Below are comments from South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago on Thursday as he announced the central bank's latest decision on its benchmark repo rate. INFLATION. "The medium-term inflation outlook is largely unchanged. "Electricity, food and fuel price inflation continue to shape the near and medium-term trajectory of headline inflation." GROWTH.
WASHINGTON--The number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment benefits rose slightly last week, though it remained at historically low levels. --Initial jobless claims rose by 2,000 in the week ended Sept. 14 to 208,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected jobless claims to rise to 215,000..
WASHINGTON--The U.S. current-account deficit, a measure of the nation's trade and financial flows with other countries, narrowed to a seasonally adjusted $128.19 billion in the second quarter from a revised $136.19 billion in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected a $128.0 billion deficit. The current account tracks movements of goods and services across borders as well as income from...
Brazil's real fell to a two-week low against the dollar and interest rate futures tumbled to new lows on Thursday, as markets adjusted to the central bank's rate cut and strong signal that it will loosen policy further. The dollar rose as high as 4.1380 reais and rates futures fell sharply across the board.
Canadian home prices rose for the fourth consecutive month in August, while the annual increase in prices picked up for the first time in nine months, data on Thursday showed. The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, which measures changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, showed that prices rose 0.4% last month from July.
FedEx Corp. (FDX) has offered the latest signal that a turning point is coming in the business cycle. The delivery company cut its 2020 outlook after the closing bell Tuesday, pointing to trade tensions and a weak global economy. Chief Executive Frederick Smith said on the company's conference call that FedEx (FDX) is taking steps to reduce its capacity, partly because the absence of a trade deal with China has reduced the movement of goods internationally.
Turkish inflation will fall significantly in September due to the high base from the previous year, with leading indicators suggesting the slowdown in annual food inflation will continue, the central bank said on Thursday.
The Bank of England Thursday warned that an extended period of uncertainty about the way in which the U.K. will leave the European Union could further weaken economic growth and inflation. In a statement, the U.K.' s central bank repeated its view that should the country's exit from the bloc be smooth, it would likely need to raise its key rate over coming years. It also repeated its warning that the key rate could move higher or lower in response to a disruptive Brexit.
Improvement in liquidity and the capital adequacy ratios of Turkey's banking sector, as well as lower interest rates are likely to boost loan growth, Turkey's central bank said on Thursday. In the minutes of last week's monetary policy committee meeting, it said the outlook for economic activity will depend largely on the pace, scope and sustainability of the normalisation in credit conditions.
The Swiss National Bank decided to extend the threshold before negative interest rates apply to banks because it expects low interest rates to persist for a long time, Chairman Thomas Jordan told Swiss broadcaster SRF on Thursday. "It's not a question of accommodating the banks, but rather of assuming that this global low interest rate environment will continue for a long time," Jordan said.
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