Aurelia Butler

LONDON (Reuters) – Growing food shortages may represent the same health threat to the world as the COVID-19 pandemic, a leading global health figure has warned. Rising food and energy prices, in part sparked by the war in Ukraine, could kill millions both directly and indirectly, Peter Sands, the executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. “Food shortages work in two ways. One is you have the tragedy of people actually starving to death. But second is you have the fact that often much larger numbers of people are poorly nourished, and that makes them more vulnerable to existing diseases,” he said. He said efforts to improve pandemic preparedness should not make the “classic” mistake of concerning themselves only with crises that resemble the most recent threat the world has faced. “It’s not as well-defined as some brand new pathogen appearing with distinctive new symptoms. But it could well be just as deadly,” he said. The World Health Organization estimates that 15 million people may have died as a result of COVID-19.Sands said investment was needed to strengthen health systems to help prepare for the repercussions of food shortages, which is part of the Global Fund’s remit. The Geneva, Switzerland-based fund is aiming to raise $18 billion to boost health systems, fight the three core diseases in its title, and reverse setbacks caused by the pandemic. It has raised just over a third of its target for 2024-2026. More

(Reuters) – The Russian central bank said on Tuesday Russian residents and non-residents from “friendly” states will be able to channel foreign currency abroad equivalent to up to $150,000 a month, up from the previous limit of $50,000. All the non-residents are still be able to send foreign currency abroad to the value of their salaries, the bank said. More

Yellen said economic research showed that events in childhood – such as school shootings – could have a lifelong impact on the psychological well-being and labor market participation of those involved.”Of course it has a negative impact on these individuals and our economy,” Yellen said, when asked about the issue by Senator Robert Menendez during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the Treasury Department’s budget request for fiscal year 2023.Menendez cited new research by Northwestern (NASDAQ:NWE) University that found students who were survivors of gun violence at school were less likely to graduate from high school and less likely to attend or graduate from college.”I am also horrified by the gun violence we’ve seen in recent weeks and over many years,” Yellen said. “And I do hope that Congress will take long overdue action and put in place common sense measures to reduce gun violence.Yellen said she was no expert, but was aware of a large amount of literature in economics which documented that events in early life could have a lifelong impact on individuals and their psychological well-being. More

Good inventory management is the same as brushing your teeth. It is boring, but if you do not do it properly the consequences are dire. For US retailers such as Target, excess inventories have become a multibillion dollar headache. They scrambled to keep shelves stocked during the pandemic. Some even chartered their own cargo ships to bypass supply chain bottlenecks. They now find themselves stuck with a glut of goods they cannot sell. Target, until recently considered one of the best-run retailers in America, slashed its outlook on margin on Tuesday. Galloping energy and food price inflation is prompting consumers to divert spending to essentials such as groceries. They are buying less clothing and home furnishings. To clear the surplus stock, Target said it would need to ratchet up markdowns. Spending on additional storage will also drive up costs.Target now expects second-quarter operating margin to come in at about 2 per cent — compared with the 5.3 per cent it forecast just three weeks ago. The one-third drop in Target’s share price this year reflects justifiable disappointment at the reversal.Problems for some retailers create opportunities for others. Dollar stores should benefit as cash-strapped shoppers trade down. Off-price retailers that buy excess inventory from top brands and resell them are also well placed. The largest — TJX — owns TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods. It boasts a market value of $71bn, making it the sixth-biggest bricks-and-mortar retailer in the US by that metric. It has not been immune from higher labour and transport costs. But paying pennies on the dollar for goods cushions margins nicely. This is reflected in the 10 per cent rise in net profit in its most recent quarter. At 19 times forward earnings, TJX shares are no bargain. Target trades on a multiple of 13 times. This may make it a better longer-term bet. Inventory distortion will not last for ever. Clearing out excess stock now should put it on a better footing to grab market share during the all-important holiday shopping season later this year. More

New Jersey, Maine and Massachusetts joined the $5 club overnight to bring the US national average pump price to a fresh record of $4.919 a gallon, according to auto club AAA. At this rate, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) & Co’s prediction of $6.2 gallon gasoline by August seems well within reach. The country’s gasoline stockpiles fell to 219 million barrels in the most recent report from the Energy Information Administration, the lowest seasonal level since 2015. In the Central Atlantic, where regional supplies can have an outsized impact on gasoline futures trading in New York, inventories have fallen to their lowest level ever for this time of the year in data going back to 1993. Which commodities will outperform into year-end? Raw materials is the theme of this week’s MLIV Pulse survey. Please add your voice.Low stockpiles have so far overshadowed slower gasoline demand growth, which lags the uptick typical for this time of year.“I do expect consumer resistance to the high gasoline retail price to begin to evidence itself,” said John Kilduff, co-founder of Again Capital LLC. ©2022 Bloomberg L.P. More

Turkey 5-year credit default swaps added 17 basis points (bps) from Monday’s close to 736 bps, levels last seen during the global financial crisis in 2008, data from S&P Global (NYSE:SPGI) showed.Bond prices were lower by more than 1 cent for most issues, with the September 2027 bond down 1.05 cents to 96.83 and yielding 9.1%.Speaking after a cabinet meeting, Erdogan said Turkey will not raise interest rates but rather continue cutting them in the face of high living costs. More

US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has urged Congress to pass new measures to help ease ongoing price surges, as pressure mounts on the Biden administration to do more to contain the highest inflation in four decades.Lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee grilled Yellen on Tuesday about the state of the economy, which has rebounded rapidly from the depths of the Covid-19-induced crash but is now beset by soaring costs for almost all goods and services.“Congress can do a lot to mitigate some of the most important and burdensome costs that households face,” Yellen said, noting specific proposals to reduce prescription drug prices, improve access to affordable housing and bolster investments in renewable energy.“In the course of doing that, we’ll expand the supply side of our economy,” she said. Investments in education and training, childcare as well as eldercare would lead to a larger labour force, she said, helping to bring down inflation and leading to “strong, sustainable [and] stable growth”.Yellen’s testimony comes just days after she conceded she was “wrong” last year about the threat posed by rising inflation, having previously ascribed price pressures to “transitory” forces such as supply chain bottlenecks and other Covid-related disruptions, as did many private forecasters and the Federal Reserve.She also became ensnared in controversy after excerpts from a new biography alleged that she had initially wanted to trim last year’s $1.9tn stimulus package by a third for fear that it would push up prices. Yellen has since rebutted those claims.

The Treasury secretary on Tuesday defended the actions taken by the Biden administration, but acknowledged that inflation is now running at an “unacceptable” level and that “an appropriate budgetary stance is needed to complement monetary policy actions by the Federal Reserve”.The US central bank has since March raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage points from the near-zero levels that had been in place for two years and is poised to deliver at least two more half-point rate rises at its upcoming policy meetings scheduled for next week and in late July. Market participants expect the Fed to eventually lift the federal funds rate to roughly 2.8 per cent by the end of this year.When asked by Steve Daines, the Republican senator from Montana, about the Biden administration’s role in stoking high inflation, Yellen pushed back. “We’re seeing high inflation in almost all developed countries around the world, and they have very different fiscal policies,” she said. “So it can’t be the case that the bulk of the inflation that we’re experiencing reflects the impact of the [stimulus package].” She added: “In designing a policy, there are various risks that need to be taken into account. Of course inflation was one of them, but the overwhelming risk was that Americans would be scarred by a deep and long recession.”Yellen said on Tuesday any new legislation must be paid for or structured in a way that leads to a smaller deficit.“Asking high-income taxpayers and corporations to pay their fair share is the right way to finance those investments,” she said, adding that tackling what is estimated to be a $600bn annual gap in taxes that are owed but not paid is “absolutely important in ensuring fiscal responsibility”.“It would generate substantial revenue in a manner that’s efficient and fair,” she said. “It would enable deficit reduction and help ease price pressures by providing part of the funding we need for the urgent fiscal priorities we discussed.” More