McDonald’s employee gives change to a customer. Jeffrey Greenberg | UIG | Getty Images Some of America’s best-known companies say their consumers are suffering from inflation as prices continue to rise. For the past three years, inflation has dominated corporate America’s discourse after the pandemic loosened monetary policy and cost trillions of dollars in Covid…
As prices for staples soared in 2021 and 2022, some Americans who had not regularly shopped at Walmart increasingly turned to the retailer known for its affordable prices. Now the company is trying to retain these new customers and attract others with a new selection of plant-based, gluten-free and luxury culinary dishes. On Tuesday, the…
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell prepares to testify before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on March 7, 2024. Kent Nishimura | Getty Images News | Getty Images With stubborn inflation raising concerns about the future direction of monetary policy, the Federal Reserve is caught in a holding pattern that will likely be…
More than two years after the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates to slow growth and weigh on inflation, companies continue to hire, consumers continue to spend and policymakers are wondering why their hikes were not more aggressive. The answer probably lies, in part, in a simple reality: High interest rates don’t hurt Americans who…
People walking the streets of Montmartre, Paris, France on April 23, 2024. Photo only | Photo only | Getty Images According to flash figures published on Tuesday, price increases in the euro area remained stable at 2.4% in April, while the economy returned to growth in the first quarter. Headline inflation of 2.4% was in…
Saudi Arabia’s economy minister dismissed recent reports that the kingdom’s $1.5 trillion NEOM megaproject, a futuristic desert project on the Red Sea coast, is scaling back some of its plans. “All projects are progressing at full speed,” Faisal Al Ibrahim told CNBC’s Dan Murphy at the World Economic Forum’s special meeting in Riyadh on Monday….
A crucial question hangs over the American economy and this fall’s presidential election: Why are consumer prices still rising uncomfortably quickly, even after a sustained campaign by the Federal Reserve to slow the economy by raising interest rates? Economists and policy experts have offered several explanations. Some are essentially idiosyncrasies of the current economic situation,…
Borge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum, gave a bleak outlook on the global economy, saying the world faces a decade of low growth unless the right economic measures are taken. Speaking on Sunday at the WEF’s “Special Meeting on Global Cooperation, Growth and Energy for Development” in Saudi Arabia, he warned that global…
A customer shops for groceries at a grocery store on March 12, 2024 in San Rafael, California. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images The final inflation news that Federal Reserve officials will see before their policy meeting next week is in, and none of it is particularly good. Overall, Commerce Department indexes,…
Heading into 2024, investors expected the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates significantly this year due to cooling inflation. But the price increases have been surprisingly persistent, forcing Wall Street to rethink. Investors and economists are wondering when and to what extent Fed policymakers will be able to cut interest rates – and some are…
