4 Min Read
LONDON (Reuters) - Credit rating agency Fitch says is it likely to wait until next year before making final judgment calls on many of the countries still on downgrade warnings due to the COVID-19 crisis.
FILE PHOTO: Canary Wharf stands in London, Britain December 27, 2020. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo
Fitch has downgraded a record 35 countries, including 10 more than once, over the last year as the pandemic has shuttered economies and sent debt levels soaring.
It looks to be far from over too. The firm still has 35 sovereigns on a ‘negative outlook’ - rating agency parlance for a warning - ranging from top-rated AAAs like the United States and Australia to many at the bottom end of spectrum.
By Reuters Staff
(adds von der Leyen)
MILAN, April 14 (Reuters) - The EU Commission has decided not to renew COVID-19 vaccine contracts next year with AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Italian daily La Stampa reported on Wednesday, citing a source from the Italian health ministry.
“The European Commission, in agreement with the leaders of many (EU) countries, has decided that the contracts with the companies that produce (viral vector) vaccines that are valid for the current year will not be renewed at their expiry,” the newspaper reported.
It added that Brussels would rather focus on COVID-19 vaccines using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, such as Pfizer’s and Moderna’s.
By Reuters Staff
Close of day at Adum market in Kumasi, Ghana, July 22, 2019. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko
ACCRA (Reuters) - Ghana’s consumer price inflation was at 10.3% year-on-year in March, unchanged from the previous month, the West African nation’s statistics service said on Wednesday.
Inflation has remained above the central bank’s targeted band of 8% plus or minus 2 percentage points since February.
Reporting by Christian Akorlie; Writing by Cooper Inveen; Editing by Bate Felix
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Chairman of the Federal Reserve Jerome Powell listens during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on The Quarterly CARES Act Report to Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2020. Susan Walsh/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve will reduce its monthly bond purchases before it commits to an interest rate increase, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday, clarifying the order of monetary policy changes that are still months if not years in the future.
The Fed is currently buying $120 billion a month in government-issued and government-backed securities, and has pledged to continue doing that until the economy is more fully recovered.