Hello from the FT newsroom. Our big stories this week seem to show a global economy returning to “normal” — at least at a headline level.
Though the US Federal Reserve held interest rates high, officials signalled that they expect?three rate cuts in 2024
. In the UK, inflation hit 3.4 per cent in February, its?lowest rate since 2021
. However, rent prices are still?rising at record rates
, as higher borrowing costs continue to squeeze landlords and tenants.
In Tokyo, meanwhile, the Bank of Japan finally ended its era of negative interest rates this week after decades of deflation. Yet Japan’s big structural challenges — an ageing population, sluggish consumption and low growth — remain unchanged.?The real test for Japan is still to come
, as our?Asia editor Robin Harding writes.
Check our global inflation tracker, and see how policymakers are making decisions on borrowing costs
- A fraught battle over religious worship sites is under way in India. While Hindu nationalist litigants want centuries-old mosques torn down, Muslim residents argue that the movement will erase their culture. Our reporters explore the divisive politics of India’s temples.
- London luxury real estate has a new kingpin
, and rumours are rife about how he will disrupt the lucrative business of selling homes to the super-rich. The FT’s property correspondent Joshua Oliver speaks to the Sotheby’s real estate chief who is bringing the “Dubai model” to the UK. (Free to read)
- Vladimir Putin celebrated record voter turnout for his re-election last weekend. But at the site of Moscow’s “original frozen conflict”, turnout was at its lowest level in 18 years. In the wake of the war in Ukraine, Transnistria’s residents have taken an “irreversible” turn away from Russia.
- Will the “red wall” reshape British politics again? After Labour’s 2019 humiliation in northern England, Keir Starmer’s party is back on top in the polls — although love for Starmer himself is thin on the ground
, deputy political editor Jim Pickard reports from Grimsby.
- The streets of Iran have been alive with dancing and celebration in the lead-up to Nowruz, the Persian new year. But this year the jubilation reveals the culture clash gripping the country
, writes Tehran correspondent Najmeh Bozorgmehr. (Free to read)
- When a Metropolitan Police detective pulled up at a lavish north London mansion, he knew he was looking for a Chinese takeaway worker. What he found was a staggering ￡1.41bn of bitcoin and a remarkable, complex, international crime. Read the extraordinary tale from this weekend’s FT Magazine.
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7 个月https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/nextech-solutions-ltd/?viewAsMember=true
Internal Audit Manager
8 个月I think the key topic eventually came up today, when FT wrote that US requests from Ukraine to stop attack russian petrol producing facilities??♀? I believe, Ukraine doesn't listen to such a stupid advice at least till the moment when Ukrainians stop dieing from russian bombs, i.e. till the moment when US will cover Ukrainian sky completely from russian terrorists
Ph.D. at SUNY at Stony Brook. Professor of Economics. Equilibrium matters and it matters a lot.
8 个月One must be careful about rents. For home-owners, a higher rent is beneficial. Think this way. Are you feeling lucky to have bought a house if you hear your neighbor's rent increased by 100%? So it is not right to count all shelter costs in CPI. Economists did not think things clearly in the very beginning by including shelter costs. It misled so much in the past and will continue to do so.