The meeting was the biggest story in the global business press last night: Bloomberg | FT | WSJ | CNBC | Reuters | AP. Inflation rose at its quickest pace in 13 years last month and if this continues policymakers will come under increasing pressure to start turning off the liquidity taps earlier than expected. How things go from here will in large part depend on what happens with inflation over the coming months: Inflation is already significantly higher than originally forecast by the Fed, which continues to maintain that price rises will be short-lived and being caused by supply issues related to the pandemic. Though stimulus could soon be curtailed: Fed officials could decide to start tapering the bank’s huge USD 120 bn-a-month bond buying programme in coming meetings, Powell said, without providing further information. No rate hikes are in the cards: The Fed has said that it will not begin to tighten policy until it sees “substantial further progress” on employment and inflation, but in the statement yesterday said that the economy has only “made progress toward these goals.” At its last meeting, Powell said that the bank would likely raise rates earlier than expected in 2023. In a statement following the meeting, the Fed expressed optimism that the US economic recovery remains on track despite fears over the spread of the delta variant, saying that economic indicators and employment are continuing to “strengthen.” That’s according to chairman Jay Powell, who was speaking following the Federal Open Market Committee meeting yesterday when, as expected, the central bank left interest rates at near-zero. MARKET WATCH- Federal Reserve officials are moving closer to taking a decision about when to start scaling back stimulus, but a rate hike is nowhere in sight. We’re going to have another epayments player next month: Contact Financial Holding will begin rolling out e-payments services next month, the company’s CEO said yesterday.Six in, seven out: Six new companies will join the EGX 30 next week when the latest biannual rebalancing of the benchmark index takes place on Sunday.Swvl might be heading to the Nasdaq: The Egyptian transport startup has reached a USD 345 mn agreement with blank-check firm Queen’s Gambit Growth Capital to take the company public in the US.***CATCH UP QUICK with the top stories from yesterday’s edition of EnterprisePM: The story was everywhere in the US press from the Associated Press to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times to the Washington Post. Senators voted 67-32 in favor of considering the bill, which would unlock USD 1.2 tn in funds for the nation’s highways, broadband and electricity infrastructure over the next eight years. THE BIG STORY INTERNATIONALLY- The US Senate is finally willing to start discussing the Biden administration’s USD 1 tn infrastructure bill: The Biden administration and a group of centrist senators reached a bipartisan agreement yesterday on the White House’s USD 1.2 tn infrastructure package following months of talks, paving the way for senators to begin discussing its provisions. The story got coverage in the Financial Times and CNBC. Google has delayed reopening its offices and extended its work-from-home policy until 18 October due to the resurgence of covid-19, while Facebook also plans for a 50% return in September before raising the office capacity to 100% in October. Facebook followed suit, saying in its earnings release (more on that in this morning’s Planet Finance, below) that its workers too will need to be fully jabbed before setting foot in its US offices. Google has become the first company to mandate vaccines for employees returning to work in the office in a decision that will be applied to its 144k employees worldwide. YOUR MANDATORY COVID STORY- Google, Facebook employees will need to be vaccinated when they return to the office. Inflation: Inflation data for July will be out on Tuesday, 10 August.Foreign reserves: July’s foreign reserves figure should land next week.Interest rates: The Central Bank of Egypt will meet to review interest rates on Thursday, 5 August.PMI: July’s purchasing managers’ index will drop on Tuesday, 3 August.Here’s what’s coming up in the next two weeks: Fortunately / unfortunately for us, the business news cycle doesn’t take a break for the summer. We’re racing into the height of summer with August almost upon us. We’ll be back at the appointed hour on Sunday. We’re taking today off - and that means you won’t find EnterprisePM in your inboxes at this afternoon.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |