Slowing Inflation Primes G-7 Central Banks for June
Inflation-related releases across the Group of Seven will prime central bankers for crucial June interest-rate decisions, just as they meet in Italy to discuss the state of the world economy.
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Inflation-related releases across the Group of Seven will prime central bankers for crucial June interest-rate decisions, just as they meet in Italy to discuss the state of the world economy.
Big US bond investors have been aggressively shifting money into long-dated notes, betting that the unloved asset class will be one of the winners from eventual interest rate cuts.
A measure of underlying US inflation cooled in April for the first time in six months, a small step in the right direction for Federal Reserve officials looking to start cutting interest rates this year.
Emerging-market currencies dipped Friday on dwindling optimism over Federal Reserve rate cuts, paring their fourth-straight week of gains.
The owner of a historic office building in Manhattan’s Financial District has filed bankruptcy to sell the property, which has been subject to foreclosure and suffered from a lack of tenants due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mar 5, 2020
BNN Bloomberg
,Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz said Wednesday’s decision to slash the central bank’s benchmark interest rate was an effort to stabilize the country’s housing markets amid growing fears of the spread of COVID-19.
“If consumer confidence will erode because of the virus then you’d expect to see a downdraft in housing,” Poloz told BNN Bloomberg’s Amanda Lang in an exclusive interview on Thursday. “The interest rate move this week is intended to address exactly that. It should help stabilize housing instead of pour extra fuel on a hot housing market.”
The Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points on Wednesday to 1.25 per cent. In turn, Canada’s Big Five banks slashed prime lending rates that same evening by the same margin, affecting the rates on certain loans and mortgages backed by the individual institutions.
Poloz says that the country’s housing markets have normalized after coming down from its 2018 peaks, thanks in part to new mortgage rules.
“Housing, of course, grew really fast. It recovered quickly during 2019, but as we got into the final months of 2019, that kind of levelled out at a new space,” Poloz said. “I know that resales lately have seemed quite strong year-over-year, but that’s because it was so weak a year ago.”
“I think, in terms of levels, we’re kind of back to normal having absorbed the changes to B-20 and the higher levels of interest rates, et cetera.”