Aurelia Butler

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LUCERNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced more than $1.5 billion in aid in part for Ukraine’s energy sector and its humanitarian situation as a result of Russia’s 27-month invasion of Ukraine.The announcement was made as Harris attended a Ukraine peace summit in Lucerne, Switzerland, where she was to meet Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and address the summit’s plenary session.The $1.5 billion includes $500 million in new funding for energy assistance and the redirecting of $324 million in previously announced funds toward emergency energy infrastructure repair and other needs in Ukraine, the vice president’s office said.”These efforts will help Ukraine respond to Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine energy infrastructure by supporting repair and recovery, improving Ukraine’s resilience to energy supply disruptions, and laying the groundwork to repair and expand Ukraine’s energy system,” Harris’ office said.She also announced more than $379 million in humanitarian assistance from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to help refugees and other people impacted by the war. The money is to cover food assistance, health services, shelter, and water, sanitation and hygiene services for millions of Ukrainians.Harris, who will spend less than 24 hours at the gathering in Lucerne, Switzerland, will be standing in for President Joe Biden at the event. The president will be just ending his participation at the G7 summit in Italy and returning to the United States to attend a fundraiser for his reelection campaign in Los Angeles.Harris will meet with Zelenskiy and address the summit’s plenary session. Biden met with Zelenskiy both at the G7 summit, where they signed a U.S.-Ukraine bilateral security agreement, and in France for events surrounding the 80th anniversary of the World War Two D-Day invasion.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will represent the United States at the summit on Sunday and help establish working groups on returning Ukrainian children from Russia and on energy security. More

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in Australia on Saturday, saying relations were “back on track” as he started the first visit by a Chinese premier to the major trading partner in seven years.Australia is “uniquely positioned to connect the West and the East” and stands as “an important force of economic globalization and world multipolarity”, Li said at Adelaide’s airport, according to a statement from the Chinese embassy.Bilateral relations are “back on track after a period of twists and turns”, Li said.Australia is the biggest supplier of iron ore to China, which has been an investor in Australian mining projects, though some recent Chinese investment in critical minerals has been blocked by Australia on national interest grounds.China imposed trade restrictions on a raft of Australian agricultural and mineral products in 2020 during a diplomatic dispute that has now largely eased.During his four-day visit, Li will also visit the capital Canberra and mining state Western Australia. “A more mature, stable and fruitful comprehensive strategic partnership will be a treasure shared by the people of both countries,” Li said.He is expected to visit a pair of pandas on loan from China to Adelaide’s zoo on Sunday. A lunch with wine exporters until recently shut out of the Chinese market will show trade ties have smoothed after the dispute that suspended A$20 billion ($13 billion) in Australian agriculture and mineral exports through last year.Li arrived from New Zealand, where he highlighted Chinese demand for New Zealand’s agricultural products.China is the biggest trading partner of Australia and New Zealand. Canberra and Wellington are seeking to balance trade with regional security concerns over China’s ambitions in the Pacific Islands.In New Zealand, Li visited major dairy exporter Fonterra on Saturday after signing agreements with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on trade and climate change, with human rights and foreign interference also on the agenda. More

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s economic programme is bearing fruit in terms of production, employment and exports, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday in a video message to mark the Eid al-Adha holidays.”Turkey will get good results on inflation starting from the second half of the year,” Erdogan said, adding inflation will definitely be reduced to single digits. More

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s President-elect Prabowo Subianto has no plans to boost the country’s public debt to 50% of gross domestic product (GDP), a senior aide said on Saturday, denying a report that had hit the nation’s currency and bond markets.Thomas Djiwandono, who leads fiscal discussions between Prabowo’s economic team and the outgoing government’s finance ministry, told Reuters that Prabowo had not set any target for debt levels and would adhere to legal limits on fiscal metrics.The rupiah fell as much as 0.9% and bond yields jumped on Friday, partly due to fiscal concerns, after Bloomberg News reported Prabowo wanted to steadily increase Indonesia’s debt-to-GDP ratio to 50% in his five-year term from under 40% now.”We are not talking about debt-to-GDP target at all. This is not a formal policy plan,” said Thomas, the incoming president’s nephew.Prabowo, who will take office in October, said last month that Indonesia should “be more daring” in taking on debt to fund development programmes and hit his 8% economic growth target for Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, but he has also repeatedly pledged to comply with budget deficit limits.”It’s important to note that that is why Prabowo and his formal team talk about fiscal prudence, because it is within those principles,” Thomas said. “Anything about debt levels, or going beyond the deficit is noise.”Ratings agencies and investors have been closely monitoring Prabowo’s fiscal policy, fearing costly programmes he pledged before his landslide victory in February’s election would derail Indonesia’s record of fiscal prudence.Discussions between Prabowo’s team and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati have focussed on increasing revenues, reviewing spending and making budget space for programmes such as providing free meals to children, within legal limits of public finances, Thomas said, adding the 2025 deficit would stay under 3% of GDP.In the aftermath of the 1990s Asian financial crisis, Indonesia mandated the annual budget deficit not to exceed 3% of GDP and capping debt at 60%. This has helped Indonesia build a solid record of fiscal management and won investment grade ratings from agencies.While the debt ratio has risen under the government of President Joko Widodo, particularly after heavy spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Mulyani has been trying to bring this down by reducing annual deficits. Last year’s budget deficit was 1.65% of GDP, the smallest in 12 years. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley said on Friday he is launching a new congressional oversight inquiry into the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing (NYSE:BA) after a January mid-air emergency involving a 737 MAX 9.The probe is the latest in a series of investigations by lawmakers since a door panel blew out during a Jan. 5 flight on a new Alaska Airlines MAX 9, forcing pilots to make an emergency landing while passengers were exposed to a gaping hole 16,000 feet above the ground.Grassley, who first probed Boeing safety actions in the 1990s, said Boeing and the FAA “must explain how this happened and what is being done to ensure that it does not place the lives of Americans at risk again.”He asked the FAA and Boeing to answer a total of 38 questions “requesting records of safety procedures, regulatory requirements, corrective actions (and) whistleblower protections.”An FAA audit found serious issues at Boeing, while the FAA has capped the planemaker’s production of its best-selling 737 MAX.The FAA said it would “respond directly to the senator.” Boeing said it “will continue to be responsive and transparent with Congress.”Outgoing Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will testify before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Tuesday after a series of incidents raised concerns about safety and quality, The committee’s chair, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said earlier this month after two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people, “Boeing made a promise to overhaul its safety practices and culture. That promise proved empty, and the American people deserve an explanation.”Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell said Thursday she could call Calhoun to appear at a future hearing. The top Republican on the panel, Senator Ted Cruz, said he was disappointed Calhoun was not appearing before Commerce, which has jurisdiction over aviation safety.Calhoun has said he will leave by the end of the year as part of a broader management shakeup, as Boeing faces multiple government investigations and pressure from investors and airlines to find a new CEO.During a hearing in April before Blumenthal’s committee, a Boeing engineer testified the company took dangerous manufacturing shortcuts with certain planes and sidelined him when he raised safety concerns, claims the company disputes.Boeing faces an ongoing Justice Department investigation into the door plug blowout. More

Investing.com — Bets on Federal Reserve September rate cut were given a major boost this week following a steeper-than-expected slowdown in inflation last month, but RBC continues to believe that a cut may only come at the end of the year as the reacceleration in inflation seen in Q1 will likely continue to weigh on the Fed’s thinking. 

Earlier the week, the latest reading on consumer price index showed price pressures slowed more than expected in May, but “one data point doesn’t make a trend,” RBC said Thursday. “[W]e continue to think the inflation reacceleration scare earlier this year will be enough to keep the Fed from cutting rates until later in December,” it added

The call for a one hike this year is in-line with the Fed’s latest thinking after the central bank at its June meeting, earlier this week, signaled just one cut, down from a prior estimate of three cuts. 

Others agree and point to the fewer rate cut outlook as a sign that stronger inflation at the start of the year will continue to filter into the Fed’s monetary policy calculus.  

“Chair Powell’s measured tone on inflation, and the ‘less dovish’ new dot plot indicate that the pickup in inflation in Q1 significantly dented the Fed’s confidence in its benign inflation outlook,” MRB Partners said in a recent note.

Remarks from Fed officials following the Fed’s Wednesday announcement continued to carry a sense of cautious against cutting rates too early. 

“”We’re not there yet, but you have to look at the whole group of data and be happy that we’re starting to see inflation move back down again after stalling a bit in the first part of the year,” Cleveland Federal Reserve Loretta Mester said in an interview with CNBC.
Chicago Fed President echoed these remarks, saying “more months like we just saw on inflation” could lead to the Fed cutting rates.  
Fed-funds futures traders now see a 61.4% chance of the first rate cut in September, up from 45% in the prior week, and see a 72% chance of at least two rate cuts by the end of the year, according to Investing.com’s More