Aurelia Butler

Yi made the comments via videolink during the meeting of G20 finance leaders in Indonesia, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on Saturday.On Friday, China reported that growth slowed sharply in the second quarter, increasing just 0.4% on the year, lagging expectations, as the world’s second-largest economy was hobbled by widespread lockdowns to extinguish outbreaks of COVID-19.While June data showed signs of improvement, analysts do not expect a rapid recovery as China sticks to its tough zero-COVID policy, the country’s property market is in a deep slump and the global outlook is darkening.During the G20 finance meetings in Bali, Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun said by videolink that China will donate $50 million to a new pandemic prevention and response fund being set up by the World Bank. More

The central bank last month raised its policy rate for the first time in 15 years and Chairman Thomas Jordan said soon afterwards that ongoing inflationary pressure meant further tightening would likely be needed.Data published last week showed Swiss inflation hit a 29-year high of 3.4% in June, more than economists had expected and the first time it has surpassed 3% since 2008. It is the fifth month in a row that inflation has been above the SNB’s target range of 0-2%.Newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende said the central bank was planning a rate hike of 50 basis points to 0.25% from -0.25% at its next scheduled monetary policy announcement on Sept. 22, though the situation could yet change between now and then. It cited one or more unidentified people involved in the matter.If inflation were to rise further, a rate hike of 75 basis points is possible, it added.Some analysts have said the SNB could raise rates before Sept. 22, closer to the European Central Bank’s planned rate increase at a Governing Council meeting on Thursday.The SNB was not immediately available for comment. More

Yellen said her bilateral meetings and the overall G20 sessions in Indonesia focused on the human and economic cost of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the United States and other countries “unequivocal in condemning their (Russia’s) shameful actions.”Russia says it is engaged in a “special military operation” in Ukraine. The U.S. Treasury Department said Yellen met finance leaders from Saudi Arabia, Australia, South Africa, Turkey, and Singapore. She also had dinner with Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, a Treasury official said. “On energy costs, I had productive bilateral meetings with over a half-dozen of my counterparts where we discussed the merits of a price cap and how it can help us achieve our goals of denying (Russian President Vladimir) Putin revenue for his war machine, while dampening energy costs,” Yellen told reporters outside the meeting venue.She said a price cap was one of “our most powerful tools to address the high prices people are facing in America and around the world.”Yellen said she also underscored the importance of taking action at the G20 to address the global food security crisis.Yellen met Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers, South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong of Singapore and Turkish Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati, the Treasury said.Russia’s says its action in Ukraine are intended to root out what it regards as dangerous nationalists and demilitarise its neighbour. Ukraine and its Western allies say that is a baseless pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression. More

NUSA DUA, Indonesia (Reuters) -The United States will look for every opportunity to move ahead and enact a global minimum corporate tax agreement despite the opposition of a key Democratic senator, Joe Manchin, to raising corporate taxes, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.Yellen told reporters on Saturday that finance officials from the Group of 20 major economies reached strong consensus about many issues, including the need to address a worsening food security crisis, despite differences over Russia’s war in Ukraine that prevented the leaders from issuing a joint statement.Manchin, who holds the pivotal vote in the evenly divided Senate, this week said he would not support a Democratic proposal for new climate change spending and higher taxes for corporations and wealthier Americans.His opposition could imperil passage of legislation that would commit the United States to a 15% global minimum corporate tax, a key part of an agreement that Yellen helped negotiate with nearly 140 countries last year.”We are very committed to moving ahead with this. This is a truly important global initiative,” she said on the second day of a two-day G20 meeting in Bali. “I can tell you that we will continue to look for every possible opportunity that we have to move this forward.”She said the United States had a strong incentive to move forward because as other countries enacted the tax agreement, they would be taxing the foreign profits of U.S. companies, while the United States would be leaving “that tax revenue on the table rather than capturing it ourselves.”Yellen said it was important that Manchin did signal support for legislation to reduce prescription drug prices for seniors and extending subsidies that help keep health insurance costs lower.On his opposition to climate change provisions, Yellen said Treasury would support U.S. President Joe Biden’s plans to use executive action, and would continue initiatives under the Financial Stability Oversight Council to evaluate the risks posed by climate change to financial institutions.She also addressed the recent strong appreciation of the U.S. dollar and said it was due to strong economic growth, moves by the Fed to raise interest rates, and capital inflows.”The U.S. position is that we believe in market-determined exchange rates” and it is very rarely appropriate to intervene, Yellen said, adding “I do not see this as one of these occasions.” More

Georgieva, speaking at a G20 finance officials meeting in Indonesia, said Russia’s intensifying war in Ukraine had increased pressure on commodity and energy prices, and global financial conditions were tightening more than expected.At the same time, pandemic-related disruptions and renewed supply chain bottlenecks continued to weigh on economic activity.Pressure was mounting on heavily-indebted countries, and the debt situation was “deteriorating fast,” she said, according to a text of her remarks. More