By Reuters Staff
(Adds quotes)
MOSCOW, April 23 (Reuters) - Below are excerpts translated from Russian by Reuters from Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina speaking at an online press conference after the central bank raised its key rate by 50 basis points to 5% on Friday.
ON RATE
“We do see risks of delaying a return to neutral monetary policy. These risks can lead to the need for a more significant rate hike in the future, and I think we all want to avoid that.
“Most likely we will look at a rate hold and a 25-basis-point hike, and, under certain conditions, a bigger step is possible but a lot would depend on the (incoming) data.”
(Updates prices, adds MUFG comment)
MOSCOW, April 23 (Reuters) - The rouble strengthened past 75 to a more than one-month high against the dollar on Friday, after the central bank hiked its key rate and Russia said it had started withdrawing troops from the area near the border with Ukraine.
The central bank, which had been widely expected to raise rates to rein in high inflation due to the rouble’s weakness, hiked it by a bigger-than-expected 50 basis points to 5%.
By 1402 GMT, the rouble was 0.7% stronger against the dollar at 74.88, after hitting 74.65 earlier, a level last seen on March 22, and heading well away from the 2021 low of 78.0450 touched in early April.
2 Min Read
(Reuters) - Investors poured $16.4 billion into global bond funds and $14.9 billion into money market funds in the week ending April 21, according to Refinitiv Lipper data, as concerns about a global rise in COVID-19 cases prompted moves towards safer assets.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. one hundred dollar notes are seen in this picture illustration taken in Seoul February 7, 2011. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won/File Photo
The inflows at global bond funds were roughly 2% higher than in the previous week, the data showed. The massive inflows into money market funds came after an outflow of $50 billion in the last week.
However, global equity funds saw inflows of $10.8 billion, around 33% less than in the week before.
4 Min Read
FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The European Central Bank left policy unchanged as expected on Thursday, keeping copious stimulus flowing even as it predicted a firm rebound in the euro zone economy in the coming months as pandemic restrictions are lifted.
The ECB is keeping borrowing costs pinned near record lows via massive bond purchases to see the 19-country currency bloc through a scarring recession that has kept schools, shops, restaurants and hotels closed for most of the last year.
But growth is expected to rebound quickly from mid-year as COVID-19 infections are brought under control, the pace of vaccination picks up and restrictions are removed, raising questions about just how much ECB help is still needed.
3 Min Read
SYDNEY, April 22 (Reuters) - The Australian and New Zealand dollars hovered near recent one-month highs on Thursday with major commodity-linked currencies getting a boost from a hawkish tilt by the Bank of Canada which expects to start tightening policy next year.
The BoC signalled it could start hiking interest rates in late-2022, providing a lift to the Canadian dollar, with small spillovers to other commodity currencies such as the Aussie and the kiwi dollars.
The Australian dollar was last at $0.7750, not far from a one-month high of $0.7816 reached earlier this week.
Next stop is around $0.7820 levels with solid chart support seen around $0.7720 region.