News from Around the World

The Fed Just Cut Interest Rates. Here’s What That Means for You.

Americans juggle a lot of interest rates in their daily lives. They pay interest on car loans, credit card balances and mortgages. They earn interest, at least a little, on the money they save with banks.

López Obrador takes on Mexico’s institutions

Standing beside a sugar cane farmer who uses a wooden, horse-drawn press to squeeze juice into a plastic bucket, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gave a demonstration of his economic world view.

On a visit to La Huasteca last week, near the Bajío region that is Mexico’s high-tech manufacturing powerhouse, the leftwing nationalist president — who prides himself on not having a checking account or credit card — extolled the virtues of artisanal microbusinesses that he said were “as or more important” in terms of job creation and development than big business.

Next IMF chief must be ‘ready to go to war’ – trade and currency, strategist says

The next head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will have to deal with trade wars, currency manipulation and new digital currencies, a strategist told CNBC Monday.

U.S. Economy Grew at 2.1% Rate in Second Quarter

WASHINGTON—The U.S. economy grew at a healthy clip in the second quarter as higher consumer spending offset a decline in business investment, keeping the decadelong expansion on track despite trade tensions and cooling global activity.

Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced across the economy, rose at a 2.1% annual rate in the second quarter, adjusted for seasonality and inflation, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Draghi Signals ‘Worse and Worse’ Outlook Warrants ECB Stimulus

President Mario Draghi set the stage for his European Central Bank to deliver another round of monetary stimulus as soon as September to combat the euro area’s severe economic slowdown.

While there are still signs of strength in the economy,“this outlook is getting worse and worse,” Draghi said in Frankfurt on Thursday after a meeting of the ECB’s Governing Council. “It’s getting worse and worse in manufacturing, especially, and it’s getting worse and worse in those countries where manufacturing is very important.”

India running out of time to cash in on demographic dividend

India, which is home to more young people than any other country, is running out of time to harness the potential of its youth to drive economic growth.

The nation’s population in the under-19 age group has already peaked, government data show. That means the labor force will grow more slowly from here on out. In just over 20 years, the South Asian nation will be an aging society, similar to where China is now, according to the Economic Survey published by the Finance Ministry earlier this month.

Boris Johnson wins Tory contest to become UK prime minister

Boris Johnson was crowned leader of the Conservative party on Tuesday and is set to become prime minister, facing perhaps the most daunting challenge of any British politician in peacetime.

Mr Johnson beat Jeremy Hunt in the race to succeed Theresa May as head of the Tory party, securing 92,153 votes to the foreign secretary’s 46,656.

The 2:1 margin of victory gives Mr Johnson a strong mandate to pursue his own version of Brexit in the coming weeks.

World Bank: Peace Deal With Taliban to Help Improve Struggling Afghan Economy

ISLAMABAD - The World Bank estimated Sunday that Afghanistan’s economy grew by less than two percent (1.8 %) in 2018 primarily due to ongoing war, drought and political uncertainty, likely leading to further increases in poverty.

In its latest assessment of the Afghan economy, the Bank noted that sustained and substantial improvement in the security situation are key to better economic conditions required to reduce poverty from high current levels.

What Christine Lagarde Brings to the ECB: Flexibility

For seven hours, European finance ministers in a windowless room argued over how to keep a government-debt crisis from infecting eurozone economies, and the meeting threatened to fall into disarray.

Then Christine Lagarde stood up to speak.

White House Knows It Needs the Fed to Make a Dent in the Dollar

Donald Trump needs help from one of his favorite punching bags, the Federal Reserve, if he truly wants to take action to weaken the dollar.