Britain's economy is "moving in the right direction" for the Bank of England to start cutting interest rates, Governor Andrew Bailey said as two of his colleagues dropped their vote a rate hike. The BoE's interest rate-setters voted 8-1 to keep borrowing costs at their 16-year high of 5.25% on Thursday as the two officials who had previously called for higher rates changed their stance. Most economists polled by Reuters had expected one member of the Monetary Policy Committee to continue voting for an increase in Bank Rate. But both Jonathan Haskel and Catherine Mann joined the majority...
Australia's central bank decided to keep interest rates steady this month as policy was clearly restrictive and there was a risk a squeeze on household finances could lead to a sharp downturn and higher unemployment. However, the bank retained a warning that some tightening may still be required to bring inflation to heel, wary that the wider effects on inflation from higher rents, weak productivity and higher electricity prices had not been fully captured. Minutes of the July 4 policy meeting out on Tuesday showed the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) board considered raising the cash...
Australian central bank Governor Philip Lowe said the rate-setting board will move to eight meetings a year from 11 now, beginning in 2024, while reiterating that policy may need to be tightened further. Four of the Reserve Bank's meetings will be on the first Tuesday of February, May, August and November, Lowe said in a speech in Brisbane on Wednesday. The exact dates for the other four will be published "soon," he added. The rate outcomes will be announced at 2.30 p.m. Sydney time as is the case currently. Among other changes decided by the board at its July...
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said Britain's inflation rate is likely to drop "markedly" this year, and the full impact of interest rate increases has yet to hit the economy. The remarks released in a text of his speech at the Mansion House in London this evening indicate policy makers are growing more cautious about further increases in borrowing costs that are now at their highest since the global financial crisis in 2008. UK inflation has proved more persistent than other major economies, with the 8.7% headline rate more than four times the 2% target and the...
A united U.S. Federal Reserve agreed to hold interest rates steady at the June meeting as a way to buy time and assess whether further rate hikes would be needed, even as the vast bulk expected they would eventually need to tighten policy further, according to meeting minutes released on Wednesday. While "some participants" wanted to move ahead with a rate hike in June because progress in cooling inflation had been slow, "almost all participants judged it appropriate or acceptable to maintain" the federal funds rate at the existing 5% to 5.25%, the minutes said. "Most of those participants...
Australia's central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged on Tuesday as the board assesses the economic impact of its more than yearlong tightening cycle, while leaving the door open to future hikes. The Reserve Bank held its cash rate at 4.1%, its second pause of the year, in a decision predicted by 19 of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The move will allow the board more time to reflect on the state of the economy, as well as the outlook and associated risks. "Some further tightening of monetary policy may be 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...
In a statement after the September policy meeting on Tuesday, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said: "Some further tightening of monetary policy may be required to ensure that...