Aurelia Butler

Brazil’s lower house approved the measure, which amends the constitution to bypass the country’s spending cap and boost social benefits. It now must be formally enacted by both houses in a joint session of Congress.The package includes a 1,000 reais ($185) payout for self-employed truckers, benefits for taxi drivers, and 50% increases in social welfare payments.The bill has caused alarm among investors, who say it shows a lack of fiscal discipline by the government. The government argues that it needs to act urgently to help Brazilians hurt by high inflation.But the new legislation is likely to further fan inflation now at around 12% and may result in fresh monetary tightening, analysts told Reuters. The dollar has already gained 13.95% against the real since the beginning of June.Bolsonaro trails leftist former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in opinion polls ahead of the October vote. The popularity of the far-right former army captain has been hurt by the high inflation, a weak economy, and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. More

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Railroads and importers must remove cargo that is stacking up at the nation’s busiest seaport in Los Angeles to avoid exacerbating supply chain congestion, the port chief said on Wednesday.”We must take action on this issue immediately to avoid a nationwide logjam,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said on a media call. Rail service disruptions are slowing U.S. cargo flows and helping to stoke inflation, which is at a 40-year high.Resulting backlogs at the Port of Los Angeles threaten to undo progress workers have made clearing docks after pandemic-fueled imports inundated the property and left more than 100 ships queueing offshore. More than 29,000 rail containers are sitting on Southern California port docks. That number should not be more than 9,000, Seroka said.He called on importers to expedite container pickups and on railroads to send crews, locomotives and rail cars to the port to evacuate the goods. Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) and Berkshire Hathaway-owned BNSF serve the Port of Los Angeles. They and other major U.S. railroads slashed jobs and mothballed equipment before the pandemic upended the nation’s transportation systems. Contract negotiations between those railroads and unions representing 115,000 of their workers have deadlocked after more than two years. Both sides in the talks expect President Joe Biden to appoint a panel to recommend terms for a deal. The railroads’ cost-cutting moves stoked profits but “there wasn’t any buffer” for demand shocks and service disruptions caused by home-bound shoppers’ binge on exercise equipment, furniture, appliances and other goods, Stifel analyst Ben Nolan said.Shipping containers clogged railroad connections in Chicago and other points in the Midwest before rippling out to other parts of the country. Union Pacific and BNSF say they are working to address labor and equipment shortages. They said their operations are dependent on prompt cargo pickups and quick equipment returns. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – Four out of five large Japanese firms are passing on higher commodity costs to customers or intend to do so, a Reuters poll found, a sharp rise from the previous survey six months ago as surging input prices and a weak yen drive up import costs.Almost three quarters of firms polled also intend to lift prices of their main goods and services in the latter half of this year, illustrating a shift away from a cautious, deflationary price-setting mindset.For years, Japanese firms have cut or kept prices steady, fearing that raising prices could scare away consumers accustomed to cheaper goods and services, in turn sending prices and wages into a downward spiral.The Corporate Survey found 21% of big Japanese firms are passing costs to clients while 57% plan to transfer costs eventually. About one in five have not been able to do so.That marked a sharp increase from the previous survey taken at the start of this year, in which 43% of big firms planned to transfer costs and 36% were not able to do so.The poll highlighted the corporate response to cost-push, rather than demand-pull, inflation that has accelerated since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, prompting firms to lift prices of items as varied as food, fuel and cosmetics. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation”.While the cost-push inflation is seen unsustainable without substantial wage hikes, many firms said they have no choice but to raise prices to make ends meet as input costs surge.”We are passing on costs little by little. What’s worrying is that we may not be able to transfer costs if demand drops,” a chemicals maker manager wrote in the survey on condition of anonymity.”We have transferred much of the costs of raw materials price hikes from the past but we still need to pass on further costs wrought by the weak yen and surging fuel prices,” wrote a wholesaler manager.”Consumers are living in a severe situation and they cannot afford to accept price hikes. We are facing their stiff resistance even though our earnings will worsen a lot without raising the prices of goods,” wrote a food company manager.The monthly poll conducted for Reuters by Nikkei Research canvassed about 500 large non-financial Japanese firms from June 29 through July 8, of which roughly half responded.POST KURODAIn a sign that tame wages are unlikely to offset price hikes, 41% of firms saw employees’ overall wages grow 1% to 3% this fiscal year and one third saw them flat, the survey showed.Fewer than one of five firms plan to raise overall pay by 3% to 5% or more, dashing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s hope for profitable firms to raise workers’ salaries by more than 3%.Likely reflecting accelerating inflation, 58% of firms said the central bank should maintain its 2% price stability goal, while 18% saw no need for any inflation target.Asked who should succeed Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda whose term ends on April 8, companies’ views were split on three potential candidates, the survey showed.Whoever replaces Kuroda will be hand-picked by Kishida and presented to both houses of parliament for approval by April.Former BOJ Deputy Governor Hiroshi Nakaso and Masatsugu Asakawa, former vice finance minister for international affairs, led the choices, each picked by 18% of firms. Deputy BOJ Governor Masayoshi Amamiya followed with 16%.Some 10% wanted Kuroda, 77, to stay. A manager at a real estate firm wrote: “We want monetary easing to continue.” More

LONDON (Reuters) – British house prices rose at their slowest pace in more than a year last month as buyer demand softened slightly although the overall breadth of price increases remained well above pre-pandemic levels, a survey showed on Thursday.The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) monthly house price balance – measuring the difference between the percentage of surveyors reporting price rises and those seeing a fall – fell to +65 in June from a downwardly revised +72 in May.This was the index’s lowest reading since March 2021, and lower than forecast in a Reuters poll of economists, but still well above the series’ long-run average of +13.”Pricing across much of the housing market remains resilient for now with a shortage of stock continuing to be a feature highlighted by many respondents to the survey,” RICS chief economist Simon Rubinsohn said.Britain’s housing market, like that in many other rich nations, boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic as people sought more space to work and socialise at home. Official figures for April showed house prices were 22% higher than in February 2020.However, analysts are looking at the extent to which a 40-year high in consumer price inflation and rapidly rising Bank of England interest rates will cool the market.Last month mortgage lender Nationwide said there were “tentative signs of a slowdown”, although its rival Halifax reported a 13.0% annual rise in prices for June, the largest since 2004.RICS said the balance of its members expecting house prices to rise over the next 12 months fell to +37 from +78 in February. Upward pressure on rent, however, was growing.”A lack of social housing development allied to more onerous changes in the private lettings market is … leaving the rent expectations metric pointing to further strong growth in the midst of the worsening cost of living crisis,” Rubinsohn said. More