Aurelia Butler

Orban said he saw tentative signs of an improvement in inflation trends after data on Wednesday showed price growth eased marginally to an annual 25.4% in February.Hungary’s central bank doubled down on a “very disciplined and tight” monetary policy after the data while its governor called on Orban’s government to help fight inflation, widening the policy rift between the government and the bank.Orban said policy debates with the central bank were “not abnormal” but called for co-ordination with Hungary projected to run the European Union’s highest inflation rate at 16.4% this year.”The co-ordination of monetary and fiscal policies is under way and it will eventually happen, otherwise the horses scatter and the coach rolls into a ditch,” Orban told an economic forum.”Today, the central bank is of the view … that inflation has to be tackled by substantially curbing the money supply,” Orban said. “This is a logical thought if the statement that all inflation is of a monetary nature is true.”Orban said that if inflation eases, as the government expects, policy co-ordination will be easier, however, if inflation stagnates or rises further, it could be more difficult.The central bank left interest rates unchanged last week, as expected, and said it would tighten liquidity conditions further, defying government pressure to cut borrowing costs amid a sharp economic slowdown.On Wednesday it said cutting inflation into single digits by the end of the year from levels above 25% would be a “tough job”, adding that tight monetary policy was also needed to preserve financial stability. More

While there is little in terms of proposed legislation for AI, the fast-growing artificial intelligence program ChatGPT that has drawn praise for its ability to write answers quickly to a wide range of queries has raised U.S. lawmakers’ concerns about its impact on national security and education.The Chamber report argues policymakers and business leaders must quickly ramp up their efforts to establish a “risk-based regulatory framework” that will ensure AI is deployed responsibly. It added that AI is projected to add $13 trillion to global economic growth by 2030 and that it has made important contributions such as easing hospital nursing shortages and mapping wildfires to speed emergency management officials’ response. The report emphasized the need to be ready for the technology’s looming ubiquity and potential dangers.The report asserts that within 20 years, “virtually every” business and government agency will use AI.A product of a commission on artificial intelligence that the Chamber established last year, the report is in part a recognition of the critical role the business community will play in the deployment and management of AI, the Chamber said.Even as it calls for more regulation, the Chamber is careful to caveat that there may be broad exceptions to how regulation is applied.”Rather than trying to develop a one size-fits-all regulatory framework, this approach to AI regulation allows for the development of flexible, industry-specific guidance and best practices,” the report says. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – Workers from Japan’s largest group of trade unions have struck early agreements for hefty wage hikes with employers as cost of living pressures grow and businesses scramble to secure staff amid a labour crunch, union leaders said on Thursday.Eighteen unions grouped under the umbrella of UA Zensen, representing 240,000 workers in the service, textiles and distribution sectors, announced early pay settlements in the closely-watched annual wage talks known as “shunto”.The 18 unions have agreed in full with their employers for average wage hikes of 5.28%, union officials told a news conference.Though less than the 6% demanded by UA Zensen, the wage rise exceeds consumer inflation, which is running at a 41-year high of 4.2%, and was well above the 2.85% expected by economists polled by the Japan Economic Research Center (JERC), a private sector think-tank.Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is pressuring companies to raise wages by 3% or more to beat rising living costs. The Bank of Japan also wants to see wage hikes strong enough to achieve sustainable demand-driven inflation.The wage agreements with UA Zensen come almost a week before the March 15 announcements of shunto wage settlements from Japan’s largest employers. Kishida’s government has scheduled a joint meeting with unions and management for that day.It was the first time that UA Zensen had reached an early pay settlement with employers.Some other labour groups, including automaker unions, have already announced that their demands for higher pay have been met.Toyota, the world’s No. 1 automaker, announced it would accept a union demand for the biggest base pay hike in 20 years, though it did not give details.Honda had agreed to union demands for a 5% pay rise, with the average monthly base salary gain of 12,500 yen, the biggest jump in more than 30 years.Masaru Furukawa, general secretary of UA Zensen, hailed the early pay deal as “a big message towards the social issue of wage hikes.”But he went on to warn that “as price hikes continue, we must achieve a virtuous cycle of wage growth and prices to defeat deflation and protect unionists’ livelihood.”The deal enabled supermarket chains like Aeon, Daiei and MaxValu to announce early pay settlements.It remains to be seen whether the wave of wage hikes at big firms spreads through to small firms who often struggle to pass on rising costs to their bigger clients.Wage growth has been stagnant since the 1990s, and resulted in the world’s No. 3 economy sliding into nearly two decades of grinding deflation.There was barely any hike in base pay in the decade before Japan’s late prime minister Shinzo Abe came to power, pledging to reflate the economy and prevent a return to deflation. More

The government says allowing workers to accrue more overtime hours in return for time off later will mean people who want to take longer breaks – such as parents or caregivers – will be able to do so.“We’ll introduce bold measures to help cut working hours during pregnancy or while raising children,” the minister, Lee Jung-sik, told a media briefing when asked whether the labour reform proposal will help tackle South Korea’s fertility crisis.Critics of the measure, however, have said that the measures will hurt, not help, working mothers and other women.”While men will work long hours and be exempt from care responsibilities and rights, women will have to do all the care work,” the Korean Women’s Associations United said in a recent statement.South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world — 0.78 in 2022. President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday ordered “bold measures” to tackle the country’s fertility rate.The ministry said the labour reform proposal, first unveiled in December and officially announced on Monday, is part of efforts to bring more labour flexibility and improve work-life balance in a country where many women are forced to choose between their career and raising children. It would supersede a 2018 law that limited the work week to 52 hours – 40 hours of regular work plus 12 hours of overtime. The Ministry of Employment and Labor said the law had made the labour market more rigid. While the move has been welcomed by business interest groups, it has been criticized by the opposition and unions as neglecting workers’ rights.”It will make it legal to work from 9 a.m. to midnight for five days in a row. There is no regard for workers’ health and rest,” the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions said in a statement. Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party with a parliamentary majority, said on Wednesday that his party would block the bill. More