LONDON, May 19 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;A new study by the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank&nbsp;to the world&#8217;s&nbsp;central&nbsp;banks, the&nbsp;Bank&nbsp;of International Settlements (BIS), has called for&nbsp;urgent&nbsp;action to tackle&nbsp;rising&nbsp;wealth&nbsp;inequality, warning the problem was feeding a dangerous loop of recessions and poverty.



While government policies have largely been blamed for the rise in&nbsp;inequality&nbsp;since the 1980s,&nbsp;central&nbsp;bankers have also come under fire in recent years for fuelling huge stock market gains with ultra-low interest rates and asset buying schemes.



The&nbsp;BIS, looking at 182 recessions across 70 countries, found that even six years after a downturn, the income share of the bottom 50% of earners in an impacted economy remained 0.3% below the pre-recession level on average, whereas for those in the top 10% bracket it was still 0.7% higher.



Economies that are more unequal go through deeper recessions which in turn further increases&nbsp;inequality, its analysis showed. Less progressive taxes and social support programme in many countries have made the problems worse as well.



&#8220;It is increasingly apparent that&nbsp;inequality&nbsp;has evolved from being an academic issue to an&nbsp;urgent&nbsp;policy&nbsp;matter,&#8221; the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bis.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BIS&nbsp;paper</a>&nbsp;said, adding that one of key risks for&nbsp;central&nbsp;banks was that their policy tools become less effective.



The&nbsp;BIS&nbsp;study showed that low-paid workers in some countries were over three time more likely to have lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, while surging inflation was&nbsp;now&nbsp;hitting poorer households disproportionately hard.



&#8220;Once&nbsp;inequality&nbsp;is left to grow unchecked, deeper and deeper recessions demand additional policy support,&#8221; it said.



&#8220;But at the same time monetary stimulus loses traction, so that the&nbsp;central&nbsp;bank&nbsp;needs to deploy bolder and bolder instruments, which can in turn produce undesirable side effects in terms of wealth&nbsp;inequality&#8221;.



Instead it recommended keeping inflation in check and that governments use &#8220;stabilisation policies&#8221; such as subsidies or support payments that help poorer people.



(Reporting by Marc Jones; Editing by Jan Harvey)

people-black-poverty-guinea-african-bissau-940174-pxhere.com_

Rising inequality now an urgent matter, BIS central bank group warns

May 19 (Reuters) &#8211; Russia will send any oil rejected by European countries to Asia and other regions, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday, adding that Europe would have to find substitute supplies that would be more expensive.



The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled a 210 billion euro ($220 billion) plan for Europe to end its reliance on Russian fossil fuels by 2027 and to use the pivot away from Moscow to quicken its transition to green energy. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/eu-unveils-escape-route-russian-fossil-fuels-by-2027-2022-05-18/">read more</a>



Europe receives about 4 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian oil, Novak said, adding that Russia was ready to reroute those supplies leaving Europe with more expensive crude from other origins.



Western sanctions imposed on Russia after its troops marched into Ukraine in February forced a number of oil buyers to delay or refuse cargoes, which in turn knocked Russian oil production.



Novak said Russian oil production was about 1 million bpd lower in April but had increased by 200,000-300,000 bpd in May with more volumes expected to be restored next month.



He said Russia&#8217;s oil exports were gradually recovering and the country would be able to find export markets because its energy resources were competitive.



($1 = 0.9537 euros)



RegisterReporting by Reuters; Editing by Edmund Blair



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106112608-1567659337821gettyimages-1149971899

Russia to send oil rejected by Europe to Asia, other regions, says Novak

<ul><li>Digital rand at least a few years away, says deputy governor</li></ul>



<ul><li>Cen bank digital currency likely only for wholesale purposes</li></ul>



<ul><li>SARB hopes crypto assets could be regulated within 15 months</li></ul>



<ul><li>Regulation to prevent theft, fraud, undermining SARB authority</li></ul>



By Rachel Savage and Promit Mukherjee



LONDON/JOHANNESBURG, May 18 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;A digital rand in South Africa could cut the high cost of cross-border payments for banks but its introduction is still a few years away, a senior central bank official said.



However, regulation of crypto assets&nbsp;is in the offing and might come into force within nine to 15 months, South&nbsp;African&nbsp;Reserve Bank (SARB) Deputy Governor Kuben Naidoo told Reuters in an interview.



It costs 13% of a transaction to remit money from South Africa to another country, more than double the average of the Group of 20 (G20) leading global economies, according to a 2021&nbsp;<a href="https://remittanceprices.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/rpw_main_report_and_annex_q421.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">World Bank report</a>.



Sending money to South Africa costs 6.2%.



Some countries are planning to introduce e-versions of traditional currency, known as central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and are studying how the underlying technology could be used.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2X13EL&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2W922S&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



China&#8217;s digital yuan project is the most advanced among large economies, though central banks from the&nbsp;euro zone&nbsp;to the United States are in varying stages of research into CBDCs.



Last year, Nigeria&#8217;s central bank introduced an eNaira for use by ordinary citizens.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2RL4J4&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



South Africa has conducted small-scale experiments with a wholesale CBDC and participated in a cross-border pilot with the central banks of Malaysia, Australia and Singapore.



The next stage is for regulators to test the digital rand at a bigger scale and develop rules for its use.



&#8220;We&#8217;re still learning, we&#8217;re still experimenting,&#8221; Naidoo said.



Meanwhile, Naidoo said the South&nbsp;African&nbsp;Reserve Bank wants regulation of crypto assets to prevent theft, money laundering and undermining of monetary policy and hopes it will be in place in the next 15 months.



&#8220;If crypto assets were to become a very ubiquitous currency, you could undermine the authority of the central bank,&#8221; he said.



(Reporting by Rachel Savage and Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

South African Economy As Inflation Rate Rises For First Time In 2017

S.African central bank eyes digital rand to cut cross-border payment costs

<ul><li>Stocks slide as inflation scare drives uncertainty</li><li>UK inflation hits 9%, in Canada rises to 6.8%</li><li>German 2-year yield hits 2011 high on ECB rate hike bets</li></ul>



NEW YORK, May 18 (Reuters) &#8211; Global stocks plunged and the dollar strengthened for the first time in four sessions on Wednesday as concerns about rising inflation on economic growth soured sentiment.



The mood was underscored by a 9% surge in British consumer prices and a faster-than-expected acceleration in inflation in Canada.



British inflation surged to its highest annual rate since 1982 as energy bills soared, while Canadian inflation rose to 6.8% last month, largely driven by rising food and shelter prices, Statistics Canada data showed. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/uk-inflation-hits-9-highest-since-modern-records-started-2022-05-18/">read more</a>



British inflation is now the highest among major economies in Europe, but prices are rapidly rising worldwide, forcing central banks around the globe to hike interest rates and tamp down growth as suggested by a modest decline in U.S. homebuilding in April.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/us-building-permits-dive-april-housing-starts-fall-2022-05-18/">read more</a>



Soaring prices and material shortages have already hit homebuilding, the sector of the economy most sensitive to rates. But the U.S. Commerce Department report also showed a record backlog of houses to be built, indicating a decline in homebuilding potentially might be marginal.



Adding to the gloom caused by inflation were earnings results from Target Corp&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/TGT.N" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">(TGT.N)</a>, whose quarterly profit halved as it warned of a bigger margin hit this year due to rising fuel and freight costs.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/target-profit-halves-rising-costs-warns-bigger-margin-hit-2022-05-18/">read more</a>



Target shares plummeted 24.88%, its biggest one-day percentage drop since the &#8220;Black Monday&#8221; stock market crash on Oct. 19, 1987, a day after Walmart Inc <a href="https://www.reuters.com/companies/WMT.N" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">(WMT.N)</a> warned of similar margin squeezes and saw its stock drop 11.4% for its biggest one-day percentage fall since Oct. 16, 1987.



&#8220;It was Walmart yesterday and everybody thought it was a one-off,&#8221; said Dennis Dick, head of markets structure and a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas. &#8220;Now that Target misses earning a lot more than Walmart even did, they&#8217;re scared that consumer is not as strong as everybody think it is.&#8221;



MSCI&#8217;s gauge of stocks across the globe&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/quote/.MIWD00000PUS" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">(.MIWD00000PUS)</a>&nbsp;shed 2.74%, while in Europe, the pan-regional STOXX 600 index&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/quote/.STOXX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">(.STOXX)</a>&nbsp;closed down 1.14%.



On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/quote/.DJI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">(.DJI)</a>&nbsp;fell 3.56%, the S&amp;P 500&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/quote/.SPX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">(.SPX)</a>&nbsp;lost 4.03% and the Nasdaq Composite&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/quote/.IXIC" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">(.IXIC)</a>&nbsp;dropped 4.73%.



The declines for the S&amp;P 500 and Dow marked their biggest one-day percentage declines since June 11, 2020.



Few analysts are willing to predict the end to selling after a bruising first five months of the year for risk assets given the magnitude of macroeconomic uncertainty, with many anticipating market volatility will be the norm for some time.



The U.S. dollar gained ground as the sell-off in risk assets boosted the safe-haven appeal of the greenback, which was on pace to snap a three-session losing streak, a day after Fed Chair Jerome Powell pledged the U.S. central bank would ratchet up rates as high as needed to combat rising inflation.



The dollar index rose 0.581%, with the euro down 0.8% to $1.0463. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.92% to 128.23 per dollar.



Treasury yields fell, although a steep path for rates remained the prevailing market consensus as the benchmark 10-year note yield hit a one-week high of 3.015% after Powell&#8217;s hawkish comments.



The yield fell 8.1 basis points to 2.890% on Wednesday after a soft U.S. housing starts number.



The German two-year government bond yield shot to 0.444%, its highest since November 2011 after more hawkish central banker comments, and last was up 1.6 basis points at 0.386%. The European Central Bank&#8217;s Klaas Knot said on Tuesday that a 50-basis-point rate hike in July was possible if inflation broadens.



Gold prices were little changed despite the risk-off environment as looming U.S. interest rate hikes and a resurgent dollar dimmed the metal&#8217;s shine.



Spot gold was up 0.1% at $1,816.06 an ounce.



Oil prices dipped in volatile trade, reversing early gains as traders grew less worried about a supply crunch after government data showed U.S. refiners ramped up output.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/oil-prices-climb-hopes-china-demand-recovery-2022-05-18/">read more</a>



U.S. crude settled down 2.5% at $109.59 per barrel and Brent settled at $109.11, down 2.52% on the day.



Reporting by Herbert Lash and Chuck Mikolajczak; additional reporting by Devik Jain in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis



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Trading Board Is Showing A Crash In Stok Exchange Market

Stocks pummeled by growth worries, U.S. dollar climbs

KEY POINTS



<ul><li>Goldman Sachs analysts have cut their China GDP forecast to 4% from 4.5% after weak data in April.</li><li>The bank does not expect China will start fully easing Covid controls before the second quarter of 2023.</li><li>On Monday, Citi — which had one of the highest China GDP forecasts — cut its outlook for growth to 4.2% from 5.1%.</li></ul>



BEIJING — Goldman Sachs analysts on Wednesday cut their forecast for China’s GDP to 4% after&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/16/china-economy-covid-lockdowns-weigh-on-retail-industrial-production-data.html">data for April showed a slump</a>&nbsp;in growth as Covid-19 controls restricted business activity.



The new forecast is even further below the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/05/china-on-deck-to-reveal-its-2022-gdp-target.html">“around 5.5%”</a>&nbsp;growth target the Chinese government announced for the year in March.



“Given the Q2 Covid-related damage to the economy, we now expect China’s growth to be 4% this year (vs. 4.5% previously),” Hui Shan and a team at Goldman wrote in a report Wednesday. That prediction assumes there will be significant government support, on top of measures to stabilize the property market and control Covid outbreaks.



Since March, mainland China has struggled to contain its worst Covid outbreak in two years. Notably, the metropolis of Shanghai only started this week to begin discussing the resumption of normal activity — with a goal of mid-June.



Among April’s weak data, the Goldman analysts pointed to a plunge in housing starts and sales, half the credit growth that markets expected and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/11/chinas-consumer-prices-climb-as-covid-prompts-food-stockpiling.html">a drop below 1% for the increase in consumer prices, excluding food and energy.</a>



Other data for April released Monday showed an <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/16/china-economy-covid-lockdowns-weigh-on-retail-industrial-production-data.html">unexpected drop in industrial production</a> and a worse-than-expected 11.1% decline in retail sales from a year ago. Exports, a major driver of growth, rose <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/09/china-economy-april-exports-slow-imports-unchanged-amid-virus-curbs.html">by 3.9% in April</a> from a year earlier, the slowest pace since a 0.18% increase in June 2020, according to official data accessed through Wind Information.



“The weak data highlight the tension between China’s growth target and zero-Covid policy which is at the core of China’s growth outlook,” the Goldman analysts said.



They noted how Chinese leaders have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/12/chinese-official-on-chinas-economy-amid-covid-pandemic.html">emphasized their “dynamic zero-Covid” policy,</a>&nbsp;and how news that China will not host the Asian Cup next summer due to Covid reflects Beijing’s conservative mindset.



“We now expect reopening does not start before 2023Q2 and the process to be more gradual and controlled than previously assumed,” the Goldman analysts said.



“This is why our 2023 GDP growth forecast only increases by a quarter point to 5.3% (vs. 5.0% previously) despite the half a point downward revision to 2022 full-year growth forecast.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-other-banks-cut-forecasts"><a></a>Other banks cut forecasts</h2>



On Monday, Citi — which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/26/investment-banks-slash-china-growth-outlook-one-puts-gdp-below-4percent.html">had one of the highest China GDP forecasts</a>&nbsp;— cut its outlook for growth to 4.2% from 5.1%.



A few days earlier, JPMorgan had reduced its estimate to 4.3% from 4.6%. Morgan Stanley cut its target in late April to 4.2% from 4.6%.

106910593-1626253221629-gettyimages-83781196-aa19b85a-38be-43ab-8727-5b1a7a5aae1e

Goldman Sachs cuts its China GDP forecast to 4% on Covid controls

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Smoking rates have declined globally for the first time on record, according to a new report on tobacco use from a public health campaign group and U.S. academics.



However, the figures from the Tobacco Atlas report – described as a potential tipping point by the authors – also mask growing numbers of smokers in parts of the world, as well as increased tobacco use among young teenagers in almost half of the countries surveyed.



Globally, there are 1.1 billion smokers and 200 million more people who use other tobacco products, the report from Vital Strategies and the Tobacconomics team at the University of Illinois at Chicago found.



That represented a decline in smoking rates from 22.6 per cent of people in 2007 to 19.6 per cent in 2019, they said, the first since the report began in 2002.



However, population growth in Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and the Western Pacific regions meant there were still increasing numbers of smokers in a number of areas, the report said. Moreover, prevalence is rising among adults in at least 10 countries in Africa, as well as among young people.



&#8220;The industry is still preying on emerging economies in ways that will lock in harms for a generation or more,&#8221; said Jeffrey Drope, public health professor at the University of Illinois and a report author.



Children were also being targeted in a number of countries, resulting in a rise in smoking among teenagers aged 13-15 in 63 of 135 countries surveyed, he said. Around 50 million in this age group, both boys and girls, now used tobacco products, he said, and the impact of new products like e-cigarettes and flavoured products was not yet fully understood.



Falling prevalence globally was a sign of the effectiveness of strong tobacco control measures, such as increased taxes, Drope added, but many lower-income countries did not have tough enough restrictions in place.



The data also shows tobacco use caused almost 8.7 million deaths worldwide in 2019, and approximately $2 trillion in economic damage. While more than half of the deaths are currently in high-income countries, this is expected to change if cigarette use continues to rise in lower-income areas.



The report also suggests that the tobacco industry is targeting black people in the United States with menthol cigarette promotion. The authors backed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration&#8217;s plan to ban their sale.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2WQ34R&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>.



(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Bradley Perrett)

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Global smoking rates fall for first time, but rise for kids, Africa – report

May 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Worsening outdoor air pollution and toxic lead poisoning have kept global deaths from environmental contamination at an estimated 9 million per year since 2015 – countering modest progress made in tackling pollution elsewhere, a team of scientists reported Tuesday.



Air pollution from industry processes along with urbanization drove a 7% increase in pollution-related deaths from 2015 to 2019, according to the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lan???/article/PII???????????????/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scientists’ analysis of data</a>&nbsp;on global mortality and pollution levels.



&#8220;We&#8217;re sitting in the stew pot and slowly burning,&#8221; said Richard Fuller, a study co-author and head of the global nonprofit Pure Earth. But unlike climate change, malaria, or HIV, &#8220;we haven&#8217;t given (environmental pollution) much focus.&#8221;



An earlier version of the work published in 2017 also estimated the death toll from pollution at roughly 9 million per year — or about one of every six deaths worldwide — and the cost to the global economy at up to $4.6 trillion per year. That puts pollution on par with smoking in terms of global deaths.&nbsp;COVID-19, by comparison, has killed about&nbsp;6.7 million&nbsp;people globally since the pandemic began.



For their most recent study, published in the online journal Lancet Planetary Health, the authors analyzed 2019 data from the Global Burden of Disease, an ongoing study by the University of Washington that assesses overall pollution exposure and calculates mortality risk.



The new analysis looks more specifically at the causes of pollution – separating traditional contaminants such as indoor smoke or sewage from more modern pollutants, like industrial air pollution and toxic chemicals. Here are some of the key takeaways:



WATER AND INDOOR AIR



Deaths from traditional pollutants are declining globally. But they remain a major problem in Africa and some other developing countries. Tainted water and soil and dirty indoor air put Chad, the Central African Republic and Niger as the three countries with the most pollution-related deaths, according to data adjusted for population.



State programs to cut indoor air pollution and improvements in sanitation have helped to curb death tolls in some places. In Ethiopia and Nigeria, these efforts brought related deaths to drop by two-thirds between 2000 and 2019. Meanwhile, the Indian government in 2016 began offering to replace wood-burning stoves with gas stove connections.



MODERN POLLUTANTS



Deaths caused by exposure to modern pollutants such as heavy metals, agrochemicals and fossil fuel emissions are &#8220;just skyrocketing&#8221;, rising 66% since 2000, said co-author Rachael Kupka, executive director of the New York-based Global Alliance on Health and Pollution.



When it comes to outdoor air pollution, some major capital cities have seen some success, including in Bangkok, China, and Mexico City, the authors said. But in smaller cities, pollution levels continue to climb.



HIGHEST POLLUTION-RELATED DEATHS



The study offered a list of the 10 countries most affected by pollution-related deaths, based on their findings on mortality adjusted for population.



1. Chad; 2. Central African Republic; 3. Niger; 4. Solomon Islands; 5. Somalia; 6. South Africa; 7. North Korea; 8. Lesotho; 9. Bulgaria; 10. Burkina Faso



(Reporting by Gloria Dickie; Editing by Katy Daigle and Lisa Shumaker)

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Pollution killing 9 million people a year, Africa hardest hit – study

ABUJA, May 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Nigeria is monitoring Meta Platforms Inc&#8217;s&nbsp;FB.O&nbsp;Facebook and other platforms to ensure they comply with demands to curtail hate speech on their sites, as it steps up its campaign for responsible use of social media, Information Minister Lai Mohammed said on Tuesday.



Mohammed&#8217;s comments came after meeting with Facebook&#8217;s team in Nigeria&#8217;s capital, Abuja. He said Facebook had done nothing to curtail the activities of separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on their platform despite several complaints.



Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB&#8217;s leader, is standing trial on charges that include terrorism and broadcasting falsehoods. A judge will decide on Wednesday on whether Kanu should be granted bail.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2W62BC&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2W55OW&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Mohammed said the separatist group has been classified as a terrorist organisation and that &#8220;Facebook has no justification for yielding its platform to the organisation to further its campaign of hate and destabilisation of the country&#8221;.



Nigeria is facing secessionist agitation which has given rise to regional calls for power-sharing between southern and northern Nigeria.



The country is also dealing with insecurity, banditry, kidnapping, a weak currency amid double-digit inflation and slow growth.



Mohammed said the Facebook meeting was called to discuss the increasing use of the social media platform by separatists based outside Nigeria to instigate violence and ethnic hatred in the country in English and local language.



He said the government has no intention of preventing Nigerians from using social media but is advocating responsible use.



Nigeria lifted a six-months ban on Twitter&nbsp;TWTR.N&nbsp;in January after the social media company removed a post from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists. Telecoms companies subsequently blocked access to users in Nigeria.<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2NM1P8&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Writing by Chijioke Ohuocha)

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Nigeria asks Facebook, other platforms to curtail hate speech￼

KEY POINTS



<ul><li>Fed Chair Jerome Powell said he will back interest rate increases until prices start falling back toward a healthy level.</li><li>“If that involves moving past broadly understood levels of neutral we won’t hesitate to do that,” the central bank leader told the Wall Street Journal</li></ul>



Federal Reserve Chair&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/jay-powell/">Jerome Powell</a>&nbsp;emphasized his resolve to get inflation down, saying Tuesday he will back interest rate increases until prices start falling back toward a healthy level.



“If that involves moving past broadly understood levels of neutral we won’t hesitate to do that,” the central bank leader told The Wall Street Journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/feds-powell-to-take-wsj-questions-on-inflation-and-economic-outlook-11652779802" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in a livestreamed interview</a>. “We will go until we feel we’re at a place where we can say financial conditions are in an appropriate place, we see inflation coming down.



“We’ll go to that point. There won’t be any hesitation about that,” he added.



Earlier this month, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/04/fed-raises-rates-by-half-a-percentage-point-the-biggest-hike-in-two-decades-to-fight-inflation.html">the Fed raised benchmark borrowing rates</a> by half a percentage point, the second increase of 2022 as inflation runs around a 40-year high.



Powell said following that increase that similar 50 basis point moves were likely to come at ensuing meetings so long as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/17/retail-sales-april-2022-up-0point9percent-vs-1point0percent-estimate.html">economic conditions</a>&nbsp;remained similar to where they are now.



On Tuesday, he repeated his commitment to getting inflation closer to the Fed’s 2% target, and cautioned that it might not be easy and could come at the expense of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/06/job-growth-accelerated-by-428000-in-april-more-than-expected-as-jobs-picture-stays-strong.html">a 3.6% unemployment rate</a>&nbsp;that is just above the lowest level since the late 1960s.



“You’d still have a strong labor market if unemployment were to move up a few ticks,” he said. “I would say there are a number of plausible paths to have a soft as I said softish landing. Our job isn’t to handicap the odds, it’s to try to achieve that.”



The U.S. economy saw growth contract at a 1.4% pace in the first quarter of 2022, due largely to ongoing supply side constraints, spread of the omicron Covid variant and the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/17/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html">war in Ukraine</a>.



However, tighter monetary policy has added to concerns about a steeper downturn and has sparked an aggressive sell-off on Wall Street. In addition to the 75 basis points in interest rate hikes, the Fed also has halted its monthly bond-buying program, which is also known as quantitative easing, and will begin shedding some of the $9 trillion in assets it has acquired starting next month.



Powell said he still hopes the Fed can achieve its inflation goals without tanking the economy.



“You’d still have a strong labor market if unemployment were to move up a few ticks. I would say there are a number of plausible paths to have a soft as I said softish landing. Our job isn’t to handicap the odds, it’s to try to achieve that,” he said.



He added that “there could be some pain involved to restoring price stability” but said the labor market should remain strong, with low unemployment and higher wages.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Photo: via Flickr

Powell says the Fed will not hesitate to keep raising rates until inflation comes down

WASHINGTON/MUMBAI, May 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Nofe Isah, a 25-year old based in Nigeria, has been investing in crypto since January. Last week, she lost all of her $5,000 in savings as cryptocurrency luna went into free fall.



Isah, a recently unemployed administrative officer, vowed she would never invest in crypto again.



&#8220;I can&#8217;t believe I fell for crypto,&#8221; she told Reuters by phone. &#8220;I&#8217;m just trying not to get myself depressed. Crypto has taken my money, fine. It shouldn&#8217;t take my head.”



The crypto market, known for its wild price swings, slumped last week as investors yanked money from riskier assets amid worries over soaring inflation and rising interest rates.



Bitcoin, the world&#8217;s largest cryptocurrency, fell as low as $25,401 on Thursday, its lowest since Dec. 2020. It hit a record high of $69,000 in November.



Small tokens were hit too, with ether, the second-largest token, dropping more than 15% to its lowest since June. Luna &#8211; a digital coin widely hyped on social media and backed by institutional crypto investors &#8211; shed nearly all of its value.



Small traders such as Isah have flocked to cryptocurrencies in the hope of quick returns, despite warnings from regulators that the emerging assets can be high risk.



Platforms such as Robinhood, which has 23 million customers across a variety of assets, have helped spur retail investing, including in crypto. Around a quarter of Robinhood&#8217;s transaction-based revenues came from cryptocurrencies in the first quarter of this year, Robinhood said in its latest earnings statement.



Overall user numbers at crypto platforms have ballooned. Binance, the world&#8217;s biggest crypto exchange, had some 118 million clients last month, up from 43.4 million in the first quarter of last year.



But after last week&#8217;s turmoil, online forums were awash with tales of woe, as retail investors expressed anguish about their losses.



&#8220;I&#8217;m 49, big mortgage, 3 kids etc. My retirement party is on ice for the foreseeable future!&#8221;, a user with the handle Boring-Fun-3646 said on Reddit.



Another user with the handle AdventurousAdagio830 posted on Reddit: &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t seem real that I lost $180,000.&#8221;



&#8216;DEATH SPIRAL&#8217;



Emblematic of crypto risks was the collapse last week of terraUSD, a stablecoin designed to keep a constant value via a complex algorithm that involved luna.



When the coins came under heavy selling pressure, the system broke down. TerraUSD &#8211; designed to keep a value of $1 &#8211; traded around 9 cents on Tuesday while luna plunged to near-zero, based on CoinGecko data.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X20JL&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Tejan Shrivastava, a 31-year old graphic designer from Mumbai, who has been investing in cryptocurrencies for the last year, had his $250 investment wiped out by luna&#8217;s collapse.



&#8220;It was stuck in a death spiral. All the money was gone in 15 minutes,&#8221; he told Reuters.



&#8220;I don&#8217;t even know if I&#8217;ll invest in crypto in the future. I have a crypto portfolio, but I am planning to liquidate it once it reaches break even.&#8221;



Luna&#8217;s fall wiped out most of its market value which had been above $40 billion as recently as early April, CoinGecko data shows.



Retail investors&#8217; online frustration even spilled over into the real world.



Seoul police last week said they were seeking a suspect after an unidentified individual rang the doorbell of the apartment of Do Kwon, the founder of terraUSD, and ran away.



Police would investigate whether the suspect had invested in cryptocurrencies, a Seoul police officer told Reuters.



PATCHY REGULATION



Through its 13-year life, the crypto sector has been peppered by vertiginous climbs and sudden free falls. In November, for instance, bitcoin slumped by a fifth in just under two weeks after touching a record $69,000. Six months earlier, it had tumbled by almost 40% in just nine days.



Yet crypto&#8217;s latest crash &#8211; which pushed the sector&#8217;s combined value to $1.2 trillion, less than half of where it was last November &#8211; led to the crushing of luna, which on May 1 was the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.



Cryptocurrencies are subject to patchy regulation across the world, with traders of bitcoin and the panapoly of smaller tokens typically unprotected against price slumps.



But it is difficult to gauge the scale of retail investors&#8217; pain from the crypto plunge and the repercussions on future appetite given the opaque nature of the market.



In Britain more than 4% of adults &#8211; some 2.3 million people &#8211; own cryptocurrencies, data published last year by the UK financial watchdog showed.



Britain&#8217;s watchdog said understanding of crypto was falling compared with a year earlier, &#8220;suggesting that some crypto users may not fully understand what they are buying&#8221;.



Still, some small investors are keeping the faith.



Eloisa Marchesoni, based near Tulum in Mexico and investing with a crypto syndicate, said she would not give up.



&#8220;I am looking to buy the dip &#8211; we are all waiting for bitcoin to go down to $22,000, which is not something too probable but not something that&#8217;s &#8216;not probable at all&#8217;.&#8221;



Marchesoni is also hedging her crypto bets with physical assets &#8212; &#8220;cars because you can lease them, watches, real estate&#8221;.



Bitcoin&nbsp;BTC=BTSP&nbsp;was hovering around $30,000 on Tuesday, having lost more than 20% so far this month.



Regulators remain on alert. The British government said last month it will regulate stablecoins.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2W23WH&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is toughening its stance. Gary Gensler, SEC chair, said this week investors in cryptocurrencies needed more protections.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X81YX&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



(Additional reporting by Alun John in Hong Kong and Soo-hyang Choi in Seoul; Writing by Carolyn Cohn, Elizabeth Howcroft and Tom Wilson in London. Editing by Jane Merriman)

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Small players lose faith in crypto after sell-off￼

May 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Zimbabwe has lifted its ban on bank lending, the central bank announced on Tuesday, more than a week after the government froze loans in a move it said was meant to stop speculation against a rapidly devaluing local currency.



The government said at the time it had started investigating unnamed speculators of taking out Zimbabwe dollar bank loans to purchase foreign currency on the black market, driving the local currency&#8217;s value lower.



&#8220;The Bank wishes to advise the public that the temporary suspension of lending services by banks has been lifted with immediate effect,&#8221; the central bank said in a statement.



It added that only organisations being probed for abusing loan facilities would not be allowed to borrow from banks.



Business groups had warned that the lending freeze would hurt commerce and worsen Zimbabwe&#8217;s economic crisis. Last week, South Africa&#8217;s Tongaat Hulett suspended pre-payments to sugar cane farmers, saying it relied on bank loans to fund the payments.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2X470V&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;We said (the lending freeze) was temporary. We have lived true to our word,&#8221; government spokesperson Nick Mangwana said on Twitter.



Zimbabwe reintroduced its currency in 2019, a decade after abandoning it in favour of foreign currencies, mainly the United States dollar. Since its return, the local currency&#8217;s value has declined from around 2.5 to the U.S dollar in 2019 to 285 against the greenbank on the interbank market.



It trades much weaker, around 400 to the U.S dollar on a thriving black market.



The lending freeze did slow the Zimbabwean dollar&#8217;s slide on the black market, although it had little impact on the official rate.



Zimbabwe, which experienced 500 billion percent hyperinflation in 2008, is currently experiencing another episode of high inflation, with year-on-year inflation rising to 96.4% in April from 72.7% in March, driven by the rapid devaluation of its currency.



(Reporting by Nelson BanyaEditing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

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Zimbabwe lifts ban on bank lending it imposed to stop currency slide￼

<ul><li>Food makes up 40% of CPI baskets in low income countries</li></ul>



<ul><li>UN food price index hits record in February, March</li></ul>



<ul><li>More governments opt to introduce support measures</li></ul>



<ul><li>Risk of social unrest is on the rise over food, fuel price rises</li></ul>



By Karin Strohecker, Ezgi Erkoyun and Sarah El Safty



LONDON/ISTANBUL/CAIRO, May 17 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Like for millions of people in developing&nbsp;and emerging market&nbsp;countries around the world, shopping for staple foods has turned from a necessity into a luxury for Selcuk Gemici.



The 49-year-old, who works in an auto repair shop in Turkey&#8217;s largest city Istanbul and lives with his wife and two children in his father&#8217;s house, says fresh produce is often out of reach with his family living on pasta, bulgur and beans.



&#8220;Everything became so expensive, we cannot buy and eat what we want &#8211; we only buy what we can afford now,&#8221; said Gemici. &#8220;My children are not properly nourished.&#8221;



Global food prices have climbed for two years, fuelled by COVID-19 disruptions and weather woes. Supply shocks to grains and oils from Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine saw them hit an all-time record in February, and again in March.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2WY26Q&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Inflation rates have soared, with energy price rises adding to pressure. Turkey or Argentina with annual inflation of 70% and around 60% might be outliers, but readings are into double-digits in countries from Brazil to Hungary. It makes U.S. inflation at 8.3% look modest in comparison.



Rising food prices are a hot topic in emerging market, raising the risk of civil unrest with echoes of the Arab spring and putting policy makers in a bind between stepping in with fiscal support to ease the pain on their population or preserve government finances.



Food is the single largest category in inflation baskets &#8211; the selection of goods used to calculate the cost of living &#8211; in many developing nations, accounting for around half in countries like India or Pakistan and on average for some 40% in low-income countries, International Monetary Fund data shows.



Food producers have become more protective: India on the weekend announcing a ban on wheat exports while Indonesia halted exports of palm oil to control soaring prices at home in late April.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X80FF&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a><a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X30P4&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



And with the war in Ukraine not only disrupting food but also fertilizer supplies, food inflation could be more longer-lasting, Marcelo Carvalho, head of global emerging markets research at BNP Paribas told Reuters.



&#8220;This is here to stay,&#8221; said Carvalho. &#8220;Food is very salient &#8211; when there is a change in food prices, the perception about inflation is magnified &#8211; that feeds into inflation expectations that are more easily unanchored.&#8221;



HOT SPOT



For Um Ibrahim, a 60-year-old widow and street vendor selling headscarves in front of a mosque in the middle-class district of Madinet Nasr in Egypt&#8217;s capital Cairo, feeding her four children has become much harder.



&#8220;All prices rose &#8211; clothes, vegetables, poultry, eggs &#8211; what am I going do?&#8221; she asked, laying out her ware on a cloth.



Egypt, one of the world&#8217;s biggest wheat importers, has seen inflation soar more than 13% in April, and is expected to hike interest rates again at a meeting this week after it devalued the currency by 14% in mid-March.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2VR0S1&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Emerging market policy makers, having jacked up interest rates by hundreds of basis points cumulatively since 2020 to curb price pressures and ensure a bond premium to rising U.S. yields for investors, have to perform a balancing act between taming inflation and keeping fragile growth alive at a time of rising global interest rates.



Emerging economies may expand just 4.6% this year, the World Bank forecasts, compared with an earlier 6.3% prediction.



Polina Kurdyavko, head of EM debt at BlueBay Asset Management, says governments have three options: Provide bigger subsidies to consumers or bite the bullet that is to let prices rise and face inflation and social unrest, or do something in between.



&#8220;There are no easy solutions,&#8221; Kurdyavko said.



A raft of countries have introduced measures: Turkey has raised the minimum wage by 50% in December to address a currency crash and inflation spike.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2T14KZ&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>&nbsp;Chile will up minimum pay this year as well.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL3N2WO37U&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



South Africa&#8217;s government is debating whether to increase a social relief grant launched in 2020 and make the scheme permanent.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2VC5HD&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Economists fear emerging economies are facing a fresh wave of unrest on the back of the latest increases in food prices. North Africa, where food inflation was a contributor to the Arab Spring revolts a decade ago, looked particularly vulnerable, said Beata Javorcic, chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.



&#8220;The irony of this war is that while everybody expected Russia to have a crisis, it is actually North African countries that are closer to having an emergency situation due to high food prices,&#8221; she said.



But pain is expected to stretch further: Three quarters of nations expected to be at high-risk or extreme risk of civil unrest by the fourth quarter of 2022 were middle-income countries, risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft said last week.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2X276O&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Appeasing inflation pressures through spending will come at a fiscal cost that could spell trouble further down the line, said BNP&#8217;s Carvalho.



&#8220;In emerging markets, fiscal sins are forgiven but not forgotten,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Over the last couple of years, everybody felt like they have a blank cheque &#8230; in part because rates were so low. Now that interest rates are rising, it gets a bit trickier.&#8221;



(Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Additional reporting by Jorgelina do Rosario; Editing by David Evans)

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Food inflation pain puts emerging markets between rock and hard place

ABUJA, May 16 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Nigeria&#8217;s economic crimes agency said on Monday night it had arrested the country&#8217;s accountant general over charges of diverting public funds and money laundering to the tune of 80 billion naira ($193 million).



Africa&#8217;s biggest economy and energy producer, Nigeria has struggled for decades with endemic corruption among senior public servants and the political elite, who many Nigerians blame for widespread poverty in the country.



The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said in a statement it had invited Ahmed Idris, the administrative head of the national treasury, on several occasions to answer questions on the charges but he had failed to present himself.



Idris could not be reached on his mobile phone for comment.



The EFCC said Idris used &#8220;proxies, family members and close associates&#8221; in deals and schemes to defraud the government and invested the proceeds in real estate in the nation&#8217;s capital Abuja and his home state of Kano in northern Nigeria.



The agency has in the past successfully prosecuted a former head of police and former state governors among several high ranking government officials and politicians.



Earlier this year, the government said EFCC recovered at least $750 million in local and foreign currency linked to corruption and fraud in 2021.



(Editing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Nigeria’s accountant general faces corruption charges after arrest￼

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;U.S. President Joe Biden has authorized the redeployment of fewer than 500 American troops into Somalia, U.S. officials said on Monday, after Donald Trump ordered their withdrawal during his presidency.



Prior to Trump&#8217;s withdrawal, the United States had about 700 troops in Somalia focused on helping local forces defeat the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgency.



&#8220;This is a repositioning of forces already in theater who have traveled in and out of Somalia on an episodic basis,&#8221; White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. The exact number of troops was not mentioned at the briefing.



A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Biden had approved the request from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to &#8220;enable a more effective fight against al Shabaab.&#8221;



The Pentagon said the troops would not be directly fighting in combat operations, but working to train, advise and equip Somali forces.



&#8220;Secretary&#8217;s (Austin&#8217;s) view was that the episodic engagement model was inefficient and increasingly unsustainable,&#8221; Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters.



The revamped troop presence will include fewer than 500 U.S. troops, another U.S. official said.



Al Shabaab is seeking to topple the government and establish its own rule in Somalia based on its strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.



The insurgent group frequently carries out bombings in Mogadishu and elsewhere as part of its war against the Horn of Africa country&#8217;s central government.



&#8220;It&#8217;s good news to have U.S. troops on the ground and counterterrorism efforts can be reinitiated,&#8221; said Colonel Ahmed Sheikh, the former commander of Somalia&#8217;s elite Danab Special Forces unit, trained by U.S. troops.



&#8220;This will be a huge boost for the new president – he has a big task ahead,&#8221; he added.



Former Somali leader Hassan Sheikh Mohamud won the presidency again in voting by parliamentarians on Sunday.



Somalia has endured conflict and clan battles with no strong central government since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The government has little control beyond the capital and the African Union contingent guards in an Iraq-style &#8220;Green Zone.&#8221;



While the United States did not have troops in Somalia since Trump ordered their withdrawal in December 2020, the military has occasionally carried out strikes in the country and has had troops in nearby countries.



(Reporting by Steve Holland and Idrees Ali in WashingtonAdditional rerpoting by Katharine Houreld and Jeff Mason Editing by Bill Berkrot and Matthew Lewis)

somalia-flag_Public Domain Pictures

Biden approves redeployment of under 500 ground troops to Somalia

GABORONE, May 16 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Botswana, Africa&#8217;s top diamond producer, sees a prolonged ban on Russian diamonds opening the way for synthetic gems to expand market share, the country&#8217;s minister told a mining conference on Monday.



The United States, the world largest market for natural diamonds, imposed sanctions on Russia&#8217;s state-controlled Alrosa&nbsp;ALRS.MM&nbsp;in April, aiming to cut off a source of revenue for Moscow after its February invasion of Ukraine.<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2W61HG&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Alrosa, the world&#8217;s largest producer of rough diamonds, accounted for about 30% of global output in 2021.



Botswana&#8217;s Minister of Minerals and Energy Lefoko Moagi said the ban on Russia diamonds might push prices up to the benefit of rival producers but he also said the gap would be hard to fill.



&#8220;We see the 30% gap that will be left by the ban being plugged by something else that is not natural. And for us that will be a challenge,&#8221; he said.



Jacob Thamage, head of Botswana&#8217;s Diamond Hub, said uncertainty over the Ukraine conflict makes it difficult for Botswana and other natural diamond miners to fill the supply gap as ramping up operations requires significant investment.



&#8220;You don&#8217;t want to invest a lot of money to up-scale and then the war ends the next day,&#8221; Thamage said. &#8220;We also see the higher prices pushing consumers to substitutes such as the synthetics and this can cause problems for us if we cede the market to unnatural stones.&#8221;



Sales at Debswana, a joint venture between Anglo American&nbsp;AAL.L&nbsp;unit De Beers and Botswana&#8217;s government, accounts for almost all of Botswana diamonds exports. These stood at $3.466 billion in 2021 compared with $2.120 billion in 2020.<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL8N2UB4O2&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Thamage also fears that consumers might start to shun natural diamonds due to traceability issues.



&#8220;There is an increased fear that buyers of diamonds will begin to treat all natural diamonds as conflict diamonds and therefore shift to unnatural diamonds,&#8221; he said.



(Reporting by Brian Benza, Editing by Nelson Banya and Jane Merriman)

diamonds-black-background

Botswana sees Russian diamond ban opening door to synthetic gems

LONDON, May 16 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Improving demand and lower supply will help palladium and rhodium swing back into deficit this year and reduce platinum&#8217;s surplus, consultants Metals Focus said on Monday.



The three precious metals are used by automakers in engine exhaust systems, where they neutralise harmful emissions. Platinum is also used in other industries and for jewellery and investment.



Demand from auto makers, which are beginning to overcome a shortage of semiconductors that forced them to cut production, will lift demand for all three metals, Metals Focus said.



On the supply side, palladium and platinum production could be constrained by major producer Russia&#8217;s conflict with Ukraine, while output from another key producer, South Africa, will fall, it said.



Logistical issues and limited automotive scrap feedstock will also impede supply from recycling.



Metals Focus said the roughly 10 million ounce a year palladium market should swing back from its first surplus in 10 years in 2021 to a deficit of 521,000 ounces in 2022 and that prices would average $2,290 an ounce this year.



Palladium&nbsp;XPD=&nbsp;jumped to a record high of $3,440.76 an ounce earlier this year and now costs around $1,930 an ounce.



The surplus in the nearly eight million ounce a year platinum market&nbsp;XPT=&nbsp;is expected be 40% lower than in 2021 at 477,000 ounces this year, while prices will average $990 an ounce, Metals Focus said.



It predicted a deficit of 30,000 ounces in 2022 in the one-million-ounce rhodium market, included in the Metals Focus report for the first time.



Rhodium&#8217;s annual average price&nbsp;RHOD-LON&nbsp;will fall 17% from last year to $17,750 an ounce in 2022, the report said. Rhodium currently trades around $15,600.



(Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; editing by David Evans)

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Palladium to swing back into deficit, platinum surplus to fall

<ul><li>China stocks slip 0.3%-0.8% on weak data</li></ul>



<ul><li>Rand down 0.4% amid growth concerns, power cuts, gold price decline</li></ul>



<ul><li>Turkish March current account deficit $5.554 billion; lira slips 0.5%</li></ul>



By Anisha Sircar and Bansari Mayur Kamdar



May 16 (Reuters)&nbsp;&#8211;&nbsp;Emerging market stocks and currencies hovered just above their lowest level in almost two years on Monday as dire Chinese economic data renewed concerns around global growth, while the South African rand came under pressure from domestic power cuts.



The MSCI index for emerging market (EM) equities&nbsp;.MSCIEF&nbsp;inched 0.2% higher, still down 6.5% on the month and nearly 20% on the year, while currencies&nbsp;.MIEM00000CUS&nbsp;were little changed against a strong greenback after a sixth straight weekly decline last week.



The dollar index&nbsp;=USD&nbsp;was perched at a two-decade peak as investors ramped up U.S. monetary policy tightening expectations.&nbsp;FRX/



&#8220;The main factor weighing on risky emerging assets is the prospect of further rate hikes by the Fed, accompanied by growing concerns that the global economy could be heading for recession,&#8221; said Piotr Matys, senior FX analyst at In Touch Capital Markets.



Concerns around monetary tightening amid slowing global growth, rising inflation and a cooling commodity price rally have hampered the attractiveness of emerging markets.



China stocks&nbsp;.SSEC,&nbsp;.CSI300&nbsp;fell between 0.3% and 0.8% as data showed the country&#8217;s April retail sales shrank 11.1% on the year, almost twice the drop forecast, while industrial output fell 2.9%.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X8047&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



South Africa&#8217;s rand&nbsp;ZAR=&nbsp;fell 0.4% as domestic power cuts, weaker gold prices and a blurry growth outlook weighed on the currency.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2X818V&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Investor focus was on a monetary policy decision expected on Thursday where the central bank is likely to make its first 50 basis point repo rate hike in more than six years.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL5N2X398J&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The Czech crown&nbsp;EURCZK=&nbsp;inched 0.3% higher after hitting two-month lows last week. Data showed industrial producer prices rose 26.6% year-on-year in April, greater than market expectations.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AP7N2QN02E&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The Czech National Bank launched a &#8220;true monetary-policy intervention&#8221; when it entered the market on May 12 to stop a weakening of the crown, board member Tomas Holub said Friday.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL2N2X50HP&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



The Sri Lankan rupee&nbsp;LKR=&nbsp;fell&nbsp;1.2%&nbsp;ahead of an address by the crisis-hit country&#8217;s new prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AL3N2X812C&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



Turkey&#8217;s lira&nbsp;TRY=&nbsp;fell 0.5% as the central bank said the country&#8217;s current account deficit in March widened to $5.554 billion, more than the forecasted $5.371 billion, but is up about 18% from its record low hit in December.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3AAPN0KPIRT&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



&#8220;The government notion that Turkey will be able to bring inflation lower in coming quarters if the current account deficit narrows is being put to a major test,&#8221; Matys said.



For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2022, see&nbsp;<a href="http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh</a>



For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2022, see&nbsp;<a href="https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX</a>



For TOP NEWS across emerging markets&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reutersconnect.com/all?search=all%3ATOPEMRG&amp;linkedFromStory=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read full story</a>



For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see&nbsp;CEE/



For TURKISH market report, see&nbsp;.IS



For RUSSIAN market report, see&nbsp;RU/RUB



(Reporting by Anisha Sircar and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

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Rising inequality now an urgent matter, BIS central bank group warns

Russia to send oil rejected by Europe to Asia, other regions, says Novak

S.African central bank eyes digital rand to cut cross-border payment costs

Stocks pummeled by growth worries, U.S. dollar climbs

Goldman Sachs cuts its China GDP forecast to 4% on Covid controls

Global smoking rates fall for first time, but rise for kids, Africa – report

Pollution killing 9 million people a year, Africa hardest hit – study

Nigeria asks Facebook, other platforms to curtail hate speech

Powell says the Fed will not hesitate to keep raising rates until inflation comes down

Small players lose faith in crypto after sell-off

Zimbabwe lifts ban on bank lending it imposed to stop currency slide

Food inflation pain puts emerging markets between rock and hard place

Nigeria’s accountant general faces corruption charges after arrest

Biden approves redeployment of under 500 ground troops to Somalia

Botswana sees Russian diamond ban opening door to synthetic gems

Palladium to swing back into deficit, platinum surplus to fall

EMERGING MARKETS-Battered stocks inch up; S. African rand falls on power cuts, growth fears

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Rising inequality now an urgent matter, BIS central bank group warns

Russia to send oil rejected by Europe to Asia, other regions, says Novak

S.African central bank eyes digital rand to cut cross-border payment costs

Stocks pummeled by growth worries, U.S. dollar climbs

Goldman Sachs cuts its China GDP forecast to 4% on Covid controls

Global smoking rates fall for first time, but rise for kids, Africa – report

Pollution killing 9 million people a year, Africa hardest hit – study

Nigeria asks Facebook, other platforms to curtail hate speech￼

Powell says the Fed will not hesitate to keep raising rates until inflation comes down

Small players lose faith in crypto after sell-off￼

Zimbabwe lifts ban on bank lending it imposed to stop currency slide￼

Food inflation pain puts emerging markets between rock and hard place

Nigeria’s accountant general faces corruption charges after arrest￼

Biden approves redeployment of under 500 ground troops to Somalia

Botswana sees Russian diamond ban opening door to synthetic gems

Palladium to swing back into deficit, platinum surplus to fall

EMERGING MARKETS-Battered stocks inch up; S. African rand falls on power cuts, growth fears

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Nigeria asks Facebook, other platforms to curtail hate speech

Small players lose faith in crypto after sell-off

Zimbabwe lifts ban on bank lending it imposed to stop currency slide

Nigeria’s accountant general faces corruption charges after arrest