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| As on May 28, 2020 12:00 AM |
Your results on : Currency News |
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| The US economy suffered a deep decline from March through mid-May as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown of the nation, according to the Federal Reserve's Beige Book. Most of the Fed's 12 districts reported a sharp decline in economic activity, the central bank said in its region-by-region roundup of anecdotal information known as the Beige Book. The US Economic activity declined in all Districts - falling sharply in most - reflecting disruptions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said. Consumer spending fell further as mandated closures of retail establishments remained largely in place during most of the survey period. Powered by Commodity Insights |
US initial jobless claims dropped to 2.438 million, a decrease of 249,000 from the previous week's revised level of 2.687 million, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. Jobless claims fell for the seventh straight week after reaching a record high of 6.867 million in the week ended March 28th. The total number of new claims since the coronavirus-induced lockdowns began in mid-March still reached 38.6 million. The less volatile four-week moving average also slumped to 3.042 million, a decrease of 501,000 from the previous week's revised average of 3.543 million. On the other hand, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, spiked by 2.525 million to 25.073 million in the week ended May 9th Powered by Commodity Insights |
US existing home sales plunged by 17.8 percent to an annual rate of 4.33 million in April after tumbling by 8.5 percent to 5.27 million in March, with economic lockdowns temporarily disrupting home sales, the National Association of Realtors reported on Thursday. The continued nosedive pulled existing home sales down to their lowest level since hitting 3.45 million in July of 2010. The report said the median existing-home price for all housing types in April was $286,800, up 2.2 percent from $280,700 in March and up 7.4 percent from $267,000 in April of 2019. NAR said there were 1.47 million homes for sale at the end of April, down 1.3 percent from 1.49 million at the end of March and down 19.7 percent from 1.83 million a year ago. The unsold inventory represents 4.1 months of supply at the current sales rate compared to 3.4 months of supply in March and 4.2 months of supply in April of 2019. Powered by Commodity Insights |
The Conference Board released a report on Thursday showing a continued nosedive by its reading on leading economic indicators. The Conference Board said its leading economic index tumbled by 4.4 percent in April after plunging by a revised 7.4 percent in March. The report said the coincident economic index cratered by 8.9 percent in April after falling by 1.5 percent in the previous month. On the other hand, the Conference Board said the lagging economic index jumped by 4.1 percent in April after climbing by 1.7 percent in March. Powered by Commodity Insights |
European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said the euro area economy is likely to contract as much as 12 percent in 2020 as member countries struggle to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic. Lagarde said on Wednesday, the actual economic outcome would come between the ECB's medium and severe scenarios. The mild scenario is outdated. The currency bloc had contracted 3.8 percent in the first quarter, which was the biggest contraction since the series began in 1995. In March, the ECB had launched a new EUR 750 billion Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme to combat the risks posed by coronavirus, or Covid-19. Powered by Commodity Insights |
| French consumer confidence fell to a 16-month low in May as households were concerned about general economic conditions amid coronavirus pandemic, survey results from the statistical office Insee showed Wednesday. The consumer sentiment index fell to 93 in May from 95 in April. The score remained well below its long-term average of 100. This was the lowest since January 2019. However, the share of households considering it is a suitable time to make major purchases has increased sharply in May, with the index rising to -45 from -60 in April. Powered by Commodity Insights |
| China's industrial profits declined at a slower pace in April suggesting that the economic activity gradually started to recover following the coronavirus pandemic, data from the National Bureau of Statistics revealed Wednesday. Industrial profits fell 4.3% on a yearly basis, following a tumble of around 35% in March. During January to April period, industrial profits decreased 27.4% from the same period last year compared to 36.7% fall in the first three months of 2020. Profits of state-owned enterprises fell 46% and that of private companies contracted 17.2% during January to April. Powered by Commodity Insights |
Australia's total value of construction work done declined a seasonally adjusted 1.0 percent on quarter in the first quarter of 2020, standing at A$49.481 billion, following the 3.0 percent drop in the three months prior. On a yearly basis, total construction work was down 6.5 percent. The seasonally adjusted estimate of total building work done also fell 1.0 percent and was down 8.0 percent on year to A$28.924 billion in the first quarter of 2020. Residential building was down 1.6 percent on quarter and 12.5 percent on year to A$17.246 billion. Non-residential building was flat on quarter and eased 0.3 percent on year at A$11.677 billion. The seasonally adjusted estimate for engineering work done fell 1.1 on quarter and 4.4 percent on year to $20.556 billion in the March quarter. Powered by Commodity Insights |
German forward-looking consumer sentiment index rose to -18.9 in June from -23.1 in May, survey results from the market research group GfK showed Tuesday. The score was expected to improve to -18.3. Among components of the indicator, economic and income expectations, as well as propensity to buy, all logged a slight increase. The economic expectations index increased 11 points to -10.4 in May. The income expectations index rose 13.6 points to -5.7. At the same time, the indicator for propensity to buy gained 10.1 points to 5.5 in May. Powered by Commodity Insights |
Japan's economy has been in an increasingly severe situation due to the impact of the spread of Covid-19 at home and abroad, Kuroda said in a semi-annual testimony to parliament on Tuesday. As the impact of the spread wanes, Japan's economy is likely to improve. The annual rate of change in consumer prices is expected to increase gradually, he added. However, the outlook for economic activity and prices is extremely unclear, he said. The central bank will not hesitate to take additional easing measures if required as the novel coronavirus, or Covid-19, depressed global activity, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said. The BoJ last week introduced a new lending program worth about JPY 30 trillion to help financing small and medium-sized firms struggling to operate. Powered by Commodity Insights |
Germany's Ifo business confidence index climbed to 79.5 in May from a record low 74.2 in April, which was revised from 74.3, survey results from ifo Institute showed Monday. Business confidence improved in May driven by modest expectations of an economic revival, thanks to partial withdrawal of lockdown restrictions that were imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus, or Covid-19. Although companies assessed their current situation as slightly worse, their expectations for months ahead improved considerably. However, industrial companies are still a long way from optimism. The current conditions index dropped unexpectedly to 78.9 from 79.4 in April. Meanwhile, the expectations measure jumped more-than-expected to 80.1 from 69.4 a month ago. The expected reading was 75. In manufacturing, the business climate index rose appreciably in May. However, this was due only to companies' much improved expectations. Similarly, driven by expectations, the business climate in the service sector recovered notably from its historic low in April. Powered by Commodity Insights |
New Zealand's trade surplus widened in April as imports declined faster than exports, data released by Statistics New Zealand showed Tuesday. The trade surplus increased to NZ$1.3 billion in April from NZ$0.722 billion in March. Exports of goods fell 4.0 percent annually to NZ$5.3 billion in April. Imports dropped 22.0 percent yearly to NZ$4.0 billion. Powered by Commodity Insights |
Singapore's economic outlook for 2020 was lowered further due to the deterioration in foreign demand forecast and the expected economic impact of the coronavirus containment measures. The Ministry of Trade and Industry on Tuesday forecast the city-state economy to shrink -7.0 to -4.0 percent this year instead of -4.0 to -1.0 percent projected in March. The ministry said there continues to be a significant degree of uncertainty over the length and severity of the coronavirus, or Covid-19, outbreak, as well as the trajectory of the economic recovery, in both the global and Singapore economies. Gross domestic product shrank 0.7 percent on a yearly basis in the first quarter, reversing a 1 percent rise in the fourth quarter 2019. The first quarter figure was revised from -2.2 percent. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualized basis, the economy contracted 4.7 percent, a pullback from the 0.6 percent expansion in the fourth quarter of last year. The manufacturing sector expanded by 6.6 per cent year-on-year on account of output expansions in the biomedical manufacturing, precision engineering and transport engineering clusters. Meanwhile, the construction sector contracted 4.0 percent. Likewise, the wholesale and retail trade sector fell 5.8 percent and the transportation and storage sector declined 8.1 percent. Powered by Commodity Insights |
| German economy contracted at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis, as initially estimated, due to the coronavirus pandemic, revised data from Destatis showed on Monday. Gross domestic product fell 2.2% sequentially, the biggest fall since the first quarter of 2009 and the second biggest since the German unification. Powered by Commodity Insights |
| UK retail sales fell at a record pace in April as many stores were temporarily closed to contain the spread of coronavirus, or Covid-19, data published by the Office for National Statistics showed on Friday. Retail sales volume declined 18.1% on a monthly basis, which was the biggest monthly fall on record. This followed 5.2% drop in March. Excluding auto fuel, retail sales fell 15.2% on month in April, after a 3.8% decrease in March. Powered by Commodity Insights |
| Consumer price inflation in Japan edged up just 0.1%t on year in April, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said on Friday, slowing from the 0.4% increase in March. Core consumer prices, which exclude volatile food costs, fell an annual 0.2% following the 0.4% gain in the previous month. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, overall consumer prices shed 0.2% and core CPI dropped 0.5%. Japan's core inflation rate has turned negative for first time in 3 years Powered by Commodity Insights |
| Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Philip Lowe said the economic outlook remains unusually uncertain despite fiscal and monetary policy measures taken to combat the downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Unlike previous contractions, this one is not being caused by a financial event or by macroeconomic policies. Just as the nature of this economic contraction is different, so too has been the fiscal and monetary policy response. Australian financial system is resilient and is well placed to deal with COVID-19. In particular, the system has large capital and liquidity buffers and it has made substantial investments in operational resilience. Powered by Commodity Insights |
| Chinese government did not provide any economic growth target for the first time amid uncertainties posed by the coronavirus pandemic. At the annual session of National People's Congress in Beijing, Premier Li Keqiang said the country will face some factors that are difficult to predict in its development due to the great uncertainty regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and the world economic and trade environment. However, China aims to add over 9 million jobs and target the urban unemployment rate at around 6% while the budget deficit is estimated to widen to more than 3.6% of GDP. Powered by Commodity Insights |
The Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) stated today that on the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at its meeting decided to reduce the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 40 bps to 4% from 4.40% with immediate effect. Accordingly, the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate stand reduced to 4.25% from 4.65% and the reverse repo rate under the LAF stands reduced to 3.35% from 3.75%. The MPC also decided to continue with the accommodative stance as long as it is necessary to revive growth and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, while ensuring that inflation remains within the target. These decisions are in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4 per cent within a band of +/- 2 per cent, while supporting growth. Since the MPC met in March 2020, global economic activity has remained in standstill under COVID-19 related lockdowns and social distancing. Among the key advanced economies (AEs), economic activity contracted in the US, Euro area, Japan and the UK in Q1:2020. Among emerging market economies (EMEs), the Chinese economy went into a pronounced decline and data on high frequency indicators suggest that activity may have also shrunk in other EMEs such as Brazil and South Africa. Domestic economic activity has been impacted severely by the lockdown which has extended over the past two months. The MPC is of the view that the macroeconomic impact of the pandemic is turning out to be more severe than initially anticipated, and various sectors of the economy are experiencing acute stress. The impact of the shock has been compounded by the interaction of supply disruptions and demand compression. Beyond the destruction of economic and financial activity, livelihood and health are severely affected. Even as various measures initiated by the Government and the Reserve Bank work to mitigate the adverse impact of the pandemic on the economy, it is necessary to ease financial conditions further. Powered by Commodity Insights |
| Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on Thursday showed a slowdown in the pace of contraction in regional manufacturing activity in the month of May. The Philly Fed said its diffusion index for current general activity edged to a negative 43.1 in May from a negative 56.6 in April. The index bounced off the nearly 40-year low set in the previous month, but a negative reading still indicates a contraction in activity. The new orders index improved to a negative 25.7 in May from a negative 70.9 percent in April, while the shipments index surged to a negative 30.3 from a negative 74.1. The number of employees index jumping to a negative 15.3 in May from a negative 46.7 in April. Powered by Commodity Insights |
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