This Month
ECB cuts rates as bets build on a summer pause
The European Central Bank has cut interest rates for the eighth time, leaving rates in the neutral zone.
OECD: US growth to slow to 1.6pc this year, hobbled by trade wars
Global trade and the economic outlook have been clouded by Donald Trump’s sweeping taxes on imports, and the unpredictable way he’s rolled them out.
Stanley Fischer, who spread the macroeconomic gospel, dies at 81
Dispatched on several occasions to extinguish emergencies around the world, the esteemed economist drew academic lessons from his experience with countries in crisis.
April
Global confidence slumps as trade turmoil looms over IMF meetings
The tariff shock and market slide are among rising threats to growth. The outlook deterioration is a marked contrast to the relatively firm start to the year.
March
ECB cuts key rate to 2.5pc, signals easing phase nears end
Christine Lagarde says the central bank is switching “to a more evolutionary approach” as it will take longer for inflation to cool towards its 2 per cent target.
January
ECB cuts rates for fifth time as eurozone economy flat lines
Investors maintained bets for further easing, pricing an additional 70 basis points of cuts during the rest of 2025, which would lower rates to near 2 per cent.
December 2024
ECB cuts rates for the third straight time
The European Central Bank indicated more cuts are to come as it sought to prop up the bloc’s struggling economy.
How markets can get used to Trump’s bullying shock therapy
Markets need to quickly understand that the next US president and his team see trade in political, rather than narrowly economic, terms.
October 2024
Tussle for control of New York’s famed Chrysler Building
Legal disputes and ruthless manoeuvres are commonplace in the cutthroat world of New York real estate. Now the fate of a famous skyscraper hangs in the balance.
ECB cuts rates again as euro zone economy stagnates
The European Central Bank offered its first back-to-back rate cut in 13 years - in a shift to protecting economic growth.
September 2024
Did central banks get the inflation crisis right?
Rate-cutting cycles in recent decades – such as in the early 2000s, or during the financial crisis of 2007 – have tended to be associated with steep economic downturns.
ECB cuts rates again as economy stumbles
The ECB is getting more confident that consumer-price growth is returning to target following its historic spike.
The Fed needs to avoid becoming passive-aggressive
Adjusting policy in a timely manner to sustain economic expansions is difficult. Given the lags in policy transmission, the time to reset the funds rate has arrived.
August 2024
Jackson Hole bankers pivot to cuts as soft landing comes into view
Global rate-setters have left the Wyoming symposium cautiously optimistic, but acutely aware of the risks of either cutting rates too soon or leaving it too late.
Jackson Hole gathering reveals fresh concern for central bankers
Officials from three of the world’s major central banks have signalled they are on course to lower interest rates emerging weakness in labour markets and growth become the chief threat for policymakers.
New Zealand cuts rates in a rapid change of tune
The RBNZ’s pivot to easing is a dramatic shift after it said in May it considered raising rates and wouldn’t cut them until the second half of 2025.
Eurozone rate cut questioned as German wages soar
Not all rate-setters are convinced that the ECB will manage to avoid what bank president Christine Lagarde has referred to as “tit-for-tat inflation”.
Central banks need true transparency not fake consensus
The Bank of England isn’t afraid to advertise its differences. That is better for creating trust than the obsession with a united front at the US Fed.
July 2024
Wave of shipping inflation could complicate rate cuts, economists warn
Economists are sounding the alarm on the impact of surging shipping costs on the global fight against inflation.
We don’t know when rates will be cut again, ECB says
European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde says the question of an interest rate cut in September is “wide open”, and dependent on data.