Macroeconomic data, trends, and policy developments.
Coverage of key economic indicators, central bank policy decisions, inflation trends, labor data, and growth signals. This category focuses on the macroeconomic forces that shape markets, interest rates, and long-term capital allocation.
7,101 total articles
An IMF staff paper finds that central banks across the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus require firmer legal protection from political interference and from being used to finance government deficits. The report links stronger legal independence and clearer mandates with better inflation outcomes, particularly when economies face unanticip…
U.S. equity futures opened broadly lower Tuesday as markets digested a flurry of technology-sector developments and ambiguous reports on talks to end the war in Iran. Early trading showed declines across major index futures, while individual names from Alphabet to Marvell and Hewlett Packard Enterprise recorded sizeable moves ahead of the opening b…
Swiss National Bank President Martin Schlegel told lawmakers in Bern that the SNB does not seek a fixed exchange-rate target, but has increased its readiness to step into foreign exchange markets alongside use of the policy rate and other measures. He argued that price stability depends on a narrowly defined mandate and strong institutional indepen…
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said it will incorporate the unexpectedly persistent inflation that followed the 2022 energy shock into its next set of forecasts, prepared for the finance minister's annual budget later this year. The move reflects the OBR's decision to alter modelling assumptions about how energy prices pass through to i…
The South African Reserve Bank reiterated its commitment to returning inflation to its 3% target after raising the policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 7%. Governor Lesetja Kganyago defended the hike as needed to stem developing second-round effects from a Middle East oil shock that are spilling into diesel, fertilizer and food prices, and warned…
Representatives from the Chinese and U.S. militaries met in Hawaii on May 28-29 to discuss air and maritime safety. Both sides agreed that better communication could help prevent miscalculations and improve professional conduct. The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command hosted members of the People’s Liberation Army in Honolulu for talks aimed at reducing the …
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development President Odile Renaud-Basso said government assistance in EBRD regions hit by the Middle East conflict should be temporary and narrowly focused, citing constrained fiscal room and higher borrowing costs. The bank will revise down growth and up inflation in its next economic update and is preparing t…
The Kremlin stated that the conflict in Ukraine has entered a new phase following what Moscow described as terrorist actions by Ukrainian forces against civilians. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian forces are conducting systematic strikes on Ukrainian military infrastructure after a wave of Russian strikes killed at least 17 people and w…
Canada's minister in charge of Canada-U.S. trade, Dominic LeBlanc, will meet U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Tuesday, with Chief Trade Negotiator to the United States Janice Charette attending. The meeting comes after Canada was excluded from the first bilateral talks between the United States and Mexico on revisions to the United State…
Avla Seguros, together with Galapagos Capital, Tivio Capital and fintech Marvin, raised 126 million reais (about $25.07 million) through what is being described as Brazil's first insurance-linked security offered to the open market. The instrument, aimed at professional investors, covers credit insurance operations for a major retail company. Marvi…
The Department of Labor's proposed rule to permit employer-sponsored retirement plans to include alternative investments such as private credit and cryptocurrencies drew more than 33,000 public comments by the close of the review period. Asset managers and trade groups backed the idea as a way to widen investor access to private markets, while inve…
Citi has lifted its 2026 inflation projections for South Korea after May's consumer price index came in above expectations. The bank now sees headline CPI at 2.9% year-over-year and core CPI at 2.6% year-over-year for 2026, up from prior forecasts of 2.7% and 2.5% respectively. Citi continues to expect four 25 basis-point interest rate hikes at sch…
Congressional leaders in both chambers will publicly question Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week about the Trump administration's foreign policy as the Iran conflict moves into its fourth month. Rubio, who also serves as the president's national security adviser and was a senator from Florida until January 2025, will appear before multiple co…
The head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said governments in the bank's regions should deploy temporary, targeted fiscal support to shield the most vulnerable from fallout tied to the war in Iran. With fiscal space reduced after successive shocks and borrowing costs higher, the EBRD will lower its growth forecast and raise i…
Euro zone consumer price inflation rose to 3.2% in May from 3.0% in April, pushed up by a sharp increase in energy costs and a renewed uptick in services prices. Core inflation - excluding food and energy - climbed to 2.5% from 2.2%, driven by services and a small rise in industrial goods inflation. The data support a likely small European Central …
U.S. equity futures traded with little direction as conflicting signals about U.S.-Iran peace talks kept investors cautious. Energy prices eased from recent highs even as flows through the Strait of Hormuz remain constrained. Hewlett Packard Enterprise reported record second-quarter results and accelerated its long-term financial targets, driven by…
The European Central Bank reports a moderate rise in the euro's international use in 2025, keeping it firmly in second place among global currencies. The euro's share of several international use indicators climbed to around 20%, buoyed by a surge in euro-denominated international debt issuance and a first-time lead in the green and sustainable bon…
India’s central bank approaches its June policy meeting under intense pressure. A sharp rise in crude prices since the Iran war and a steep fall in the rupee have raised questions about whether the Reserve Bank of India should lift its policy repo rate from the current 5.25% to support the currency. At the same time, consumer inflation remains belo…
The euro's overall share in global currency indicators edged up only slightly last year, leaving it near 20% and well behind the dollar. An ECB report shows investors shifted toward gold and smaller reserve currencies, while euro-denominated international debt issuance hit a record high above $1.1 trillion.
European stocks opened higher after optimistic revenue guidance from STMicroelectronics lifted technology names. Markets also reacted to a temporary de-escalation in Lebanon and easing crude oil prices as investors awaited euro zone inflation data that could shape ECB policy next week. Separately, Abivax shares plunged after late-stage trial result…
European Central Bank policymakers have issued remarks in the run-up to the June 11 policy meeting indicating a growing willingness to raise interest rates. Markets are pricing a hike by July at the latest, while many economists expect a move in June. Officials highlighted the lasting damage from the energy shock, the potential for wider inflationa…
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group's global markets chief, Arihiro Nagata, told Reuters the Bank of Japan should articulate a clear path toward policy normalisation after a widely expected rate increase in June to help stabilise Japan's bond market. The call for clearer guidance comes as the 10-year government bond yield reaches multi-decade highs and…
A Reuters-style analysis of corporate earnings commentary finds that only about one-third of Europe’s biggest listed firms have signalled price increases in response to the Iran war. The pattern contrasts sharply with the broad pass-through of costs seen after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and points to softer demand, greater hedging and less f…
Japanese financial officials refrained from intensifying public admonitions over the yen’s slide on Tuesday, even as the currency approached the widely watched 160-per-dollar threshold. Officials repeated their readiness to act, but stopped short of the stronger language used at the end of April, when the government launched a large-scale programme…
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told a Taipei conference the firm has enough capacity for "very, very robust growth" tied to AI but remains supply constrained. The comments followed the launch of a chip designed to compete with AMD and Intel. Asian markets were subdued amid doubts about the durability of a U.S.-Iran ceasefire, with oil moderating and regio…
