Headlines

The European Central Bank pushed back on Thursday against market bets that it would slow the pace of its interest rate hikes given recent falls in inflation and easing pressure to keep up with policy moves by other central banks, Reuters reported. Traders had recently trimmed their expectations for how much the ECB would raise borrowing costs, comforted by data showing lower inflation in both the euro zone and the United States and related talk of smaller hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Strikes coordinated by French unions brought significant disruption to the country on Thursday as they protest against government plans to revamp the pension system and test president Emmanuel Macron’s ability to resist street pressure, Bloomberg News reported. Workers in sectors including railways, schools and energy are taking part in the 24-hour strike against Macron’s plan to raise France’s minimum retirement age to 64 from 62. Unions are leading marches across France’s largest cities with the backing of left-wing political parties.

Japan recorded a record high trade deficit for 2022 of 19.97 trillion yen ($156 billion) as energy imports surged, the Finance Ministry said Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The deficit was the biggest since Japan began keeping comparable records in 1979, the ministry said. Both imports and exports jumped to record highs. Exports, led by autos, rose 18% from the year before, to 98 trillion yen ($766 billion). Imports, including oil, coal and natural gas, rose 39% on year to 118 trillion yen ($922 billion).

Turkey’s central bank added ambiguity to the direction of its policy as it left interest rates unchanged on Thursday, Reuters reported. The Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Sahap Kavcioglu, kept the benchmark at 9% for a second straight month, matching the forecasts of all but one economist in a Bloomberg survey. But unlike last month, the MPC’s latest guidance didn’t describe the current level of rates as “adequate,” a change that could be setting the stage for more monetary easing, according to Bloomberg Economics.

Argentina’s plan to repurchase $1 billion of its deeply distressed dollar bonds has emerging-market investors scratching their heads, according to a Bloomberg News commentary. Economy Minister Sergio Massa announced the plan Wednesday to buy back securities maturing in 2029 and 2030 trading at 30-some cents on the dollar. The notes jumped to their highest prices in more than a year after Massa spoke, extending a rally that had already produced 60% returns for investors since October.

The writing was on the wall when Britain finalized its break from the European Union: The UK sorely lacked the battery manufacturing capability that would be absolutely critical to the auto industry’s future, leaving the country’s already declining car sector in a make-or-break bind, Bloomberg News reported. The failure of Britishvolt Ltd. to get past the stage of developing prototypes for an industry still vital to the UK’s economy casts further doubt on its prospects in the global race by nations to become self-sufficient in greener technology.

The rate of inflation in Britain slowed for a consecutive second month in December, but was still running in the double digits, maintaining a tight squeeze on household finances, the New York Times reported. Consumer prices rose 10.5 percent in December from a year earlier, down from 10.7 percent the previous month, with rising food prices and prices at hotels and restaurants offsetting lower gasoline and clothing prices, the Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday.

Coinbase Global Inc. is halting its operations in Japan due to volatile market conditions, the cryptocurrency exchange said on Wednesday, days after it announced job cuts amid waning demand for digital assets, Reuters reported. The move comes just weeks after rival exchange Kraken said it was ceasing its business in the country. "Japan is unlikely a material contributor to Coinbase revenue," Oppenheimer analyst Owen Lau said, adding the company has been examining the market for some time but just got the license from the Japanese regulator a year and a half ago.

The Bank of Japan kept its interest-rate targets unchanged Wednesday despite strong pressure from investors on the bank’s new 0.5% cap for the 10-year government bond yield, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Japanese central bank decided to leave short-term interest rates at minus 0.1% and its target for the 10-year Japanese government bond yield at around zero. The bank reiterated that it intends to cap that yield at 0.5%. In a surprise move on Dec. 20, the BOJ lifted the cap to 0.5% from the previous ceiling of 0.25%. While Gov.

Economists said China’s shrinking population poses a major future challenge for the world’s second-largest economy, while President Xi Jinping’s top economic adviser sought Tuesday to restore investor confidence after one of the most disappointing growth rates in decades, the Wall Street Journal reported. China has already rolled back the zero-Covid policies that restrained growth for much of 2022, setting the stage for a recovery this year.