on German rather than EU interests.
With von der Leyen by his side, Macron may well hope to be seen as the EU’s leading voice. In the U.S., the French president had tried that tactic and obtained some concessions on America’s green subsidies plan for the bloc.
In China, that card may be harder to play.
Clea Caulcutt reported in Paris, Stuart Lau in Brussels and Jonathan Lemire in Washington.
[ad_2]
#Emmanuel #Macron #charm #China #failing #Putin
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
Cairo: Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to raise the interest rates of the central bank by 200 basis points in a new bid to contain high inflation,
In a statement on Thursday, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said the deposit and lending rates were raised to 18.25 per cent and 19.25 per cent, respectively, while the rate of the main operation and the discount rate were increased to 18.75 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported.
Egypt has been struggling to contain rising inflation over the past years, amid a shortage of foreign currency caused by the global economic repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
Egypt’s annual urban headline inflation increased to a record high of 25.8 per cent and 31.9 per cent in January and February 2023, respectively.
Similarly, the annual core inflation recorded 31.2 per cent in January and 40.3 per cent in February 2023, marking a historical high, the CBE said.
The central bank’s interest rate hike came a week after the US Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by 0.25 percentage point on March 22.
Egyptian economist Rashad Abdo said that the move will encourage citizens to deposit their money so to decrease demand for products in the markets, which would help reduce prices and lower inflation.
“More importantly, it encourages people not to dollarize their Egyptian pounds since the local currency interest rates in Egyptian banks are very high,” Abdo, also head of the Egyptian Forum for Economic and Strategic Studies, told Xinhua.
Islamabad: Short-term inflation, measured by the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), reached an all-time high of 46.65 percent year-on-year for the week ending on March 22, in comparison to last week 45.64’s percent YoY, as per data by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), media reports said.
On a week-on-week basis, short-term inflation increased by 1.80 percent as tomatoes, potatoes and wheat flour became costlier, Samaa TV reported.
The SPI for the current week ended on March 22 recorded increase of 1.80 percent.
Major increase is observed in the prices of food items – tomatoes (71.77 percent), wheat flour (42.32 percent), potatoes (11.47 percent), bananas (11.07 percent), tea Lipton (7.34 percent), pulse mash (1.57 percent), tea prepared (1.32 percent) and gur (1.03 percent), and non-food items like georgette (2.11 percent), lawn (1.77 percent) and long cloth (1.58 percent), Samaa TV reported.
On the other hand, decrease was observed in the prices of chicken (8.14 percent), chillies powdered (2.31 percent), LPG (1.31 percent), mustard oil & garlic (1.19 percent) each, pulse Gram & onions (1.06 percent each), vegetable ghee 1 kg (0.83 percent), cooking oil 5 litre (0.21 percent), pulse moong (0.17 percent), pulse masoor (0.15 percent), and Eggs (0.03 percent).
During the week, out of 51 items, prices of 26 (50.98 percent) items increased, 12 (23.53 percent) items decreased, and 13 (25.49 percent) items remained stable, Samaa TV reported.
The year on year trend depicts increase of 46.65 percent, onions (228.28 percent), cigarettes (165.88 percent), wheat flour (120.66 percent), gas charges for Q1 (108.38 percent), diesel (102.84 percent), tea Lipton (94.60 percent), bananas (89.84 percent), rice Irri-6/9 (81.51 percent), rice Basmati broken (81.22 percent), petrol (81.17 percent), eggs (79.56 percent), pulse moong (68.64 percent), potatoes (57.21 percent) and pulse mash (56.46 percent), while decrease is observed in the price of chillies powdered (9.56 percent).
The outlook for the global economy is likely to remain weak in the medium term amid heightened risks to financial stability, according to International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
“We expect 2023 to be another challenging year, with global growth slowing to below 3 percent as scarring from the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and monetary tightening weigh on economic activity,” Georgieva said on Sunday at a conference in China. “Even with a better outlook for 2024, global growth will remain well below its historic average of 3.8 percent,” she said.
“It is also clear that risks to financial stability have increased,” Georgieva said. “At a time of higher debt levels, the rapid transition from a prolonged period of low-interest rates to much higher rates — necessary to fight inflation — inevitably generates stresses and vulnerabilities, as evidenced by recent developments in the banking sector in some advanced economies.”
Policymakers have acted decisively in response to threats to financial stability, helping ease market stress to some extent, she said. But “uncertainty is high, which underscores the need for vigilance,” she added.
Georgieva also warned about risks of geo-economic fragmentation, which she said “could mean a world split into rival economic blocs — a ‘dangerous division’ that would leave everyone poorer and less secure. Together, these factors mean that the outlook for the global economy over the medium term is likely to remain weak,” she said.
Georgieva spoke during the second day of the China Development Forum in Beijing. The three-day annual event is a social mixer of politics and business, bringing together members of the Chinese Politburo with dozens of CEOs from Western companies like Siemens, Mercedes-Benz and Allianz.
“Fortunately, the news on the world economy is not all bad. We can see some ‘green shoots,’ including in China,” Georgieva said, adding that Beijing is set to account for around a third of the global growth this year.
[ad_2]
#IMFs #Georgieva #Risks #financial #stability #increased
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
