By Agnès PEDRERO GENEVA, Oct 5, 2023 (AFP) – Global trade growth will be sharply lower than forecast this year as stubborn inflation, high interest rates and the war in Ukraine pressure economies around the globe, the World Trade Organization said Thursday. Strains in China’s vast property market also prompted the WTO to cut its trade growth forecast to just 0.8 percent this year, less than half the increase it had previously projected. “The projected […]
Tag: inflation
Philippine government vows to take steps to address rising food costs
MANILA, Oct 5, 2023 (AFP) – High food prices in the Philippines have pushed inflation to a five-month peak, officials said Thursday, increasing pressure on the government to stop the country’s neediest going hungry. Farming subsidies and food stamps for the poor are among government efforts to rein in or mitigate price increases, which have dented the popularity of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “The government is committed to providing targeted assistance to affected vulnerable segments […]
Inflation battle will take time, top ECB official says
FRANKFURT, Germany, Oct 4, 2023 (AFP) – Efforts to bring down inflation will take time, a senior European Central Bank official said Wednesday, warning that the eurozone had yet to fully feel the impact of higher interest rates. “While inflation continues to decline, it is still expected to remain too high for too long,” ECB vice-president Luis de Guindos said at a conference in Cyprus. The ECB last month raised interest rates for a 10th […]
UK cost-of-living crisis set to increase early deaths: study
LONDON, Sept 25, 2023 (AFP) – The UK’s inflation-fuelled cost-of-living crisis is set to “cut lives short” and “significantly widen the wealth-health gap”, according to a study published by open access journal BMJ Public Health on Monday. Modelling conducted for the study predicted that the proportion of people “dying before their time” (under the age of 75) will rise by nearly 6.5 percent due to the sustained period of high prices. The most deprived […]
China to control half the world’s hydrogen electrolyser capacity
PARIS, Sept 22, 2023 (AFP) – By the end of 2023, China will control half the world’s installed capacity of electrolysers for producing low-carbon hydrogen amid a slowdown in new projects due to inflation, according to an International Energy Agency report released Friday. “After a slow start, China has taken the lead on electrolyser deployment,” the IEA report on hydrogen said. China’s installed electrolyser capacity has jumped significantly in recent years, and is expected to […]
Key US inflation gauge cools further as rate hikes bite
WASHINGTON, July 28, 2023 (AFP) – WASHINGTON, July 28, 2023 (AFP) – A key indicator of US inflation cooled in June to the lowest annual rate in over two years, although this remains above the central bank’s target, according to government data released Friday. The Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, rose 3.0 percent last month from June 2022, down from a 3.8 percent jump in May, said […]
Pakistan inflation rockets to record 37.97 percent
ISLAMABAD, June 1, 2023 (AFP) – Pakistan’s year-on-year inflation hit a record 37.97 percent in May, official data revealed Thursday, with the nation on the brink of economic collapse and crucial bailout talks stalled. Non-perishable foods and transport costs climbed more than 50 percent over May 2022, while average inflation for the past 12 months was 29.16 percent, the latest Pakistan Bureau of Statistics data showed. “This level of inflation badly affects poor and middle-class […]
US inflation accelerated in April: Commerce Dept. gauge
WASHINGTON, May 26, 2023 (AFP) – The US inflation measure most closely watched by the Federal Reserve accelerated in April, official figures showed Friday, reversing a recent slowdown and raising the chance of another interest rate hike in June. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said the US central bank is taking a “data-dependent approach” to its next decision, where it will mull if another rate hike is needed to bring inflation back down to its […]
Germany in recession as inflation, higher interest bite
BERLIN, May 25, 2023 (AFP) – Germany fell into a recession around the turn of the year, official figures published Thursday showed, as inflation and higher interest rates curbed demand in Europe’s largest economy. Over the first three months of 2023, the economy shrank by 0.3 percent, the federal statistics agency Destatis said, downgrading an initial estimate of zero percent. Following a 0.5-percent contraction in the last three months of 2022, it was Germany’s second […]
UK inflation slides to 13-month low, stays elevated
LONDON, May 24, 2023 (AFP) – Britain’s annual inflation rate struck a 13-month low in April, official data showed Wednesday, but remains elevated at 8.7 percent as soaring food prices offset weaker energy costs, prolonging a cost-of-living crisis. The rate of price increases slowed from 10.1 percent in March to below double digits for the first time since August last year, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. At 8.7 percent, UK inflation […]
Argentina annual inflation exceeds 108 percent in April
BUENOS AIRES, May 12, 2023 (AFP) – Inflation in Argentina reached 108.8 percent in the 12 months to April, a more than three decade high, the Indec national statistics institute said Friday. Month-on-month, inflation in April was 8.4 percent in Latin America’s third largest economy. Argentina has one of the highest inflation rates in the world. In 2022, it reached 94.8 percent, the country’s highest annual figure since 1991, when it exceeded 171 percent. The […]
Soaring food prices in S.Africa push inflation up
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Wednesday 4/19/2023 Inflation in South Africa edged higher in March with food prices recording the highest year-on-year jump in more than a decade, official figures showed Wednesday. Inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages continued to accelerate and was up 14 percent on March last year, national statistics agency StatsSA said in a statement. “This represents the largest annual increase since the 14.7% rise in March 2009,” the agency said. […]
