Macroeconomics

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has pledged to do whatever it takes to curb inflation, now raging at a four-decade high and defying the Fed's efforts so far to tame it.

Increasingly, it seems, doing so might require the one painful thing the Fed has sought to avoid: A recession.

The US Federal Reserve has announced the most aggressive rate hike in nearly 30 years and has announced readiness for a new increase next month as a major step in the fight against rising inflation.

British economic output declined for a second month in a row in April, weighed down by decades-high inflation, official data showed yesterday.    

Gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent in April after a drop of 0.1 percent in March, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.    

Turkey's current account deficit came in at $2.7 billion in April, widening by $1.2 billion in the same month of last year, the Central Bank said yesterday.

On the back of the April data, the country's 12-month rolling current account gap amounted to $25.7 billion.

Red-hot U.S. inflation is showing few signs of cooling, putting the Federal Reserve on track to continue its aggressive interest rate increases to help cool high prices that are challenging Joe Biden's presidency.    

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) upgraded its economic growth forecast for the Turkish economy for 2022 to 3.7 percent from a previous 3.3 percent, while cutting the its estimate for next year from 3 percent from 3.9 percent.

The government will continue lowering interest rates, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, vowing to fight against the rising cost of living.

"This government will not hike interest rates. No one should expect us to do this. On the contrary, we will keep lowering the rates," Erdoğan said following a cabinet meeting in Ankara on May 6.

Fighting inflation will be the government's top priority in the coming period, Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said, reiterating that effectively using monetary and macroprudential policies will be crucial to curb price increases.

Consumer prices in Turkey increased by 2.98 percent in May, slowing from the 7.25 percent month-on-month increase recorded in April, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on June 3.

Estonia had a 20.1% inflation rate