German banks should avoid making multi-year promises to their shareholders despite bumper profits this year as the outlook for the economy is worsening, Bundesbank board member Joachim Wuermeling told Reuters. He was joining other European Central Bank supervisors in telling lenders to preserve capital – a message that has irked bankers as they try to woo investors to their beaten down shares. “What we fundamentally warn banks against is making medium-term promises to investors about dividend payments,” Wuermeling, a member of the ECB’s Supervisory Board who oversees the euro zone’s ...

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester reiterated Tuesday getting inflation down remains critical for the central bank. “Given high levels of inflation, restoring price stability remains the number one focus of the (Federal Open Market Committee) and we’re committed to using our tools” to get inflation back to the 2% goal, Mester said in opening remarks at a virtual event. She did not comment on the monetary policy outlook. Mester said that wage gains are clearly up, while adding that in most cases they remain below inflation, suggesting ...

Germany is strong enough to weather the crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and emerge stronger from it thanks a new approach to energy, defence and trade policy in Europe’s biggest economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday. “We are doing away with the failings of an energy and trade policy that has led us into one-sided dependence on Russia and China, in particular,” Scholz told the Bundestag lower house of parliament, adding carrying on as before was not an option. “Germany has the strength to master the crisis ...

China will use timely cuts in banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR), alongside other monetary policy tools, to keep liquidity reasonably ample, state media on Wednesday quoted a cabinet meeting as saying. Hurt by COVID-19 restrictions and a sharp property downturn, China’s economy has been struggling to get back on its feet, even after a flurry of policy measures this year to spur domestic demand. Economic activity in the fourth quarter “is crucial for full-year growth”, according to the State Council meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday, adding that ...

After a headlong rush this year to raise interest rates, the Federal Reserve switched this month to a more nuanced approach that was seen as a compromise between officials most concerned about high inflation and others worried that more large rises in borrowing costs might crater the economy or stress key markets. The minutes of the Nov. 1-2 policy meeting, scheduled to be released later on Wednesday, may show just how deep any emerging disagreement has begun to run at the U.S. central bank as it ends the push to ...

The downturn in German economic activity eased in November, a preliminary survey showed on Wednesday, as firms saw price pressures retreat from recent highs, offering hope that an expected recession could be milder than first feared. S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI)’s flash composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), which tracks both the manufacturing and services sectors which together account for more than two-thirds of Germany’s economy, rose to 46.4 in November from 45.1 in October. A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a reading of 44.9. November marks the fifth month in ...

We should interpret this honorific title with caution as there’s much that we still need to set right A statement made in various conferences and investor calls is that India is the fastest growing major economy today at 7%, and while the world will sleep through a recession, we will be awake and have plenty of opportunities to leverage. The tone assumed is one of pride as well as schadenfreude. Are we really in this sweet spot? Are we really disconnected from the world? Numerically, there’s no contesting the number, ...

France’s private sector economy contracted in November for the first time since February 2021, according to a monthly survey, as lower new orders weighed on the euro zone’s second-biggest economy. S&P Global’s flash purchasing managers index (PMI) for France’s services sector fell to 49.4 points from 51.7 in October. Any reading above 50 points shows growth while figures below 50 show a contraction. The figure was also below a Reuters poll which had forecast 50.6 points. The flash November PMI figure for France’s manufacturing sector rose to 49.1 points from ...

British economic activity fell at close to its fastest pace in nearly two years in November, adding to signs of recession as orders sank and employment growth slowed, a survey showed on Wednesday. The ‘flash’ or preliminary version of the IHS Markit/CIPS composite purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for Britain edged up to 48.3 from 48.2 in October, which was its lowest reading since January 2021, when there was a COVID-19 lockdown. “A further steep fall in business activity in November adds to growing signs that the UK is in recession, ...

American economist Robert Solow famously said that the computer age was everywhere but in the productivity statistics. At the moment, we can say that the recession is everywhere except for in the GDP statistics. While the eurozone economy still eked out positive growth in the third quarter, it seems inevitable that a recession has started in the current quarter and today’s PMI figures confirm that. The slight increase in the PMI was mainly driven by the manufacturing PMI, which saw an uptick from 43.8 to 45.7. This is still showing ...

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits increased to a three-month high last week amid rising layoffs in the technology sector, but that likely does not suggest a material shift in labor market conditions, which remain tight. Weekly jobless claims data tend to be volatile around the start of the holiday season. Despite the increase in filing reported by the Labor Department on Wednesday, claims remained well below the threshold that economist said would raise red flags about the labor market. The jobs market has remained resilient ...

New orders for U.S.-made capital goods unexpectedly rebounded in October while shipments increased solidly, suggesting business spending on equipment started the fourth quarter on a strong footing despite a cooling in demand from higher interest rates. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, rose 0.7% last month, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday. These so-called core capital goods orders decreased 0.8% in September. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast core capital goods orders would be unchanged. The data is not adjusted for ...

The European Central Bank will keep raising interest rates until it brings inflation down to around its 2% mid-term goal even though the euro zone economy is heading towards recession, ECB Vice-President Luis de Guindos said on Wednesday. De Guindos did not elaborate on the magnitude of the potential next interest rate rise in December but said it would depend on upcoming ECB projections and inflation readings in November. “I can tell you that our approach will always be the same, we will continue to raise interest rates to a ...

Investors are increasingly eyeing U.S. corporate credit offering attractive valuations and yields after steep declines in 2022, fund managers told the Reuters Global Markets Forum (GMF). “We are at the beginning of a rotation as investors come back into credit. With the rapid move in front-end rates, the curve has repriced credit to attractive levels,” said Salim Ramji, global head of exchange-traded funds (ETF) and index investments at BlackRock. iShares iBoxx Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF and iShares High Yield Corporate Bond ETF are on track for quarterly gains of ...

A freight plane carrying over 40 tonnes of cargo including cross-border e-commerce goods took off from Harbin Taiping International Airport and flew directly to Los Angeles in the United States. This smooth air cargo service is partly attributable to the constant efforts of recent years to improve cross-border infrastructure in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province. With 42 domestic and foreign airlines, 341 routes and 102 destination cities, an air traffic network has been initially formed, with Heilongjiang’s capital Harbin serving as the center. The air traffic network can facilitate connectivity between ...