When a wildfire tore down a hillside towards Athens last month, its southernmost flank halted in a treeless area burned by fire two years before. A few miles west, however, the blaze found fresh fuel: woods and scrub that offered a path towards the city’s suburbs. In its way stood the leafy village of Penteli, where Marlena Kaloudi has lived since the 1970s. The fire swept through her house. But what hurt most when she returned was the sight of her pine trees, some over 100 years old, charred to ...

Following its September meeting, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced its first interest rate cut since 2020 – and did it with a bang. The central bank lowered the policy rate by 50 basis points (bps) and slashed its forward rate projections. The new median projection sees the policy rate ending 2025 in the range of 3.25%–3.5%, which is 150 bps lower than the current range and much closer to long-run neutral monetary policy estimates. The Fed’s actions suggest that it saw a shift in the balance of risks around inflation ...

So we get the 50bp interest rate cut that the market had been gunning for despite the economy being described as expanding at a “solid pace” in the accompanying statement. Expectations of a larger move had been building over the past week despite core inflation coming in at a relatively “hot” 0.3% month-on-month and the August jobs report painting a stronger picture than many thought likely. The lack of pushback on market pricing from the Fed in sourced media articles suggested it was inclined to go boldly and in the ...

The U.S. current account deficit widened sharply in the second quarter, reaching its highest level in more than two years amid a surge in imports of goods. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis said on Thursday that the current account deficit, which measures the flow of goods, services and investments into and out of the country, increased $25.8 billion, or 10.7%, to $266.8 billion last quarter. That was the highest level since the first quarter of 2022. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the current account deficit at $260.0 ...

The Federal Reserve will “get pushed into deeper” interest rate reductions later this year following an aggressive borrowing cost cut by the central bank, according to analysts at Bank of America. The Fed slashed interest rates by 50 basis points to a range of 4.75% to 5.0% on Wednesday and indicated that it would announce further cuts this year, signalling the beginning to an easing cycle aimed at shoring up the economy following a prolonged battle against surging inflation. Rates had previously been at a 23-year high for over a ...

Britain could attract up to 7.7 billion pounds ($10.2 billion) in additional foreign sovereign investment by 2030 if it pursues a long-term blueprint for enticing such funds, a report said. The City of London Corporation has repeated calls for a financial and professional services plan to convert interest in British assets into cash as Prime Minister Keir Starmer prepares to host his first international investment summit on Oct. 14. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has warned that taxes will have to rise after uncovering a 22 billion pound hole in public finances, ...

Only Malta and Denmark will submit their debt reduction plans to the European Commission by the initial September 20 deadline set by the EU’s new fiscal rules, with most other governments planning to do so in October and France even later, EU officials said. The delay is a setback for the credibility of the new rules, in force since April, because they are meant to show markets how EU governments, many of which are saddled with high public debt after the COVID-19 pandemic and energy crisis, want to put debt ...

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said the Federal Reserve’s move to cut rates on Wednesday was welcome news, adding she was focused on how to keep bringing prices down. “I know prices are still too high for many middle class and working families,” she said in a statement. Source: Reuters (Reporting by David Ljunggren)

U.S. President Joe Biden will tout progress in bringing down inflation and boosting employment on Thursday after the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut, while vowing to keep working to lower costs for American families, key aides said. Biden will use an event with the Economic Club of Washington to summarize how well the U.S. responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and a surge in inflation after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, his chief of staff, Jeff Zients, told reporters. Many economists had predicted a recession would be needed to lower inflation, but ...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said he does not see any indication of a recession or even an economic downturn ahead. “I don’t see anything in the economy right now that suggests that the likelihood of a recession — sorry, of a downturn — is elevated,” Powell said in a news conference. “You see growth at a solid rate, you see inflation coming down, and you see a labor market that’s still at very solid levels, so I don’t really see that.” Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ann Saphir; ...

The euro zone’s current account surplus shrunk in July on a lower trade surplus and a drop in primary income, which includes the flow of profits, wages, interest income and dividends into and out of the bloc, European Central Bank data showed on Thursday. The seasonally adjusted current account surplus fell to 39.6 billion euros in July from 50.5 billion euros a month earlier. Based on unadjusted figures, the surplus fell to 48.0 billion from 52.4 billion. In the 12 months to July, the bloc’s surplus rose to 2.6% of ...

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Thursday he was “optimistic” that inflation pressures would ease sufficiently for the central bank to cut rates further, but declined to be drawn on timing. “I think we’re now on a gradual path down. That’s the good news. I think interest rates are going to come down. I’m optimistic on that front, but we do need to see some more evidence,” he told broadcasters. Bailey added that he had no concerns about how the government might change the treatment of losses from ...

U.S. existing home sales fell more than expected in August as house prices remained elevated despite a continued improvement in supply. Home sales fell 2.5% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.86 million units, the National Association of Realtors said on Thursday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast home resales falling to a rate of 3.90 million units. Home resales, which account for a large portion of U.S. housing sales, dropped 4.2% on a year-on-year basisin August. The median existing home price increased 3.1% from a year ...

U.S. consumers got an immediate reprieve on borrowing costs from banks after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time in more than four years. Lenders tightened lending standards last year as the commercial real estate market deteriorated and investors became broadly concerned about the potential for a U.S. recession. Echoing the Fed’s move, banks including JPMorgan Chase JPM.N, Bank of America BAC.N and Wells Fargo WFC.N reduced their prime rates. “Borrowing rates are more competitive than deposit rates and they are more likely to move ...

The number of Americans filing new applications for unemployment benefits dropped to a four-month low last week, pointing to solid job growth in September and offering confirmation that the economy continued to expand in the third quarter. The weekly jobless claims report from the Labor Department on Thursday, the most timely data on the economy’s health, also showed unemployment rolls shrunk to levels last seen in early June. The U.S. central bank on Wednesday cut interest rates by 50 basis points, the first reduction in borrowing costs since 2020, which ...