China’s consumer inflation was flat in June, official data showed on Monday.

The June consumer price index (CPI) was unchanged year on year and fell 0.2% on a monthly basis, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile the prices at factory gate continued to drop in June. The producer price index (PPI) fell 5.4% from last year, down from 4.6% in May.

Core inflation edged up 0.4% in June from last year.

China will extend financial policies to support the real estate market to the end of 2024.

The People’s Bank of China said that the policies that rolled out in November to support the housing sector will be extended to Dec.31, 2024.

The move is to guide financial institutions to continue deferring loan payments for real estate enterprises and ensure home delivery.

The China Association of Auto Manufacturers (CAAM) on Saturday retracted pricing pledge by Chinese electric car makers to avoid abnormal pricing, according to a statement on its website.

The CAAM said the pricing pledge had violated China’s antitrust law and it would delete it from the pledge signed by 16 car makers.  

The CAAM on Thursday organised the pledge by 16 car makers including Tesla , Nio and Xpeng to avoid abnormal pricing.

However Tesla announced a global referral programme and Volkwagen’s China joint ventures SAIC and FAW also announced prices cuts for their electric cars in China.

 

China will ban the import of food from 10 Japanese prefectures due to safety concerns, the country’s customs said on Friday.

China will also strictly review the documents for food, especially aquatic products, from other parts of Japan.

Hong Kong’s environment and ecology department said the special administrative region will ban seafood imports from 10 Japanese prefectures if Japan goes ahead with plan to discharge radioactive water from Fukushima power plant.

US inflation falls sharply to 3% in June, official data showed on Wednesday.

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% in June on a monthly basis.

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, increased 4.8% in June from last year.

Falling gas prices dragged down the overall index, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bank of Canada hiked its key interest rate by 0.25% on Wednesday and brought its target for the overnight rate to 5%.

The Bank Rate and deposit rate are at 4.25% and 5%, the central bank said in a statement.

In a statement, the Bank of Canada said it remained concerned that progress towards the 2% target could stall.

The bank has also decided to continue its policy of quantitative tightening.

The International Monetary Fund approved the $3 billion bailout for Pakistan on Wednesday.

Pakistan will get about $1.2 billion upfront with the rest being released over nine months.

The IMF said the arrangement comes at a challenging economic juncture for Pakistan. “A difficult external environment, devastating floods, and policy missteps have led to large fiscal and external deficits, rising inflation and eroded reserve buffers” in fiscal year 2023.

The bailout aims to support immediate efforts to stabilise the economy and guard against shocks while creating the space for social and development spending to help the people of Pakistan, the IMF said.

 

The European Parliament on Wednesday passed nature restoration bill which requires European Union countries to restore 20% of all degraded nature areas within their borders on land and at sea by 2030.

The measure, a key element of the bloc’s Green Deal, is at the centre of the EU’s biodiversity strategy.

The European Parliament passed the Nature Restoration Act in a razor-thin 324-312 vote with 12 abstentions.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a recession is still “not completely off the table” in an interview with US broadcaster CBS when responding to June’s jobs report.

Yellen said the weak June jobs reports was expected given the labor market’s expansion in recent months.

Yellen thinks the US is on the path to bring inflation down in the context of a health labor market.

US employers added 209,000 jobs in June compared, less than that of May when employers added 306,000 jobs.

Twenty four central banks from emerging and advanced economies will have digital currencies in circulation by the end of 2030, the Bank for International Settlement (BIS) said on Monday.

In a survey of 86 central banks, the BIS found “over the course of 2022, the share of central banks engaged in some form of central bank digital currency (CBDC) work rose further, to 93%, and their uncertainty about short-term CBDC issuance is fading”.

Most of the new CBDCs will emerge in retail space and 11 central banks could join central banks in the Bahamas, the Eastern Caribbean, Jamaica and Nigeria which already use digital retail currencies.