Reuters US Economy

By Eliana Raszewski BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s latest economy minister, Sergio Massa, stressed the need to boost hard currency reserves in a speech on Thursday, pointing to new debt repurchase operations that could help, as well as advances in talks with the country’s key farm sector. President Alberto Fernandez tapped Massa as economy minister …

Argentina’s new economy chief highlights plans to boost reserves Read More »

By Nichola Saminather TORONTO (Reuters) – Canadian banks are expected to post declines in profits on average in the third quarter as a murky economic outlook drives up provisions for credit losses (PCL) while market turmoil pressures capital markets and wealth management results, analysts and investors said. The banks, which will begin reporting quarterly results …

Canadian banks face Q3 earnings declines on provisions, markets woes Read More »

By Timour Azhari and Maya Gebeily BEIRUT (Reuters) – It’s a weekday, but 50-year-old Lebanese finance ministry employee Walid Chaar is not at work and hasn’t been since June.     He rushes to water the garden at his home in the hills south of Beirut, using the single hour of rationed state power to run the …

Public sector paralysed as Lebanon lurches towards ‘failed state’ Read More »

By Maria Belen Liotti BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Thousands of frustrated Argentines clogged downtown Buenos Aires on Wednesday in raucous street protests, demanding government action to boost salaries and unemployment benefits battered by surging consumer prices and a weakening peso currency. The South American nation’s economic crisis has seen the ranks of the poor swell …

In Argentina, mass protests demand higher wages, lower inflation Read More »

By Cooper Inveen and Christian Akorlie ACCRA (Reuters) – Ghana’s central bank on Wednesday delivered its biggest rate hike ever, a 300 basis point increase to 22%, at an emergency meeting to address the economy’s rapid deterioration amid crippling inflation. The hike comes just three weeks after it kept its monetary policy rate unchanged at …

Ghana delivers biggest rate hike ever at emergency meeting Read More »

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s administration will send a proposal to increase the government’s budget for 2023 in the coming weeks to bolster social programs, Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo said on Wednesday, adding that further public debt swaps could be on the cards. The budget for next year – which was proposed …

Colombia to increase 2023 budget proposal, eyes more debt swaps Read More »

By Andy Bruce LONDON (Reuters) – Plans for a high-wage, high-growth economy lie in ruins as Britain’s Conservative prime minister struggles to answer a cost-of-living crisis, compounded by rising worker unrest. It is December 1973 and the finance minister has privately warned the cabinet of Edward Heath that the country faces its gravest economic crisis …

Echoes of dire 1970s in today’s Britain Read More »

By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. homebuilding fell to the lowest level in nearly 1-1/2 years in July, weighed down by higher mortgage rates and prices for construction materials, suggesting the housing market could contract further in the third quarter. The housing market’s declining fortunes brought fears of a broader economic recession back into …

U.S. housing starts near 1-1/2-year low; factory output rebounds Read More »

By Julie Gordon OTTAWA (Reuters) -Canada’s inflation eased slightly in July on lower gasoline prices, official data showed on Tuesday, prompting the central bank governor to say that the annual rate may have peaked but will “remain too high for some time”. Underlying price pressures suggested another outsized interest rate hike was still on the …

Canadian inflation eases in July, but central bank says it is still too high Read More »

By Julie Gordon OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian inflation may have peaked, but it remains far too high, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said in a newspaper op-ed on Tuesday, after official data showed annual price increases eased to 7.6% in July from 8.1% in June. Macklem, in a commentary piece published on the National …

Canada inflation may have peaked but still too high -BoC’s Macklem Read More »