Frankfurt - The European Central Bank (ECB) cut rates for the fifth time in six months Thursday, lowering borrowing costs to an historic low and signalling further reductions in the coming months after it slashed its growth and inflation forecasts.
Thursday's hefty 50-basis-point reduction brought the ECB's benchmark refinancing rate down to 1.5 per cent and followed an announcement in London that the Bank of England (BoE) monetary policy committee had also trimmed the cost of money by 50 basis points.
Ideological orthodoxy on the part of the world's leading central bankers in the 1930s was partly to blame for the Great Depression, the biggest 'economic event' of the 20th century. And a similar ideological orthodoxy — in particular, a blinkered aversion to 'nationalisation' of insolvent banks — could prolong the current economic agony, says Liaquat Ahamed, a professional investment manager for 25 years who has worked at the World Bank and author of Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World (The Penguin Press, 2009).
State-owned banks trim interest rates on fresh bout of liquidity, but private banks unrelenting to follow suit
Raghu Nair recently pre-paid his home loan with a leading private bank and switched over to a public sector bank (PSB) which charged him a much lower interest rate. The 32 year-old businessman is making a neat saving of approximately Rs 3,000 on his EMI’s every month with the switchover.
Manila - The Philippines' inflation rate inched up to 7.3 per cent in February due to higher food and fuel prices, the government said Thursday.
The February index was up from 7.1 per cent in January and 5.4 per cent in the same month in 2008, according to the National Statistics Office (NSO).
The NSO said the higher inflation was "mainly due to the upward price adjustments in the heavily weighted food items, particularly rice, meat, corn and eggs."
Washington - The US economy shrank in nearly all parts of the country in the first two months of the year, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in the latest sign of a deepening US recession.
Ten of 12 US regions reported "weaker conditions or declines in economic activity" since the start of 2009, according to the central bank's Beige Book, which is compiled from local business reports around the country.
Frankfurt - The European Central Bank (ECB) cut rates for the fifth time in six months Thursday, lowering borrowing costs to an historic low and signalling further reductions in the coming months after it slashed its growth and inflation forecasts.
State-owned banks trim interest rates on fresh bout of liquidity, but private banks unrelenting to follow suit
Manila - The Philippines' inflation rate inched up to 7.3 per cent in February due to higher food and fuel prices, the government said Thursday.
Washington - The US economy shrank in nearly all parts of the country in the first two months of the year, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in the latest sign of a deepening US recession.
