The European Central Bank held interest rates steady for a fifth meeting, while sending its clearest signal yet that cooling inflation will soon allow it to commence cuts. The deposit rate was left at a record-high 4%, as overwhelmingly predicted by a Bloomberg poll in which only one of 62 economists saw a decrease. But the Governing Council added wording to its accompanying statement flagging a reduction, should updated economic forecasts in June signal sufficient space to do so. "If the Governing Council's updated assessment of the inflation outlook, the...
Japan's central bank on Thursday said it would hold emergency bond-buying operations, offering to buy some $667 million in government debt, a move designed to put a floor under bond prices. The announcement from the Bank of Japan came as the yen currency teetered at the break of 150 to the dollar, a level that would mark a 32-year-low and has been seen as psychologically important for market players. The yen has been hammered this year by the widening difference between U.S. and Japanese interest rates. Some investors have bet Japan will need to ditch its long policy of "yield curve...
The Bank of England is likely to further delay the start of its sales of billions of pounds of government bonds to help stabilise government bond markets after Britain's failed "mini budget", the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Amid turmoil in financial markets, the BoE last month announced an emergency programme to start buying gilts again and it pushed back the start of its scheme to sell some of its 838 billion pounds ($954.90 billion) of government bond holdings until Oct. 31 from an original start date of Oct. 6. The pound briefly rose against the U.S. dollar on the report but...
The Reserve Bank of Australia expects to raise interest rates further over the coming months, the deputy governor said on Tuesday, noting that the bank can achieve a similar tightening in rates to its global peers through smaller hikes. Speaking at 2022 AFIA Conference in Sydney, Michele Bullock said the move of 25 basis points in October was due to the economic circumstances at home and the fact that the central bank board meets more frequently than most of its counterparts for 11 times a year. The RBA has already lifted its cash rate by 250 basis points to 2.6% since May and surprised...
The Bank of England said it was restarting its corporate bond-selling as it looks to return to normality in the wake of a sustained selloff in UK assets. The decision, announced in a statement on Monday, comes after the BOE paused sales in the wake of a run on UK gilts following Liz Truss's government's ill-fated fiscal plan. It said it will resume sales via multi-stock auctions in the week beginning Oct. 24. Active government bond sales are due to begin on Oct. 31. An indicative list of bonds available for sale during next week's operations will be published on its wire services...
China's central bank rolled over maturing medium-term policy loans while keeping the interest rate unchanged for a second month on Monday, matching market expectations. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said it was keeping the rate on 500 billion yuan ($69.55 billion) worth of one-year medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans to some financial institutions unchanged at 2.75% from the previous operation. With the same amount of such loans maturing on Monday, the operation resulted in no injection or withdrawal of medium-term liquidity on a net basis from the banking system. Previously, the...
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank is prepared to tighten policy further if appropriate.
"We will make decisions about the extent of any additional policy and how...
Even before U.S. inflation data on Wednesday came in hotter than expected, Federal Reserve officials had begun worrying last month that progress might have stalled and a longer period of tight...