By Darya Korsunskaya and Alexander Marrow (Reuters) – As Russia’s military spending soars and sanctions squeeze its energy revenues, Moscow faces a battle to keep its budget deficit in check, with few economists now expecting the finance ministry to stick to its promise of a deficit no higher than 2% of GDP. Defence spending jumped…
MUMBAI (Reuters) – India’s foreign exchange reserves rose for a third consecutive week and stood at $599.53 billion for the week ended May 12, their highest level since early June, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) statistical supplement showed on Friday. That is an increase of $3.55 billion from the previous week. Reserves had risen…
By Andy Home LONDON (Reuters) – High-flying lithium has come crashing back to earth. A super-charged two-year rally, which saw Chinese spot lithium carbonate prices rise by tenfold, went into brutal reverse over the first part of this year. The spot price slumped by 70% between November and its low point in April. The battery…
By Jesús Aguado MADRID (Reuters) – The European Central Bank needs to keep interest rates high to curb inflation in the medium term, its president Christine Lagarde said on Friday, signalling more monetary tightening. The ECB slowed the pace of rate hikes this month with a 25-basis-point rise, but Lagarde indicated the cycle was not…
By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden and Republican U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have voiced growing confidence about striking a debt-ceiling deal to avoid a catastrophic default, but they could be tripped up by last-minute opposition from the hardline House Freedom Caucus. The small but powerful Republican faction warned this week that they…
By Lucy Raitano LONDON (Reuters) -Investors pumped $25.1 billion into cash in the week to Wednesday, but the flow into cash funds has slowed recently, reflecting a greater degree of investor confidence, according to a report from BofA Global Research on Friday. A total of $151 billion went into money market funds over the last…
HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – Leaders of the world richest democracies agreed on Friday to stiffen sanctions against Russia and pledged financial support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion. Below are key extracts from the Group of Seven leaders’ statement. NEW SANCTIONS “we will broaden our actions to ensure that exports of all items…
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will resolutely curb large fluctuations in the exchange rate and study the strengthening of self-regulation of dollar deposits, the central bank said on Friday. The comment comes after the yuan dropped to multi-month lows and breached the closely watched 7-per-dollar level, pressured by a sputtering economic recovery, low yields and the…
HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden is likely to get another update from his team on budget negotiations with Republicans on Friday night in Japan, where he is traveling for the Group of Seven (G7) meetings, a spokesperson said. Biden was also planning to leave the G7 leaders’ dinner early, according to spokesperson…
By Nevzat Devranoglu and Ebru Tuncay ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish banks have restricted access to some individual loans and postponed decisions on extending corporate loans following new regulations introduced since Sunday’s inconclusive presidential vote and ahead of a May 28 runoff, bankers said. Some banks have raised monthly mortgage loan rates above 3% and car…
