Aurelia Butler

By Kanishka SinghWASHINGTON (Reuters) -Over $200 billion from the U.S. government’s COVID-19 relief programs were potentially stolen, a federal watchdog said on Tuesday, adding that the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) had weakened its controls in a rush to disburse the funds.At least 17% of all funds related to the government’s coronavirus Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) schemes were disbursed to potentially fraudulent actors, according to a report released Tuesday by the SBA’s office of inspector general.Over the course of the pandemic, the SBA disbursed about $1.2 trillion of EIDL and PPP funds. The SBA disputed the more than $200 billion figure put forward by the watchdog and said the inspector general’s approach had significantly overestimated fraud. The agency said its experts put the potential fraud estimate at $36 billion and added that over 86% of that likely fraud took place in 2020, when the administration for former President Donald Trump was in office. President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.The fraud estimate put forward by the inspector general for the EIDL program stood at more than $136 billion while the PPP fraud estimate was $64 billion.The United States is probing many fraud cases pegged to U.S. government assistance programs. In May 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland launched a COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force.Last year, the U.S. Justice Department tapped federal prosecutor Kevin Chambers to lead its efforts to investigate alleged fraud schemes intending to bilk government pandemic assistance programs.In September 2022, the inspector general for the U.S. Labor Department said fraudsters likely stole $45.6 billion from the United States’ unemployment insurance program during the coronavirus outbreak by applying tactics like using Social Security numbers of deceased individuals.Also in September, federal prosecutors charged dozens of defendants, who were accused of stealing $250 million from a government aid program that was supposed to feed children in need during the pandemic.Earlier this year, a separate watchdog report said the U.S. government likely awarded about $5.4 billion in COVID-19 aid to people with questionable Social Security numbers. More

LONDON (Reuters) – One in seven people in the United Kingdom faced hunger last year because they did not have enough money, according to a report published on Wednesday by food bank charity the Trussell Trust.It said this equates to 11.3 million people, more than double the population of Scotland, and blamed a dysfunctional social security system, as well as a cost of living crisis that is showing little sign of easing.Britain is the world’s sixth-biggest economy but its citizens have been pressured for more than a year by high inflation which has outstripped pay growth for almost all workers.Government forecasters estimate UK households are in the midst of the biggest two-year squeeze in living standards since comparable records started in the 1950s.The Trussell Trust’s network of 1,300 food bank centres across the UK provided a record 3 million food parcels in the year to March, up 37% and more than double the amount provided five years ago.”This consistent upward trajectory exposes that it is weaknesses in the social security system that are driving food bank need, rather than just the pandemic or cost of living crisis,” it said.The charity said that 7% of the UK population was supported by charitable food support, including food banks, yet 71% of people facing hunger had not yet accessed any form of charitable food support.It also noted that one in five people forced to turn to food banks in its network are in a working household and called on the UK government to ensure the benefits system covers essential costs.“We know people are struggling, which is why we’re providing record financial support worth an average 3,300 pounds ($4,206) per household,” said a spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions in response to the report.The government has also raised benefits and the state pension in line with inflation, increased the minimum wage and supported families with food, energy and other essential costs, said the spokesperson.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s key economic pledge to halve overall inflation in 2023 before a probable 2024 election has been undermined by persistently high food inflation, outpacing the broader inflation rate across the whole economy and adding strain to household budgets already stretched by higher taxes and mortgage rates.Food and drink inflation was running at 18.3% in May according to the most recent official data, and 14.6% in June according to the most recent industry data.On Tuesday, British supermarket executives rejected allegations they were profiteering at the expense of consumers through the cost of living crisis. Soaring food prices have contributed to the biggest squeeze on living standards in Britain since records began in the 1950s, and prompted questions about who is responsible. Trade unions and politicians have accused the supermarkets of “greedflation”, saying they’ve been too slow in passing on lower producer prices to consumers.($1 = 0.7846 pounds) More

Islamabad has been waiting for a deal after taking policy and fiscal tightening decisions required by the IMF for the disbursal of $1.1 billion under the lender’s ninth review of a $6.5-billion Extended Fund Facility agreed in 2019. Pakistan’s finance minister Ishaq Dar added in an interview on Tuesday evening that the government was searching for a mechanism to receive all pending funds under the IMF programme, which would amount to $2.6 billion.The IMF’s mission chief for Pakistan said in a statement that Pakistani authorities had taken “decisive measures” to bring policies in line with the economic reform programme supported by IMF, including changes to its annual budget, steps to improve the currency, and tightening monetary policy. “The IMF team continues discussions with Pakistani authorities with the aim of quickly reaching an agreement on financial support from the IMF,” mission chief Nathan Porter said. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said earlier in the day that he hoped consensus over the IMF programme’s points “will lead to a decision in a day or two”.The statement from the prime minister’s office added that Sharif spoke to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva about the country’s bailout funds, stalled since November. The two had also met in Paris on June 22.With the bailout programme set to expire on June 30, Pakistan has also revised its budget for the financial year starting on July 1, and hiked policy rates to 22% in its desperation to clinch the deal, key to unlocking other external financing for the cash-strapped nation. Dar said that the IMF had demanded that the key policy rate be raised to 22% and that the review “will be done.”The IMF funds subject to approval by its board promise respite for Pakistan, which is battling its worst economic meltdown, with an acute balance of payments crisis and falling reserves of foreign exchange. More

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s budget surplus for 2022/23 will be bigger than the A$4.2 billion ($2.81 billion) projected in the May budget but high inflation and global challenges will “significantly slow” the domestic economy, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Wednesday.Strong jobs growth and bumper mining profits will swell government coffers, similar to the forecast during the federal budget, while spending curbs and A$40 billion in savings have also boosted the budget bottom line.”I can reveal that we’re expecting the surplus will be bigger than forecast in May,” Chalmers said in a speech to the Property Council of Australia. “In fact, we’re in a significantly better position than we forecast.”Australia’s Labor government in May boasted the first budget surplus in 15 years for the year to June 2023, a huge turnaround from the A$37 billion shortfall forecast last October.But Chalmers said the increases in interest rates by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which now sit at an 11-year high, and warnings more tightening may be required to push inflation to target will put the brakes on economy.”The 400-basis point increase in rates since before the election last year, is the most significant tightening cycle the RBA has undertaken since the inflation targeting era began,” the treasurer said. “And this, along with global challenges, will significantly slow our economy.”The Australian economy could dip to 1.5% in 2023/24 from 3.25% this fiscal year, he said.Ahead of the May inflation data due to be released later on Wednesday, Chalmers said high inflation remained the biggest challenge for the economy although he hoped it could return to RBA’s target of 2-3% in 2024/25 from about 7% now. “We expect (inflation) to stay higher than we’d like, for longer than we’d like, but still tracking in the right direction,” Chalmers said. ($1 = 1.4963 Australian dollars) More

Last week, the country’s central bank maintained its benchmark interest rate at 13.75% for the seventh consecutive time, but took a more dovish tone on its future steps in a statement by excluding the possibility of upcoming rate hikes.However, in its minutes published earlier on Tuesday, the bank said that a majority of its policymakers see a possibility of a “parsimonious” rate cut at its next meeting in August, provided that a more benign inflation scenario consolidates.According to Tebet, this would be the fourth time that the minutes soften the statement with a milder tone. More

Biden delivered his remarks on Tuesday at a private fundraiser in Chevy Chase, Maryland.He will deliver a speech on Wednesday in Chicago on “Bidenomics,” a catch-all term his aides use to describe his economic vision, as the president ramps up political events and travel two months after launching his re-election campaign. More

“We are closely watching currency moves with a strong sense of urgency,” Kanda told reporters. “We will respond appropriately if it becomes excessive.”He stopped short of strengthening the warning from a similar one issued by the finance minister on Tuesday, in a sign there may still be some time before any intervention to stem the yen’s weakening.Kanda was speaking to reporters after the yen slumped to a fresh seven-month trough versus the dollar overnight.The Japanese currency fell 0.36% versus the greenback to as low as 144.02, its weakest since Nov. 10, as investors eyed a possible intervention by Japanese authorities.Japan last conducted its rare yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention in September and October. Investors are eyeing a 145-yen threshold for intervention, a level around which the government stepped into the market in September. More