Britain’s pensions industry, Europe’s biggest, is posing a new challenge to the country’s 2 trillion pound ($2.5 trillion) government bond market a year on from the “mini-budget” crisis that put the sector at the centre of financial stability fears. Pension funds are big buyers of UK debt, known as gilts, but they are likely to step back just as the Bank of England (BoE) reduces its own holdings faster and debt issuance remains high, adding pressure on British borrowing costs. Benefiting from the highest interest rates since 2008, pension funds ...

If the Bank of England is indeed done hiking rates, it calls time on a dire couple of years for British government bonds – even as the central bank offloads more of its gilt stockpile. Bruised and battered bond bulls now look to Britain for hope of some redemption in yet another year of losses across sovereign debt markets – not least as they absorb a fresh hit to U.S. Treasuries after the Federal Reserve this week signalled one more hike was in store and upped its growth forecasts. But ...

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai called for meaningful progress in making changes to the World Trade Organization by a ministerial meeting in February, with better tools needed to handle China’s “non-market” practices. The U.S. was committed to a reformed WTO that was focused on its “foundational goals,” marked by “openness, transparency, and fair-market-oriented competition”, Tai said in remarks to a trade forum in Washington. She said that in recent years, the WTO has failed to address non-market practices by some countries, seeking to “dominate key industrial sectors, promote national champions ...

Bank of France head Francois Villeroy de Galhau, a governing council member of the European Central Bank (ECB), said on Saturday that the spike in oil and fuel prices did not change the ECB’s objective to bring inflation back towards 2% by 2025. “Gasoline consumption at the pump represents roughly 5% of our total consumption, so it is a small part of total inflation, even if it is what is most visible,” he told France Inter radio. Brent crude oil prices are trading near $100 a barrel, as investors are ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed the importance of high-quality development in promoting new industrialization to lay a strong material and technological foundation for Chinese modernization. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a recent instruction on pushing forward new industrialization. Xi said that realizing new industrialization is a key task in China’s pursuit of Chinese modernization to build a stronger country and advance national rejuvenation in the new era. To lay a ...

China Reform Holdings Corp, a Chinese manager of state assets, plans to raise at least 100 billion yuan ($13.70 billion) for a fund that will invest in emerging industries, the China Business News reported on Sunday. The fund has already received investment intentions from more than 20 central government-owned enterprises as well as local governments and private investors, and will start operating by the end of this year, the newspaper said. China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been ramping up investment in emerging and strategic industries such as artificial intelligence, new ...

Europe’s trade chief will push Beijing for fewer restrictions on European businesses on a four-day visit to China, when he can expect tough conversations over a planned EU investigation into electric car imports. Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis will take part in a joint economic and trade dialogue, meet Chinese officials and European companies active in China and deliver two speeches during his Sept. 23-26 trip to Shanghai and Beijing. For the European Union, the visit is designed to renew dialogue with China after its COVID-19 closure and as EU wariness ...

We’ve had the latest purchasing managers indices for the UK and it’s another dismal outcome. The services PMI now stands at 47.2, down from 49.5 and that’s lower than had been expected by economists. There’s little doubt from the accompanying S&P Global press release that the economy is weakening, and the comments on the jobs market stand out in particular. The survey indicates that employment is now falling at the fastest rate since October 2009, when you exclude the volatility during lockdowns. And prices charged by firms are increasing less ...

European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane said on Thursday high levels of inflation are a very negative force for an economy, as he declined to speculate what lies next for his bank’s monetary policy. “Inflation is horrible, it’s really costly, people hate it,” Lane said in an appearance in New York. He said the ECB’s objective is to hit its 2% target in the medium term. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Sandra Maler)

A closely watched central bank survey is likely to show Japan’s business confidence improved slightly in the three months to September, according to a Reuters poll, suggesting the economy is weathering headwinds from slowing global growth for now. The survey is also expected to show corporate spending appetite remains firm, according to the poll, which may heighten the case for the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to phase out its massive monetary stimulus. “Big manufacturers’ sentiment likely improved, mainly among automakers. The service-sector mood is also expected to have brightened,” thanks ...

Further Federal Reserve interest rate increases are “not off the table” with inflation still not clearly contained, Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins said in remarks on Friday backing the current central bank outlook for interest rates to remain “higher, and for longer.” Collins tempered her outlook by saying that the current environment required “considerable patience” from policymakers to be sure they get the right signal from data they are studying to be confident inflation is on a steady downward track back to their 2% target. On that front recent ...

Sustainable inflation targeting is not yet in sight The BoJ’s statement maintained most of the wording from before and kept its forward guidance unchanged. Firmer-than-expected inflation is not yet enough for the BoJ to tilt its policy stance. In the statement, the BoJ expects inflation to decelerate and said core inflation has been around +3% because of pass-through price increases. At the press conference, Ueda said, “if inflation, accompanied by the wages goal is in sight, then the BoJ will mull an end to the YCC and a rate shift”. ...

Labour has promised to hand increased powers to the UK’s economic watchdog if it wins the next general election. Liz Truss’s mini-budget, with no Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) analysis, a year ago, led to market chaos and a fall in the pound’s value. Under Labour’s plan, the OBR would be free to publish forecasts and analysis alongside any tax and spending changes. Sir Keir Starmer said the aim was to bring “stability for so many families” hit by “that disaster of a budget”. “Huge damage was done to our ...

The euro zone economy is likely contract this quarter and won’t return to growth anytime soon, a survey showed, as the dampening effect of central banks’ long campaign of interest rates rises becomes clearer. HCOB’s flash euro zone Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global and seen as a good gauge of overall economic health, rose to 47.1 in September from August’s 33-month low of 46.7. The reading was still below the 50 mark separating growth from contraction, however, and Hamburg Commercial Bank said the bloc’s economy would ...

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday turned to a new strategy in a long-shot bid to prevent the fourth government shutdown in a decade, as time runs short ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline. Republicans have so far failed to advance legislation that would keep the government running when the new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. Instead, they will prepare four separate spending bills, most of which reflect the deep cuts sought by the party’s right flank. Those are certain to be rejected by the Democratic-controlled ...