British inflation is broadly declining in line with the Bank of England's forecasts, and next month's numbers look on track for a sharp drop towards the central bank's 2% target, Governor Andrew Bailey said on Wednesday. "We're actually pretty much on track for where we thought we would be," Bailey said at an event in Washington hosted by the Institute of International Finance. "I expect that next month's number will show quite a strong drop," he added. Official figures earlier on Wednesday showed annual consumer price inflation fell to 3.2% in March from 3.4% in February, a slightly...
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 long policy will remain restrictive based on the totality of the incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks," Powell said at a press conference in Washington. Powell spoke Wednesday after the central bank left interest rates unchanged for a third straight meeting and gave the clearest signal yet that its aggressive hiking campaign is finished, forecasting a series of cuts next...
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady for a third meeting and gave its clearest signal yet that its aggressive hiking campaign is finished, forecasting a series of cuts next year. Officials decided unanimously to leave the target range for the benchmark federal funds rate at 5.25% to 5.5%, the highest since 2001. Policymakers penciled in no further interest-rate hikes in their projections for the first time since March 2021, based on the median estimate. Fed officials expect to lower rates by 75 basis points next year, a sharper pace of cuts than...
Australia's central bank expects to launch a "holistic review" of the country's retail payments regulation once reforms that allow it to regulate buy-now-pay-later and mobile wallet providers come into effect next year, Governor Michele Bullock said. "This will be an opportunity to consult widely on current regulation as well as on areas where regulation might be required in the interests of safety, competition and efficiency," Bullock said in a speech in Sydney on Tuesday. "This will help us to set our regulatory priorities in the expanded regulatory perimeter." "As part of the...
Bank of Japan officials see little need to rush into scrapping the world's last negative interest rate this month as they have yet to see enough evidence of wage growth that would support sustainable inflation, according to people familiar with the matter. That's an indication the central bank is likely to keep its monetary stimulus settings unchanged at a two-day policy meeting ending Dec. 19, despite recent market speculation that the negative rate may be scrapped as soon as the December meeting. BOJ officials view the potential cost of waiting for more information to confirm...
Australia's central bank kept interest rates unchanged at its final meeting of the year as cooling inflation and a softening labor market suggest its policy tightening to date is gaining traction. The Reserve Bank maintained its cash rate at a 12-year high of 4.35% — as forecast by all but one economist — at Tuesday's meeting. It cited a broader downtrend in inflation and lags in the transmission of tightening between May 2022 and November 2023 in explaining the decision. "Whether further tightening of monetary policy is required to ensure that inflation returns to target in a reasonable...
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...