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First Digital Trust (FDT) has redeemed almost $26 million in stablecoin withdrawals after its FDUSD token briefly lost its US dollar peg following allegations of insolvency by Tron founder Justin Sun, CoinTelegraph.com reported. First Digital USD briefly depegged on April 2, falling as low as $0.87 after Sun claimed that First Digital was insolvent. On April 4, Sun doubled down on his allegations, claiming the firm had transferred over $450 million of customer funds to a Dubai-based entity and that it violated Hong Kong securities regulations.
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Japan’s households cut back on spending as inflation remained elevated, in a sign of vulnerability in a key pocket of the economy before sweeping U.S. tariffs hit the country, Bloomberg News reported. Household outlays, adjusted for inflation, declined 0.5% in February from a year earlier, the internal affairs ministry reported Friday. The result compared with the median economist estimate of a 0.8% decline. The drop was led by falling outlays on clothes and footwear, housing and food.
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Two Polish policymakers threw their weight behind an interest rate cut of as much as 50 basis points next month, a day after central bank Governor Adam Glapinski unexpectedly pivoted toward monetary easing, Bloomberg News reported. The governor’s self-described “radical shift” in the outlook for interest rates continued to depress Warsaw-listed stocks and the zloty on Friday. The Polish currency has weakened 2.2% against the euro over the last two days amid a sharp global selloff stoked by new US tariffs. Glapinski’s all-or-nothing style is hard to grasp for financial markets.
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a limited set of counter measures against U.S. tariffs on Thursday while calling President Donald Trump's protectionist moves a tragedy for global trade, Reuters reported. Carney said that the Canadian government will copy the U.S. approach by imposing a 25% tariff on all vehicles imported from the United States that are not compliant with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal. The new measure will apply to C$35.6 billion ($25.3 billion) worth of imports, a government spokesperson said.
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The Italian economy will grow by 0.5% this year, far below the government's official 1.2% estimate, the country's central bank said on Friday, cutting a 0.7% forecast it made in December and warning of the impact of U.S. trade tariffs, Reuters reported. The central bank forecast that tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday would have a negative impact of more than half a percentage point on Italian growth in 2025-2027.
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Rising U.S. tariffs on imports from other countries may lead to lower inflation in the U.K., a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee said Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a speech at a conference in South Africa, Swati Dhingra said global prices fell in response to higher tariffs during Donald Trump’s first term as president as sellers in China and other countries lowered their prices to find buyers elsewhere. Dhingra said that upward pressure on U.K.
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Sri Lanka is ready to engage with the United States in strengthening trade relations, the island nation said on Friday, committing to substantially reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers that hinder trade and investment. U.S. President Donald Trump's government imposed a 44% tariff, which will affect about $3 billion of exports, Sri Lanka's finance ministry said in a statement. Sri Lanka is concerned the tariffs will hurt its economy, which is recovering from a severe financial crisis triggered by a shortfall of dollars three years ago.
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Lebanon’s new central bank governor vowed Friday that the institution will fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism and will work independently away from political intervention, the Associated Press reported. Karim Souaid, who was speaking after officially taking office in Beirut, added that he will work on restructuring the banking sector, public debt and returning money to depositors. Lebanon’s economy has been witnessing its worst crisis in its modern history since 2019 and the state must implement reforms demanded by the international community.
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Canada’s unemployment rate climbed to 6.7 per cent in March, up from 6.6 per cent the month before, as the economy lost 33,000 jobs, Statistics Canada said on Friday, the Financial Post reported. The job losses were the largest decrease in employment since January 2022. Nearly 1.5 million people were unemployed in March, up 36,000 from the previous month and 167,000 from a year ago. Employment fell in the wholesale and retail trade, information, culture and recreation, agriculture, manufacturing and construction sectors.
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Former presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin was forced to declare bankruptcy following a court order related to past campaign debt, the business newspaper Kommersant reported Thursday. Nadezhdin, 61, sought to challenge President Vladimir Putin in the March 2024 presidential race on an anti-war platform but was barred from running. Though unsuccessful, his short-lived campaign drew support from Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine despite a wartime crackdown on dissent.
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