The Federal Reserve (Fed) needs to continue raising the benchmark interest rate until its level reaches 5-5.25% per year, says Rafael Bostic, president of the Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) of Atlanta.
The Fed rate is currently at 4.5-4.75%.
Bostick does not expect the Fed to cut the rate in 2023. In his view, the central bank will need to hold the 5-5.25% rate range for much of 2024.
He noted that despite signals of declining price pressures in the U.S., the time for the U.S. central bank to change course has not yet come.
“History shows that if we ease up on inflation before it is fully suppressed, it could flare up again,” Bostick said in an article published on the Atlanta Fed’s Web site. – We have to beat inflation now.”
Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said Wednesday at an event in South Dakota that he has not yet decided whether a 25 basis point (bps) or 50 bps increase in the Federal Reserve rate in March should be significant.
He said he had projected in December that the rate cap for the current cycle should be 5.4%. The Fed chiefs’ median forecast from the December meeting was that the rate would reach 5.1% by the end of 2023.
Kashkari said Wednesday that he is leaning toward raising his estimate of the peak rate.
A key factor that will influence the Fed’s future decisions will be new projections for U.S. inflation, Kashkari said. The Fed will release those projections along with the results of its March meeting.
Kashkari this year has a vote on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Bostick does not.
The Romanian government in cooperation with Moldovan authorities will build a pontoon bridge across the Prut border river to improve the transportation of cargo from Ukraine, mainly grain, according to the website of Polish publication Gospodarka Morska, citing Irinel Scriosteanu, state secretary of the Romanian Transport Ministry.
According to Romanian official, the new pontoon crossing will be built at the place where until 1944 there was a bridge between Bumbata village (Bumbata, Romania) and Leova city (Leova, Moldova), later destroyed by Soviet Red Army troops.
Scriosteanu said the pontoon bridge would be used for both passenger and freight traffic.
“In recent months, the Romanian and Moldovan governments have announced a number of logistics projects to improve the transportation of goods from Ukraine, especially grain. Because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Romanian port of Constanta is important for the shipment of grain from this country through the Black Sea,” the Polish edition concluded.
As reported, Romania became the largest importer of Ukrainian grain crops in 2022 because of the Russian aggression, although in 2021 it was not even in the top 20 importers. Its share was 13.6% of the total value of Ukrainian supplies of this commodity group abroad. During the year, this country increased the volume of imports from Ukriane by 690 times compared to 2021 – up to $1.24 billion from $1.8 million.
Detectives of the territorial department of the Bureau of Economic Security (BES) in Lviv region have exposed a large-scale scheme of selling illegally manufactured tobacco products and smuggling them abroad, the agency’s website reported on Wednesday.
According to its data, the detectives of the Bureau in Lviv region conducted an immediate inspection of a truck with excisable goods, and in Zakarpattya region they searched a warehouse. During the search revealed and seized more than 330 thousand packs of tobacco products without excise tax marks, about 1.5 tons of hookah tobacco, a vehicle, as well as rough records and documentation evidence of illegal activities. The preliminary total value of excisable products seized from the illegal turnover is almost 18 million UAH.
Currently, measures are taken to establish the full range of persons involved in the scheme, the primary investigative actions.
BEB clarified that the pretrial investigation into criminal proceedings on criminal offence under Part 1 of Article 204 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal storage and transport with intent to sell excisable goods) is carried out by detectives of the territorial administration of the Lviv region, under the procedural guidance of prosecutors of the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
As reported with reference to the tobacco market research institute “Kantar Ukraine”, the share of illegal tobacco products on the Ukrainian market in August 2022 increased by 5 percentage points (p.p.) compared to the annual average of 2021 – up to 21.9% from 16.9%, the volume of shadow market was the highest since the independence of Ukraine.
The Institute specified that 56% of the tobacco products illegally sold in 2022 as export or Duty Free products have the mark of production of Vinnikivska Tobacco Factory (Vinniki, Lviv region) and marked as not intended for sale in Ukraine. The share of unidentified producers was 24% (in 2021 – 23%), United Tobacco LLC (Zheltye Vody, Dnepropetrovsk oblast) – 19% (in 2021 – 15%).
Marta Trusz has become the new CEO of “Auchan Ukraine” instead of Victoria Lutsenko, who was appointed CEO of “Auchan Hungary”, the company’s press service said.
It is specified that Lutsenko led “Auchan Ukraine” for 5 years. During this time the company introduced a new figital (physical + digital) strategy and development plan, in particular e-commerce was strengthened, and the opening of innovative points of sale – Auchan Pick up point.
Trush, who is going to lead the company since March, has been working in Auchan Ukraine for over 10 years and has a diverse experience in retail, in particular in store operations, sales and commercial management.
According to her, the company’s main priorities remain assistance to the country’s population and contribution to the recovery of Ukraine’s economy. In particular, the company plans to open new stores and create jobs.
As it was reported, “Auchan Ukraine” employs about 5 thousand Ukrainians. Over the last year, the company has paid about 1 billion UAH of taxes to the state budget and directed more than 60 million UAH to help the Ukrainians.
Auchan Retail is an international retail company. The first store opened in France in 1961.
Auchan Ukraine Hypermarket” LLC has been operating in Ukraine since 2008. According to the Auchan website, before the Russian invasion into Ukraine, the retailer’s network had more than 30 stores of different formats (hypermarkets, supermarkets, pick up point) in nine cities, and also develops e-commerce.
Shareholders of Busin Insurance Company (Kyiv) plan to allocate UAH 13.6 mln to dividends and UAH 48.8 mln to increase charter capital out of UAH 62.4 mln of financial profit earned in 2022, according to the agenda of shareholders meeting scheduled for March 31.
According to the company’s information posted in the database of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (NSSMC), the emission is planned by increasing the nominal value of shares.
The remaining profits in the amount of UAH 21.935 ths will be left undistributed.
Besides the shareholders of the company are planning to carry out a transition to a one-level structure of management of the company, to determine the number of members of the Board of directors, to approve the new edition of the company’s charter.
IC Busin was registered in February, 1993. It specializes on risk kinds of insurance. It is member of several professional and industry associations: League of Insurance Organizations of Ukraine, National Club of Insurance Indemnities, International Association of Aviation Insurers (UA), Nuclear Insurance Pool, American Chamber in Ukraine, British Business Club.
As reported, in March 2021, its shareholders Larisa Nepochatova and Oleksiy Ovchinnikov reduced their stakes from 49.9% to 25%. In turn, Denis Ovchinnikov and Ivan Ovchinnikov increased their stakes from 0.009% to 12.495% and Oleksandr Nepochatov from 0.009% to 24.99%.
The U.S. dollar is becoming cheaper in pairs with the pound and the euro, but it is slightly stronger against the Japanese yen.
The ICE-calculated index showing the US dollar’s dynamics against six currencies (euro, Swiss franc, yen, Canadian dollar, pound sterling and the Swedish krona) is down less than 0.1% in the morning session.
The euro/dollar pair is trading at $1.0599 as of 8:18 a.m. versus $1.0587 at the close of Tuesday’s session, with the euro adding about 0.2%.
Investors continue to evaluate statistical data and statements by Federal Reserve (Fed) officials to try to predict future interest rate changes.
Judging by the rate futures, market participants see some probability that at the next meeting of the Federal Reserve the rate will be increased by 50 basis points at once, though earlier investors were sure that the central bank will now change the rate in steps of 25 bps.
Overall, the market is expecting a rate hike to peak at 5.25-5.5% from the current 4.5-4.75%.
The pound is up 0.2% at $1.2049 versus $1.2023 at the close of last session.
The dollar is up 0.1% against the yen, trading at 136.37 yen.
Meanwhile, the yuan, which is traded in mainland China, jumped against the dollar by 0.4% to 6.9035/$1.
As reported, Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) in the processing industry in China rose to 52.6 points in February from 50.1 points a month earlier. Experts on average had expected a more moderate increase to 50.5 points.
The service sector PMI rose to 56.3 points in February from 54.4 points in January. The indicator reached its highest level since March 2021.
The index value above the mark of 50 points indicates an increase in business activity, below it – a decrease.
