Economy
Macron will explain to the French why he signed the pension reform law
French President Emmanuel Macron will address citizens in a televised interview on Monday to explain why he signed the pension reform within hours of its approval by the Constitutional Council. Note that the Euro/USD exchange rate volatility has emerged amid rallies in one of the EU’s leading economies.
“The head of state will try to explain himself to the French after his hasty promulgation of pension reform on Friday night into Saturday, a move that drew the ire of leftist parties and labor unions, who again accused him of being contemptuous,” the Echos reported.
Macron will address the nation on Monday at 8pm Paris time in a pre-recorded TV interview.
France’s Constitutional Council on Friday approved a key article in a pension reform bill that would gradually raise the country’s retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030. On Saturday night, French President Emmanuel Macron hastily signed the law, and the document was published in the official magazine.
The president had two weeks to sign the law, but Macron decided to act quickly, leaving no chance for the unions, which he offered a meeting on the coming Tuesday, to convince them to withdraw the bill.
Afterwards, the head of France’s leading trade union, the General Confederation of Labor (CGT), Sophie Binet, said that the hasty promulgation of the law “confirms the president’s strong contempt for both the population and the trade unions.” The head of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor (CFDT), Laurent Bergé, also said that “since the beginning of the discussion of the reform, the contempt shown to workers has been constant.”
After the Constitutional Council’s decision was announced, French labor unions said they would not agree to a meeting with Macron, which he proposed to hold on the coming Tuesday. On May 1, they called for an “exceptional and popular” protest.
The pension reform law would raise the retirement age in the country and abolish “special” regimes for a lot of difficult professions. The authorities will begin to raise the retirement age by three months per year from September 1, 2023. The main reason for the reform is the French government calls for the lack of budget money to finance payments to pensioners. According to official data, this year there is a shortage of 13.5 billion euros. The reform will accumulate more than 17 billion euros for these needs by 2030.
Earlier, we reported that Wells Fargo is warning of a 10% correction in the S&P 500.
© Reuters. Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/File Photo
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s central bank will need two to three months to make sure that inflation is steadily declining before taking any decision on interest rate cuts, the bank’s governor Elvira Nabiullina told RBC media on Sunday.
The central bank raised its key interest rate by 100 basis points to 16% earlier in December, hiking for the fifth consecutive meeting in response to stubborn inflation, and suggested that its tightening cycle was nearly over.
Nabiullina said it was not yet clear when exactly the regulator would start cutting rates, however.
“We really need to make sure that inflation is steadily decreasing, that these are not one-off factors that can affect the rate of price growth in a particular month,” she said.
Nabiullina said the bank was taking into account a wide range of indicators but primarily those that “characterize the stability of inflation”.
“This will take two or three months or more – it depends on how much the wide range of indicators that characterize sustainable inflation declines,” she said.
The bank will next convene to set its benchmark rate on Feb. 16.
The governor also said the bank should have started monetary policy tightening earlier than in July, when it embarked on the rate-hiking cycle.
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Workers walk past an under-construction area with completed office towers in the background, in Shenzhen’s Qianhai new district, Guangdong province, China August 25, 2023. REUTERS/David Kirton/File Photo
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s top planning body said on Saturday it had identified a second batch of public investment projects, including flood control and disaster relief programmes, under a bond issuance and investment plan announced in October to boost the economy.
With the latest tranche, China has now earmarked more than 800 billion yuan of its 1 trillion yuan ($140 billion) in additional government bond issuance in the fourth quarter, as it focuses on fiscal steps to shore up the flagging economy.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on Saturday it had identified 9,600 projects with planned investment of more than 560 billion yuan.
China’s economy, the world’s second largest, is struggling to regain its footing post-COVID-19 as policymakers grapple with tepid consumer demand, weak exports, falling foreign investment and a deepening real estate crisis.
The 1 trillion yuan in additional bond issuance will widen China’s 2023 budget deficit ratio to around 3.8 percent from 3 percent, the state-run Xinhua news agency has said.
“Construction of the projects will improve China’s flood control system, emergency response mechanism and disaster relief capabilities, and better protect people’s lives and property, so it is very significant,” the NDRC said.
The agency said it will coordinate with other government bodies to make sure that funds are allocated speedily for investment and that high standards of quality are maintained in project construction.
($1 = 7.1315 renminbi)
© Reuters. Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina attends a news conference in Moscow, Russia June 14, 2019. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov/File Photo
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s central bank will need two to three months to make sure that inflation is steadily declining before taking any decision on interest rate cuts, the bank’s governor Elvira Nabiullina told RBC media on Sunday.
The central bank raised its key interest rate by 100 basis points to 16% earlier in December, hiking for the fifth consecutive meeting in response to stubborn inflation, and suggested that its tightening cycle was nearly over.
Nabiullina said it was not yet clear when exactly the regulator would start cutting rates, however.
“We really need to make sure that inflation is steadily decreasing, that these are not one-off factors that can affect the rate of price growth in a particular month,” she said.
Nabiullina said the bank was taking into account a wide range of indicators but primarily those that “characterize the stability of inflation”.
“This will take two or three months or more – it depends on how much the wide range of indicators that characterize sustainable inflation declines,” she said.
The bank will next convene to set its benchmark rate on Feb. 16.
The governor also said the bank should have started monetary policy tightening earlier than in July, when it embarked on the rate-hiking cycle.
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