Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, in a letter on Thursday, rebutted criticism leveled at the central bank by a top White House official regarding the $2.5 billion renovation project. "We take seriously our responsibility to be good stewards of public resources as we fulfill the duties assigned by Congress on behalf of the American people," Powell wrote in the letter addressed to Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. Powell's letter, which largely repeats information available on the Fed's new "Frequently Asked Questions" page about the construction...
The annual inflation rate in the UK rose to 3.6% in June 2025, the highest since January 2024, up from 3.4% in May and above expectations that it would remain unchanged. The main upward pressure came from transport prices, which increased by 1.7% (vs 0.7% in May), driven largely by motor fuel costs. Additional upward contributions came from airfares, particularly on long-haul and European routes, as well as rail fares and maintenance and repair of personal transport equipment. Clothing and footwear prices also rose (0.5% vs -0.3%) and food inflation climbed to 4.5%, the highest since...
The U.S. central bank will probably need to leave interest rates where they are for a while longer to ensure inflation stays low in the face of upward pressure from the Trump administration's tariffs, Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Lorie Logan said on Tuesday. "My base case is that we'll need to keep interest rates modestly restrictive for some time to complete the work of returning inflation sustainably to the 2% target," Logan said in remarks prepared for delivery to the World Affairs Council of San Antonio. "It's also possible that some combination of softer inflation and a...
US President Donald Trump plans to impose tariffs of over 10% on smaller countries, including nations in Africa and the Caribbean, as the Associated Press reported. "We'll probably set one tariff for all of them," Trump told reporters on Tuesday. He added that it could be "a little over 10% tariff on goods from at least 100 nations." At the same time, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the nations with goods being taxed at these rates would be in Africa and the Caribbean—places that generally do relatively modest levels of trade with the US and would be relatively insignificant...
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. would impose a 19% tariff on goods from Indonesia under a new agreement with the Southeast Asian country and said more deals were in the works as he continued to press for what he views as better terms with trading partners and a path to reducing a massive U.S. trade deficit. The pact with the relatively minor U.S. trading partner is among the handful struck so far by the Trump administration ahead of an August 1 deadline for tariffs on most U.S. imports to rise again, and it came as the top U.S. trading partner - the European Union - readied...
U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in five months in June amid higher costs for some goods, suggesting tariffs were starting to have an impact on inflation and potentially keeping the Federal Reserve on the sidelines until September. Softening demand as consumers hunker down, however, is limiting price increases for services like airline fares and hotel and motel rooms, keeping underlying inflation muted for now. That trend, if sustained, could ease concerns of a broad-based rise in price pressures from tariffs. Nonetheless, economists generally expect the tariff-induced rise in...
China's official NBS Manufacturing PMI increased to 49.7 in June 2025 from May's 49.5, matching market expectations while marking the third consecutive month of contraction in factory activity.
It...
Both the STOXX 50 and STOXX 600 hovered around the flatline on Friday, as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of further developments in trade talks between US President Trump and Chinese...
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he plans to send a single letter to over 150 countries outlining the tariff rate they will face, saying, "It's all going to be the same for everyone, for that...