Greece will next month repay ahead of schedule 5.3 billion euros ($5.8 billion) of loans owed to euro zone countries under its first bailout, and hopes to repeat the move in 2024, finance ministry officials told Reuters on Tuesday. The euro zone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) together lent Greece more than 260 billion euros during its decade-long debt crisis which began in late 2009, in exchange for tough austerity measures. The country’s third bailout expired in 2018. “On Dec. 15, we will repay earlier than expected 5.3 billion ...

U.S. furniture company head Jordan England thinks his firm’s Chinese suppliers are among the best in the game, but geopolitics and a slowing economy have pushed him to source more products from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and Mexico. “I’m looking to move away from it (China),” said England, CEO and co-founder of Florida-based Industry West. “It was always ‘China plus one,'” he said, referring to the diversification strategy many businesses began implementing after Washington imposed trade tariffs on Beijing in 2018 to ensure they were not wholly dependent on Chinese ...

Bank lending to businesses across the euro zone fell for the first time since 2015 last month, data from the European Central Bank (ECB) showed on Tuesday, as growth faltered with little prospect for a meaningful recovery. The 20-nation currency bloc’s economy has struggled all year and is likely in a recession now, as the so-far resilient job market and services sectors start to soften and manufacturing remains in recession, not least because of ECB rate hikes. Bank lending to businesses contracted by 0.3% in October from a year earlier, ...

U.S. consumer confidence rose in November after three straight monthly declines, though households continued to anticipate a recession over the next year, a survey showed on Tuesday. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index increased to 102.0this month from a downwardly revised 99.1 in October. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index dipping to 101.0 from the previously reported 102.6. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Tuesday he is “increasingly confident” that the current setting of the central bank’s benchmark interest rate will prove adequate to lower inflation to the Fed’s 2% target. “I am increasingly confident that policy is currently well positioned to slow the economy and get inflation back to 2%,” Waller said in comments prepared for delivery at the American Enterprise Institute think tank. After a period when faster-than-expected U.S. economic growth threatened to reverse a steady easing of inflation, Waller said, “I am encouraged ...

Bank of England interest-rate setter Jonathan Haskel said the inflationary heat still in Britain’s labour market suggested there was no way to cut interest rates from their 15-year high any time soon. “The labour market is still historically tight. At current rates of change it would take at least a year to fall back to average pre-pandemic tightness,” Haskel said in a text copy of a speech he was due to make later on Tuesday. “Rates will have to be held higher and longer than many seem to be expecting.” ...

The Federal Reserve will need nearly four more years to cover a historic operating loss and start sending profits again to the U.S. Treasury, according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The losses are a product of the Fed’s rate rise cycle which saw the central bank sharply increase its interest rate target while at the same time shrinking the size of its balance sheet, both of which are being done to make monetary policy tight enough to cool high levels of inflation. The pincer ...

German consumer sentiment improved slightly heading into the Christmas month but remained at a very low level with no signs of sustainable recovery in Europe’s biggest economy, a survey showed on Tuesday. The consumer sentiment index rose by 0.5 points to -27.8 points heading into December from a revised -28.3 the month before and above expectations of analysts polled by Reuters for a -27.9 reading. An improved willingness to buy and less appetite to save pushed the index, published jointly by the GfK institute and the Nuremberg Institute for Market ...

U.S. annual home price growth accelerated again in September, underscoring the rebound of the housing market as it entered the final quarter of the year, data showed on Tuesday. Home prices rose 6.1% on a year-over-year basis in September, up from an upwardly revised 5.8% increase in the prior month, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said. On a quarterly basis, annual house prices increased 5.5% between the third quarter of last year and the comparative period this year. Home prices rose 2.1% in the third quarter compared to the ...

China’s central bank maintained a steady growth of credit in the third quarter of 2023 to support the real economy, according to a report released on Monday. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is using a variety of tools to keep liquidity flowing, lower borrowing costs, and improve the efficiency of financial resources. The PBOC adjusted interest rates on open market operations and medium-term lending facilities in August, lowering them by 10 and 15 basis points, respectively. It also adjusted mortgage lending policies, lowering the lower limit for mortgage rates ...

Shoppers at British store chains have seen the slowest increase in prices in almost a year and a half but retailers might struggle to keep inflation on its downward path, an industry group said on Tuesday. The British Retail Consortium said annual shop price inflation dropped to 4.3% in the 12 months to November, its weakest since June 2022 and slower than October’s 5.2% rise. It was the sixth month in a row that the pace of price growth weakened. Food price inflation fell to 7.8% from 8.8% on the ...

A key measure of Japan’s trend inflation accelerated to 2.2% in October, data showed on Tuesday, marking a fresh record high in a sign of broadening price pressure that heightens the case for the central bank to dial back its massive monetary stimulus. The data adds to recent growing signs that prospects of sustained wage increases are prodding firms to hike prices for their services, a trend the central bank sees as a prerequisite for ending ultra-low interest rates. The 2.2% year-on-year increase in the weighted median inflation rate, which ...

Sales of new U.S. single-family homes fell more than expected in October as higher mortgage rates squeezed out buyers even as builders cut prices, but the setback is likely temporary amid a persistent shortage of previously owned houses on the market. The decline in sales reported by the Commerce Department on Monday was in line with a recent deterioration in homebuilder sentiment, which came as the rate on the popular 30-year fixed-mortgage approached 8%, leaving builders anticipating slower buyer traffic. Mortgage rates have since retreated from two-decade highs and are ...

Taiwan’s trade-dependent economy is likely to grow at the slowest pace in 14 years in 2023 as sluggish global demand weighs on its hi-tech exports, but activity is expected to pick up again next year, the statistics office said on Tuesday. Taiwan is a key link in the global technology supply chain for companies such as Apple Inc AAPL.O and Nvidia NVDA.O, and is home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) 2330.TW, TSM.N. Its economy has been weighed down by soft global demand for ...

Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday sought to reassure the German people and businesses that his government would modernise the economy and support vital industries such as chip factories, despite a court ruling that tore a hole in the federal budget. A constitutional court ruling nearly two weeks ago blocked the government’s plans to reallocate unused pandemic funds towards green initiatives and industry support, raising fears Germany’s economy could be further weakened. The verdict also called into question Germany’s traditionally strict fiscal policy and sparked warnings that companies could be starved ...