Author: ALJAZEERA

The International Monetary Fund has raised its global growth forecasts for 2025 and 2026 slightly, citing stronger-than-expected purchases in advance of an August 1 jump in tariffs imposed by the United States and a drop in the effective US tariff rate to 17.3 percent from 24.4 percent.In its forecast on Tuesday, it warned, however, that the global economy faced major risks including a potential rebound in tariff rates, geopolitical tensions and larger fiscal deficits that could drive up interest rates and tighten global financial conditions.“The world economy is still hurting, and it’s going to continue hurting with tariffs at that level,…

The United States and the European Union have reached a wide-ranging trade agreement, ending a months-long standoff and averting a full-blown trade war just days before President Donald Trump’s deadline to impose steep tariffs.The EU will pay 15 percent tariffs on most goods, including cars. The tariff rate is half the 30 percent Trump had threatened to implement starting on Friday. Brussels also agreed on Sunday to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on US weaponry and energy products on top of existing expenditures.Speaking to reporters at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, Trump hailed the agreement as the “biggest…

The carmaker joins Stellantis and GM in reporting hits to their profits as tariffs drive up costs for the industry.Volkswagen has reported $1.5bn in losses in the first half of the year because of tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump. The German carmaker reported a hit as the company revised its full year sales and profit margin forecasts. Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, now expects this year’s operating profit margin to be 4 percent to 5 percent, compared with a previous forecast of 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent. Full-year sales, earlier seen up to 5 percent higher, are expected…

The social media giant follows Alphabet, Google’s parent company, which made a similar decision in November.Meta will suspend political and social issue advertising on its platforms in the European Union starting in October. Facebook and Instagram’s parent company announced the new policy change on Friday, citing legal uncertainty about the bloc’s new rules on political advertising. The Silicon Valley-based social media giant is following in the footsteps of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, which made the same decision in November. The EU legislation, called the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which will apply from October 10, was prompted…

Cesar Martinez, 45, works full-time at a butcher shop in Buenos Aires, but in the last year, he has had to pick up other jobs to make it to the end of the month. So, when the government of President Javier Milei publicly celebrated a new drop in the inflation rate in June as a sign of a recovering economy, something didn’t quite add up. “The money one makes is never enough to afford everything, even the most basic things,” Martinez says. The sentiment is a shared one on the streets of Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires. Little over a year…

United States President Donald Trump arrived at the Federal Reserve’s headquarters in Washington to tour the site of a $2.5bn renovation of two historical buildings, which the White House criticises as overly costly and ostentatious, as tensions escalate between the administration and the independent overseer of the nation’s monetary policy. Thursday’s rare presidential visit to the Fed is happening less than a week before the central bank’s 19 policymakers gather for a two-day rate-setting meeting, where they are widely expected to leave the US central bank’s benchmark interest rate in the 4.25-4.50 percent range. Trump has repeatedly demanded that the…

Canberra says restrictions will be lifted following a ‘rigorous science and risk-based assessment’.Australia has announced that it will lift tough restrictions on beef imports from the United States, removing measures singled out for criticism by US President Donald Trump. Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said the government would remove the biosecurity restrictions after a “rigorous science and risk-based assessment” found risks of disease were being managed on the US side. “Australia stands for open and fair trade – our cattle industry has significantly benefitted from this,” Collins said in a statement. Australia, which has some of the world’s toughest biosecurity measures,…

Malaysian leader also says petrol prices will be cut and highway toll rates frozen to address cost of living concerns.Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has announced a package of measures aimed at easing the cost of living, including a 100 ringgit ($24) cash handout for all adult citizens. In a televised address on Wednesday, Anwar said the assistance would benefit 22 million Malaysians and be redeemable at more than 4,000 stores from August 31 to December 31. Anwar said the government would also reduce the price of subsidised petrol from 2.05 ringgit per liter (2.6 gallons) to 1.99 ringgit per liter for…

The move gives US Treasury a chance to recommend replacement, at time that US President Donald Trump is reshaping global economy.Gita Gopinath, the number two official at the International Monetary Fund, will leave her post at the end of August to return to Harvard University, the IMF has said. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva will name a successor to Gopinath in “due course”, the financial institution said in a statement on Monday. Gopinath joined the fund in 2019 as chief economist, the first woman to serve in that role, and was promoted to first deputy managing director in January 2022.…

Seoul, South Korea – When Sideny Sim had a chance to visit the United States on business several years ago, it was the fulfilment of a lifelong dream. Like many South Koreans, Sim had long admired the US as a cultural juggernaut and positive force in the world. These days, Sim, a 38-year-old engineer living near Seoul, feels no such love towards the country. As US President Donald Trump threatens to impose a 25 percent tariff on South Korea from August 1, Sim cannot help but feel betrayed. “If they used to be a country that was known to be a…