August, 2022

• 3 August

  Putin, Erdogan to discuss Ukraine, grain on Friday, Kremlin says

  

  Bloomberg Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks Friday including on a deal reached to unblock exports of grain from Ukraine, the Kremlin said. The meeting in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi will be “a good opportunity to synchronize watches on the subject of the effectiveness of this mechanism for exporting grain from ...

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• 3 August

  Truss eyes billions by cutting civil service ‘waste’

  

  Bloomberg Liz Truss vowed to slash “waste, bureaucracy and inefficiency” in the civil service to save billions of pounds a year for the British taxpayer if she becomes UK prime minister. The foreign secretary, the front-runner in the race with Rishi Sunak to succeed Boris Johnson, said that she’ll align the pay of public sector workers to living costs in ...

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• 3 August

  Hong Kong’s Lee least popular new leader in decade, poll says

    Bloomberg Hong Kong’s John Lee drew the lowest approval rating in a decade for a new chief executive, underscoring the challenges he’ll face winning over a city that’s facing some of the world’s strictest Covid restrictions. The percentage of people expressing confidence in Lee, who took over as Hong Kong’s fifth chief executive last month, was 45%, according to ...

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• 3 August

  Russia balks at US prisoner swap offer, views it as unequal

  

  Bloomberg Moscow is leaning towards rejecting a prisoner swap unless it gets two Russians in return for the two Americans the US wants released, according to people familiar with the Kremlin’s thinking. The US has called on Russia to free WNBA player Brittney Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan, offering to free convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. Discussions have ...

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• 3 August

  China banks may face $350b in losses from property crisis

  

    Bloomberg China’s banks face mortgage losses of $350 billion in a worst-case scenario as confidence plunges in the nation’s property market and authorities struggle to contain deepening turmoil. A spiralling crisis of stalled projects has dented the confidence of hundreds of thousands of homebuyers, triggering a mortgage boycott across more than 90 cities and warnings of broader systemic risks. ...

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• 3 August

  Bank of England set for biggest interest rate rise in 27 years

  

  Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) this week is expected to push through the biggest interest-rate increase in 27 years and unveil its strategy for unwinding some of the £895 billion ($1.1 trillion) of stimulus it delivered over the past decade. The measures would accelerate a historic tightening of monetary policy to choke off the worst bout of inflation in ...

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• 3 August

  EU banks get $3.8 billion boost from end of negative rates era

  

    Bloomberg Banks’ core business of lending has finally turned more profitable again, as the era of negative interest rates in the euro area comes to an end. The EU’s five biggest banks that have reported results so far showed an increase in net interest income of 3.74 billion euros ($3.82 billion) on the same quarter last year, a jump ...

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• 3 August

  HSBC makes cost of living payment to UK employees

  

    Bloomberg HSBC Holdings’s UK arm is the latest bank to help staff cope with the rising cost of living by making an extra one-time payment. Lower-paid employees will receive the £1,500 ($1,836) boost in their August paychecks, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. All five of the UK’s largest retail banks have now pledged to pay ...

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• 3 August

  Indonesia keeps dovish tone on steady core CPI

  

    Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank continued to build the case to keep its policy rate unchanged for longer, as it sees subsiding food costs and slower global monetary tightening. “Bank Indonesia will continue to normalise monetary policy, but there is no need to quickly raise interest rates like other countries,” Governor Perry Warjiyo said in a briefing. Core inflation is ...

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• 3 August

  Credit card spending soars as US consumers battle inflation

  

  Bloomberg Mastercard Inc. said spending on its network jumped 18% as US consumers battle once-in-a-generation levels of inflation. Payment volume soared to $1.65 trillion in the second quarter, topping the $1.64 trillion average of analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey. The company boosted its forecast for revenue growth for the year after it reported a 58% surge in overseas payments ...

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