There is ample evidence that a steep climb in interest rates has dampened demand and economic activity, suggesting the US central bank can further slow its rate hikes, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said Friday.. Over the past year, the Fed has raised rates seven times including four steep 75-basis point jumps before slowing to 50 basis points in December.
An air of optimism for the global economy blew through Davos this week after fears that the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis and soaring inflation could trigger a global recession.. A drop in energy prices that had soared following Russia's invasion of Ukraine has fuelled the optimism.
US climate envoy John Kerry bluntly summed up in one word what the planet needs to avoid a global warming catastrophe at the World Economic Forum this week: money.. But the week-long forum exposed fault lines over how to meet those targets at a time when the world faces a costly war in Ukraine, an economic downturn, soaring inflation and a cost-of-living crisis.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday touted the fruits of a new "mutually beneficial" economic strategy towards Africa, contrasting the damage caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's practices.. - Russia - Yellen cited the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine as major economic headwinds for Africa.
Sales of existing homes in the United States have fallen for the 11th straight month, as a rough period of limited inventory and high mortgage rates persists, according to industry data released Friday.. "December was another difficult month for buyers, who continue to face limited inventory and high mortgage rates," said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun in a statement.
The head of the IMF warned Friday that Western subsidies to combat climate change and encourage the transition to clean energy sources risked hitting the economies of the developing world.. "My biggest concern is that something that in principle is very good to accelerate the transition to the green economy by using public money to step up private investment... may not serve well the emerging markets and the developing world," IMF head Kristalina Georgieva said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Google's parent company Alphabet announced about 12,000 job cuts globally on Friday citing a changing "economic reality", becoming the latest US tech giant to enact large-scale restructuring.. According to tech site Layoffs.fyi, nearly 194,000 industry employees have lost their jobs in the US since the beginning of 2022, not including those announced by Alphabet on Friday.
The computer glitch that forced the temporary suspension last week of US domestic airline departures was caused by a contractor mistakenly deleting files, the country's aviation regulator said Thursday.. A preliminary report showed that "contract personnel unintentionally deleted files while working to correct synchronization between the live primary database and a backup database," the FAA said on Thursday.
Asian markets mostly ticked higher Friday after a rocky week that saw recession fears return to the fore, offsetting growing hope that China's emergence from zero-Covid will help boost the struggling global economy.. However, the mood in Asia was more upbeat as traders prepared for an expected boost from China's reopening after three years of painful lockdowns.
Meta was reviewing a call by its oversight board to make its policies on adult nudity more inclusive, a spokesperson said Thursday, after the tech giant removed two Instagram posts showing transgender and non-binary people with their chests bared.. But the board also seized the opportunity to call on Meta, which also owns Facebook, to make its broader policies on adult nudity more inclusive.
