WASHINGTON — U.S. Federal Reserve officials believed that an increase of 50 or 75 basis points would likely be appropriate at the next meeting, recognizing the possibility of an even more restrictive stance, according to the minutes of the Fed’s latest policy meeting released Wednesday.
“Participants noted that inflation remained much too high and observed that it continued to run well above the committee’s longer-run 2 percent objective,” showed the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) June 14-15 meeting. (US-Fed-Minutes)
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SANTIAGO — The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Wednesday warned of a “dire” rise in hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean, after the number of people suffering from hunger in the region grew by 4 million between 2020 and 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
From its regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile, the agency presented “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022,” which shows that in 2021 as many as 56.5 million people in the region suffered hunger and 268 million people faced food insecurity. (Chile-FAO)
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BOGOTA — At least two miners were killed and four others were injured on Wednesday following a rockfall at a gold mine near the Colombian town of Marmato, in the west-central department of Caldas.
The head of the Marmato Fire Department, Hernando Gallego, said heavy rains loosened rocks that fell onto one of the mine’s crushers, killing and injuring miners. (Colombia-Rockfall)
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HELSINKI — Finland’s goods imports from China increased by 47.2 percent year-on-year to 707.5 million euros (722 million U.S. dollars) in May, preliminary statistics from the Finnish Customs showed Wednesday.
The Customs attributed the rise to the import of a 62-million-euro ship from China. Finland’s exports to China, however, declined by 11.2 percent in May. (Finland-China-Imports)
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KUWAIT CITY — There is no immediate concern for the economy of Kuwait after oil prices in the global market took a nosedive this week, oil analysts in the country said.
As mounting concerns about a worldwide recession outweighed supply issues, oil prices plummeted on Wednesday, extending Tuesday’s heavy losses. (Kuwait-Oil-Economy)
