Headlines

Underlying inflation in the euro area eased for the first time in 10 months, backing the case for the European Central Bank to slow the most aggressive interest-rate hiking campaign in its history later this week, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices stripping out volatile items like fuel and food costs rose 5.6% from a year ago in April — down from March’s record 5.7% advance and in line with the median estimate in a Bloomberg poll of economists. The headline inflation rate, meanwhile, ticked up to 7% — a touch more than the 6.9% analysts anticipated and still far above the 2% target.

Australia’s central bank signaled further policy tightening ahead after unexpectedly raising interest rates by a quarter-percentage point on Tuesday, sending the currency and bond yields surging, Bloomberg News reported. The Reserve Bank increased its cash rate to 3.85%, the highest level since April 2012, in a decision predicted by only nine of 30 economists. Money markets rapidly revised up expectations for further moves and are now pricing in a rate of just under 4% by October, from around 3.6% before today’s decision.

Australia's biggest landlords and developers played down concerns about inflated commercial property valuations at a conference on Tuesday, while acknowledging economic uncertainty was making investors and renters more cautious, Reuters reported. Commercial real estate prices are a major concern for investors globally as public markets price the impact of a slowing economy and the growth of remote work, while owners, especially unlisted players, resist major changes.

Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Tuesday the downside risks to Asia's economy were smaller than those to other parts of the world, partly due to the region's resilience to U.S. and European banking sector woes, Reuters reported. His remarks underscore optimism over the outlook for Asia's economy, which has a big influence on Japan's fragile recovery due to its proximity and huge market size.

Turkey’s central bank asked lenders to limit dollar sales to companies that don’t have urgent payments and to prioritize meeting demand from special government-backed lira deposits, Bloomberg News reported. The monetary authority made the requests verbally on Tuesday, the people said, asking not to be named because the demands weren’t public. The central bank declined to comment. The lira savings plan, known locally as the KKM program, is designed to boost demand for the local currency with a state-guaranteed return on lira deposits that matches or beats any decline against the dollar.

Hundreds more Credit Suisse Group AG bondholders sued Switzerland’s banking regulator after their securities valued at about $1.7 billion were wiped out during the lender’s government-brokered takeover by UBS Group AG, Bloomberg News reported.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner on Tuesday rejected a plan by Economy Minister Robert Habeck to introduce an industrial electricity price, Reuters reported. Such a move would be "economically unwise" and it would contradict market principles to rely on direct state aid as a means to achieve industrial transformation, he wrote in a guest article published by business daily Handelsblatt. The ministry had planned to introduce a concept for industrial electricity pricing this week as part of government efforts to support transition away from fossil fuels.

The International Monetary Fund’s chief said the rapid acceleration in interest rates “exposed vulnerabilities in the financial sector,” adding that the banking industry needs to be on watch for additional risks, Bloomberg News reported. Industry leaders need to “anticipate shocks and be ready to act when they occur, because they will be coming,” Kristalina Georgieva said in an interview with Stephanie Flanders, the head of economics and government at Bloomberg News, at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

Shareholders of embattled Brazilian retailer Americanas SA voted to ratify most of the names proposed for its board of directors, after the firm sank into bankruptcy in January following the revelation of a massive accounting error, Bloomberg News reported. At a general meeting held Saturday, Carlos Sicupira, one of the billionaire founders of 3G Capital Inc. that’s also among Americanas’ largest shareholders, was reelected to the board. Minority shareholders managed to elect Pierre Moreau.

Egypt is fully able to meet its international debt obligations, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said, looking to ease market concerns over the North African nation’s economic situation, Bloomberg News reported.