Economic News

Japan has escaped from “the lost decade of deflation” and should now take more aggressive action to repair its fiscal situation, the worst among advanced economies, the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday. // In its most positive assessment of the economy in years, the IMF foresaw brisk demand-led growth of 2.75 and 2.0 per cent for this year and next respectively. The normalisation of monetary policy in March, with the abandonment of unorthodox quantitative easing, signalled that th ...

CHICAGO (Dow Jones) -- If you hang your hat in Hanover, N.H., the value of your home is not growing as much as it once was. But own a place in "Steady Eddie" Overland Park, Kan., and its rate of appreciation is just as it always has been: consistent. "It does not fluctuate tremendously," said Karen Bergin, a Coldwell Banker broker in the community not far from Kansas City, Mo. "It doesn't seem  ...

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Dow Jones) -- If the rich rule the world or at least the U.S. economy, then why not track their spending to determine inflation? That is the premise of a private bank's recent commentary, which analyzed sales at Neiman Marcus, the high-end retailer, to glean capital market insight. It's an unusual -- a la "Freakonomics" -- take on traditional inflation measures because it  ...

By Jennifer Coogan NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks turned negative in the last half hour of trading on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq dropping for the 10th day in 11, amid fears the Fed may need to raise interest rates to fight inflation even as economic growth slows. Jittery from two straight weeks of equity market turbulence, investors were not convinced of a recovery when gains in global commodity ...

By Jennifer Coogan NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks extended their recent declines on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq dropping for the 10th day in 11, as investors gave back earlier gains amid fears the Fed may need to raise interest rates to fight inflation even as economic growth slows. Shares were higher for all but the last half-hour of trading, as gains in global commodity prices lifted energy and ...

Government bonds fell and yields rose on Tuesday as stock markets recovered following Monday’s heavy falls, leading investors to cut back on their “safe haven” flight into bonds. // US Treasuries were put under pressure after Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, reiterated the central bank’s May 10 statement while appearing before the Senate Banking Committee. “[This is] consistent with the F ...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- Sales of new U.S. homes surprised economists and stayed strong in April, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. New-home sales rose 4.9% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.20 million, the highest level of the year. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had been expecting the pace of new-home sales to cool to 1.15 million units, as part of a general sl ...

China’s aggressive hike of retail oil prices on Wednesday, the largest ever one-off increase, reflects Beijing’s confidence the strong economy can absorb the rise, and a belief that global prices will not fall significantly, local energy analysts and economists said. // China lifted the price of petrol and diesel by up to 12 per cent from midnight on Tuesday, the second rise this year, with both the timing and the size of the latest increase capturing the market by surprise. The rise will help ...

By Ross Finley LONDON (Reuters) - Factory orders fell faster than expected in the year to May but export orders put in their best performance in more than a decade, a survey showed on Wednesday. The Confederation of British Industry said its monthly manufacturing order books balance eased to -12 in May from -11 in April, lower than analysts' expectations for a reading of -9. However, the CBI's  ...

The US-based academic named as the latest member of the Bank of England's interest rate-setting committee has been quizzed by a Commons panel. Prof David Blanchflower, due to take up his post on 1 June, has accepted the post on condition he can continue to work at Dartmouth College in the US. He told the Parliamentary Treasury Select Committee he had no preconceived ideas on the future of interest rates. He said there were arguments on both sides as to whether they rose or fell.  ...