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Bloomberg Representatives of indigenous organizations and Ecuador’s embattled government signed an agreement to end more than two weeks of nationwide protests over fuel prices and the high cost of living. Mediated by the Catholic Bishops Conference, the government of President Guillermo Lasso agreed to increase subsidies at the pump. With other measures pledged by the conservative administration, the total is ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto dismissed comments by his boss that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is partly to blame for higher living costs, vowing to boost farming if he wins the presidency in August. Ruto pledged to invest at least 500 billion shillings ($4.2 billion) in agriculture and small businesses over five years. That investment would include providing animal ...

  Bloomberg President Jair Bolsonaro’s proposal to help Brazilians suffering with inflation is becoming more expensive as lawmakers add more benefits to the original bill about three months before general elections. The bill’s latest price tag is 41.3 billion reais ($7.9 billion) after lawmakers included cash handouts to cab drivers and small farmers, before it was approved in a landslide ...

  Bloomberg The number of active cryptocurrency users at Bank of America has declined by more than half amid the prolonged rout in the digital-asset market. The bank’s crypto users shrunk to below 500,000 in May from more than 1 million in November 2021, when Bitcoin and some other tokens hit all-time highs. Since then, crypto prices have cratered, with ...

  Bloomberg The Czech central bank’s new governor promised to pursue its goal of price stability as investors are waiting to see how the new management will tackle the fastest inflation in three decades. In a statement published on his first day in office, Ales Michl said he wanted to achieve “low and stable” consumer price growth and “maintain confidence ...

Bloomberg The chief of Japan’s banking industry lobby group is calling on the nation’s central bank to pay closer attention to the adverse impacts of its ultra easy monetary policy after the yen plunged to a 24-year low. “I think it’s important to take a balanced policy approach by considering merits and side effects,” Japanese Bankers Association Chairman Junichi Hanzawa ...

  Bloomberg BNP Paribas SA is exiting its commodities finance business in the US, following earlier retreats in other parts of the world. “The decision taken to exit this business was consistent with our approach in EMEA,” the bank said in a statement in response to questions. “The impact is limited, and BNP Paribas remains deeply committed to the US ...

  Bloomberg Citigroup Inc is discussing the potential sale of its operations in Russia with privately owned Russian companies including Expobank and the insurer Reso-Garantia, the Financial Times reported. The Wall Street bank is negotiating over its consumer and commercial businesses, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Rosbank, Societe Generale SA’s former Russian subsidiary, has also expressed ...

  Bloomberg Singapore’s largest lender DBS Group Holdings Ltd. has raised the rates on all its home loan packages, The Straits Times (ST) reported, as it joins other banks in tracking the Federal Reserve’s decision to boost interest rates to tame inflation. DBS also scrapped its five-year fixed rate package for owners of public housing apartments, the ST said, citing ...

Bloomberg After years of building their foreign-exchange reserves, central banks in Asia are tapping into their stockpiles to bolster their weakening currencies against a rising US dollar. Thai reserves slid to $221.4 billion as of June 17, in data released late last week. That was the lowest in more than two years. Monthly figures show that Indonesia’s stash is at ...