Aurelia Butler

Lula has criticized some of the European Union’s requests for the deal, including an addendum attaching sustainability and climate change commitments and introducing penalties for nations failing to comply with climate goals.”We don’t want impositions on the Mercosur,” Lula said in a live broadcast on social media. “It’s a deal of strategic partners, so one cannot threaten the other. Let’s sit down and work out our differences.”The European Commission and the South American bloc struck the deal in 2019 after lengthy negotiations, but it was then put on hold largely due to European concerns over Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) deforestation.Leaders of the Mercosur gather for a summit in Argentina on Tuesday, with Brazil set to take the group’s temporary presidency for the next six months.The Brazilian leader said he would work for the deal to be completed in that period, despite calling some of the European Union’s demands “unacceptable”.In addition to fearing environmental sanctions, Lula has also been a vocal critic of a procurement clause allowing European companies to sell to Brazil’s public sector, which he says could “kill” some Brazilian companies.Lula recently met with French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to discuss the deal.Von der Leyen visited Latin America in June and said she hoped the deal would be finalized by the end of the year at the latest.”The European Union made a proposal, we sent a response, then they sent a letter imposing some conditions that we don’t accept,” Lula said. “We are now preparing a response letter saying what we want so the agreement can be consolidated.” More

“Increased interest rates must also be passed on to savers,” Hunt said on Twitter. “@TheFCA (The Financial Conduct Authority) has my full backing to ensure banks are passing on better rates as they should be.”Britain’s main banks meet with the FCA on Thursday to discuss how they are passing on rate increases to savers, a person familiar with the meeting said on Tuesday.Parliament’s Treasury Select Committee on Monday said it had written to Britain’s “Big Four” banks – Barclays (LON:BARC), HSBC, Lloyds (LON:LLOY) and NatWest – asking if they believed their savings rates provided “fair value” and if customer inertia, or reluctance to change accounts, was being exploited.The FCA was already due to report by the end of July to the committee on how well banks are supporting savers.Separately, banks have agreed with Hunt to a “charter” on helping people struggling to pay their mortgages as a cost-of-living crisis hits Britain.Thursday’s meeting is not expected to lead to a “charter” on passing through rate hikes to savers, the person said. More

LONDON (Reuters) – The world’s major central banks delivered in June the biggest number of monthly interest rate hikes year-to-date, surprising markets and flagging more tightening ahead as policy makers grapple to get the upper hand in their battle against inflation. Seven of the nine central banks overseeing the 10 most heavily traded currencies that met in June hiked rates, while two opted for no change, Reuters data showed. Both Norway and the Bank of England surprised markets last month with a larger-than-expected 50 basis points move, while Canada and Australia resumed their rate hiking cycles. Sweden, Switzerland and the European Central Bank also tightened policy, taking the total monthly tally of hikes to 225 basis points last month. May had seen six rate hikes across six meetings. “While some central banks are seeing initial progress toward lower inflation, central bankers overall continue to face a tough balancing act,” said Tiffany Wilding, economist at PIMCO.”Without fiscal policy ready to save the day, we see a more uncertain growth environment with downside risks building over the cyclical horizon.”The latest G10 moves bring the total 2023 rate hike tally among G10 central banks to 950 bps across 28 hikes. Looking at moves since Norway kicked off the rate hiking cycle in September 2021, major central banks have hiked interest rates so far by 3,765 bps. While the U.S. Federal Reserve’s pause at its June meeting did not come as a surprise, the hawkish outlook from the world’s top central bank sent tremors through markets. “We believe central banks have more work to do,” said Vanguard analysts in their mid-year outlook. “The last leg of inflation reduction to central bank targets may be the most challenging, in our view.”Across emerging markets there was more evidence that the tightening cycle was running out of steam. Thirteen out of 18 central banks in the Reuters sample of developing economies had interest rate setting meetings last month. However, 11 central banks opted to keep policy unchanged. Having been a stark outlier in the emerging market tightening cycle that kicked off in spring 2021, Turkey’s central bank under new governor Hafize Gaye Erkan played catch up with a 650 bps rate hike, signalling a return to more orthodox policy making. This was the second biggest rate hike in recent times since Russia was forced to deliver an emergency 1,050 bps rate hike following its invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, China’s central bank eased interest rates by 10 bps. The total rate hike tally for the year across emerging markets is 1,375 bps through 22 hikes – less than a fifth of the 7,425 bps of tightening delivered in 2022. The total amount of cuts is 60 bps across two moves. More