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Welcome to Wednesday, Americas. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help you start the day:

  • Stagflation isn’t quite the word. But for a world economy still trying to find its post-pandemic footing, the combination of lower growth and higher inflation evident in the latest readings from Bloomberg Economics’ nowcasts still isn’t good news
  • The Federal Reserve should begin tapering its bond-buying program next month, though interest-rate increases are probably “still some time off,” Fed Governor Christopher Waller said
  • This Christmas season will be marked by a growing divide between high and low earners, according to a study from Deloitte. 11.5% of U.S. holiday shoppers say they plan not to spend anything on gifts and services this holiday, up from 4.9% in 2020
  • Seven months after the U.S. government approved an unprecedented infusion of state aid, Texas lawmakers have signed off on a plan to spend billions of stimulus relief
  • Argentina’s government is freezing prices on 1,432 household items in an effort to cool accelerating inflation ahead of November’s midterm election and the holiday season
  • Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann will step down after more than a decade in the post, marking the exit of one of the most hawkish policy makers at the European Central Bank just as it debates the future of its post-crisis stimulus
  • U.K. consumer prices accelerated well beyond the Bank of England’s target for a second month, propelled by the global disruption in supply chains that pushed up transport costs
    • See Bloomberg Economics’ reaction here
  • China’s factories have long acted as a brake on global inflation as they cut costs to keep foreign customers. But the country’s export boom since the pandemic has given manufacturers confidence to ask for more, adding to anxiety over the current spike in price growth
  • International Monetary Fund chief economist Gita Gopinath, the first woman to serve in that role, will rejoin Harvard University in January to retain her tenured faculty post after three years of public service leave

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