Aurelia Butler

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Governor Kathy Hochul said on Thursday the Biden administration is seeking changes in a long-planned congestion pricing plan for New York City that could further delay implementation of a system designed to reduce traffic in Manhattan and provide funding to improve mass transit.In March 2021, the U.S. Transportation Department’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) said the plan to use tolls to manage traffic in central Manhattan would face an expedited environmental review, after the Trump administration did not act on it.”We submitted our plans on time to Washington in February, and by March, the federal government came back with over 400 questions and areas they want us to make adjustments,” the New York governor said Thursday. “It’s probably not going to happen right now because we cannot get the necessary approvals from the federal government.”New York wants to charge a daily variable toll for vehicles entering or remaining within the “Central Business District,” an area stretching from 60th Street in Midtown Manhattan down to Battery Park, Manhattan’s southern tip.The FHWA’s deputy administrator, Stephanie Pollack, told reporters Thursday the agency was working to resolve questions.”We gave our comments to them months ago. We pretty much have gotten a path forward or a resolution on almost every single one of them,” Pollack said, saying the agency will work “to get this done by whatever time it’s important” to the state, city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which operates New York City’s subway system and buses, as well as its two commuter rail lines.The plan was first approved by state lawmakers in April 2019 and initially project to start in January 2021.”We need more people taking the subways, the trains, mass transit into the city, and we need more people leaving their cars home,” Hochul said Thursday. “I am committed to getting it done.”The MTA would receive 80% of the congestion fees after costs of operating the program to be used to improve the city’s subways and buses, with 10% each going to the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad commuter train lines.According to the MTA, the system would help speed traffic flows and reduce pollution, in addition to raising money for mass transit.New York would become the first major U.S. city to follow London, which began levying a congestion charge on vehicles driving into the city center in 2003. Officials have said the estimated $1 billion in annual tolls would support $15 billion in new debt financing over four years to support mass transit.Hochul said at a gubernatorial debate Tuesday that the federal government put “hurdles in the way” and “this is going to happen over the next year under any circumstances, but now is not the right time.”The U.S. Transportation deputy secretary, Polly Trottenberg, said Thursday the department was working with New York: “We are very committed to helping them get through the process.” More

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s wholesale prices rose 9.1% in May from a year earlier, slowing from the previous month’s increase as the recent spike in fuel costs moderated, data showed on Friday.But the yen-based import prices spiked 43.3% in May from a year earlier, accelerating from the previous month’s 42.2% gain, in a sign the yen’s recent declines were pushing up already rising raw material costs.The increase in the corporate goods price index (CGPI), which measures the price of goods companies charge each other, was smaller than a median market forecast for a 9.8% gain.It followed a 9.8% increase in April, Bank of Japan data showed.Global commodity inflation driven by the war in Ukraine and the yen’s falls to two-decade lows have pushed up wholesale prices in Japan, squeezing profits for retailers.Companies are gradually passing on the higher costs to households. Core consumer prices rose 2.1% in April from a year earlier, much slower than the pace of increase in Western economies but exceeding the BOJ’s 2% target for the first time in seven years. More

A measure of permanent staff hiring by accountants KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) fell for a sixth month to 59.2 from 59.8 in April, but remained well above the 50 threshold for growth.The survey’s gauge of temporary staff hiring in May also fell to its lowest since early last year.The Bank of England has expressed concern that the surge in demand for staff could create longer-term inflation pressure after prices recently leapt on the reopening of the global economy followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The BoE is widely expected to increase interest rates for the fifth time since December on June 16.Neil Carberry, REC chief executive, said the number of vacancies remained high although there was another slight decrease in the growth rate for salaries and temporary pay.”The market for temporary work is stabilising faster than for permanent staff, which could suggest a little caution creeping into employers’ thinking in the face of high inflation,” he said.The loss of about half a million people from the jobs market from before the coronavirus pandemic represented a major strategic issue for Britain, he said. More

BENGALURU (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Reserve will hike its key interest rate by 50 basis points in June and July, with rising chances of a similar move in September, according to a Reuters poll of economists who see no pause in rate rises until next year.Faced with inflation running at just below a four-decade high and more tightening in the labor market, the Fed is under pressure to quickly take its policy rate to the neutral level that neither stimulates nor restricts – and beyond.All 85 economists in a June 6-9 Reuters poll predicted a 50 basis point federal funds rate hike to 1.25%-1.50% on Wednesday, after a similar move last month. Another such hike was penciled in for July by all but a handful of survey contributors.While more than two-thirds of respondents, 59 of 85, expected a 25 basis point hike in September, more than one-quarter, 23, saw the Fed hiking again by half a point. That is up from one-fifth of the sample last month.”The bad news for the Fed is that inflation is now so far above target that it has little choice but to tighten aggressively,” said Ethan Harris, global economist at Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Securities. The median of 43 responses to an additional question showed a 50% probability of a 50 basis point hike in September. The median probability for a similar move in November and December was 30% and 25%, respectively.Nearly 60% respondents to an additional question, 24 of 41, said the Fed would pause raising rates in either the first or second quarter of next year. Nine said the second half or beyond, while the rest said sometime this year.Still, analysts saw the fed funds rate breaching the estimated 2.4% neutral level by year-end to 2.50-2.75%, slightly below market expectations of 2.75%-3.00%.The poll expects it to reach a terminal level of 3.00%-3.25% or higher by end-Q2 2023, three months earlier than a poll taken just a few weeks ago.That would be at least 75 basis points above the neutral rate and above the 2.25%-2.50% peak in the last cycle. Rate hike expectations knocked the U.S. stock market briefly into bear territory last month and the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield to trade above 3% for the first time in three years. They have also kept alive recession risks.The survey showed a steady median 40% probability of a U.S. recession over the next two years, with a 25% chance of that happening in the coming year.Economic growth was forecast at 2.6% and 2.0% for 2022 and 2023, respectively, a minor downgrade from last month’s survey.However, price pressures were predicted to persist as supply chain disruptions continue to push up costs globally. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation was forecast to average 7.4% this year and remain above the Fed’s 2% target until 2024 at least.Despite those worries, the U.S. labor market, which the Fed also targets, showed little signs of worsening anytime soon.The jobless rate was predicted to average at the current level of 3.6% this year and the next, before mildly picking up to 3.8% in 2024.”The bottom line is that for now, there is little conflict between the Fed’s two mandates … But the Fed’s job could get a lot more difficult next year if inflation remains ‘sticky-high’ and the unemployment rate rises above 4%,” added BofA’s Harris. (For other stories from the Reuters global economic poll:) More

Prices rose more slowly in May than in the two prior months, but annual inflation still reached 8.09%, its highest level in 24 years. In its current monetary policy tightening cycle, Peru’s central bank has raised the key interest rate 525 basis points since mid-2021. Thursday’s decision follows rate hikes this week in Brazil, Chile and Mexico, as authorities respond to inflation that is not falling as quickly as expected. In a statement, the bank repeated guidance from last month that it expects annual inflation to begin to fall in July.”Most leading indicators and expectations about the economy remain pessimistic, but they have recovered in May,” the bank said. More

“I don’t think we’re (going to) have a recession. Consumer spending is very strong. Investment spending is solid,” she told a New York Times Dealbook event.”I know people are very upset and rightly so about inflation, but there’s nothing to suggest that a … recession is in the works.”Yellen, who last week conceded she had been wrong about predicting inflation would be transitory, told the event she would not change U.S. policy decisions if she could go back in time.”I wouldn’t do it differently,” Yellen said, saying President Joe Biden’s signature $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan was needed to prevent a generation of Americans suffering from high unemployment rates.”Things can always happen that you don’t expect. The world’s very uncertain,” she said.Combating inflation was President Joe Biden’s top priority, Yellen said, adding she did not expect gasoline prices, which just reached $5 a gallon, to come down anytime soon.She said American households were clearly concerned about surging pump prices, which played a key role in shaping consumer expectations, but it was “amazing” how pessimistic Americans were about the economy given the fact that the United States now had the strongest labor market since World War Two.Biden had done “what he can do” to address high gasoline prices by directing an historic drawdown from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Yellen said. She added that U.S. officials would also keep tightening sanctions aiming at punishing Russia and getting it to stop the war in Ukraine.As the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy to contain demand and bring inflation down, Yellen said she saw a path to a soft landing that would avoid a recession. More