Pace

The Bank of England raised interest rates by 0.5 percentage point to 3.5%, following the Federal Reserve in slowing the pace of increases as inflation edges lower. The BOE’s decision follows a similar move by the Swiss National Bank on a busy day for Europe’s most influential central banks. Investors expect the European Central Bank to announce a 0.5-point rate increase later Thursday. Both the BOE and the ECB have been battling all year with inflation that has spiraled to multidecade highs, partly…

The consumer-price index rose 7.7% in October from a year earlier, down from 8.2% the prior month—a trend marking a moderation of price increases since June’s 9.1% peak.   Newsletter Sign-up What’s News Catch up on the headlines, understand the news and make better decisions, free in your…

The global energy crisis sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine has “sparked unprecedented momentum” for renewable energy, according to a report Tuesday from the International Energy Agency. IEA projected that global renewable energy capacity will increase by 2,400 gigawatts between 2022 and 2027—an 85 percent jump in comparison to the growth rate in the last five years. Renewables will overtake coal as the world’s largest electricity source by 2025, the report said. The five-year growth forecast for renewables is 30…

HONG KONG—Chinese exports fell at the steepest pace in more than two years in November, the latest indication of how the country’s pandemic restrictions and waning global demand for goods is throttling China’s economy.Outbound shipments from China plunged 8.7% year-over-year last month, the biggest dip since February 2020, when a nationwide lockdown ground economic activities to a halt. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 2% drop. The sharper-than-expected plunge comes amid weakening factory…

Mr. Powell, in a speech Wednesday, said an overheated labor market needed to cool more for the Fed to be confident that inflation would make durable downward progress toward its 2% goal. Because the Fed has raised rates rapidly and it takes time for those moves to influence the economy, it would make sense for officials to slow rate increases, he said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Brookings Institution. “The time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the December meeting,” he said.…

After years of ambitious targets and bold promises, investors are growing impatient with the pace of driverless-car development, sending shock waves through an industry that had become accustomed to latitude and piles of cash from investors.Auto makers in recent weeks scaled back plans for the technology amid new pressure to curb expenses during an economic slowdown. An influential hedge fund also has questioned Google-parent Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG -1.29% yearslong effort…

Climate scientists have a surprising habit: They often underplay the climate threat. In 2007 a team led by Stefan Rahmstorf compared actual observations with projections made by theoretical models for three key climate variables: atmospheric carbon dioxide, global average temperature and sea-level rise. While the projections got CO2 levels right, they were low for real temperature and sea-level rise. In 2008 Roger Pielke, Jr., found that sea-level rise was greater than forecast in two of three prior Intergovernmental…

A senior Federal Reserve official said recent inflation data offered some signs of reassurance that price pressures were no longer broadening and that the central bank could soon slow the pace of interest-rate rises. Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard said previous rate increases, together with anticipated ones, will slow the economy in ways that can’t be observed yet, speaking during a moderated discussion hosted by Bloomberg on Monday. A senior Federal Reserve official said recent inflation…

At least 54% of Indian consumers are worried about the quality of electric vehicles (EV) and not the range, while 50% of consumers are now open to purchasing, a recently released report by CyberMedia Research (CMR) revealed. India’s EV momentum is increasing as a result of a robust government policy push, including its flagship EV programme or FAME, faster adoption and manufacturing of electric vehicles, and more automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) prioritising EVs. This week, India’s top automaker Tata…

A Federal Reserve official signaled support Friday for continuing to raise interest rates but at a somewhat slower pace than the central bank has moved this year to avoid risks of too much tightening. The Fed raised its benchmark federal-funds interest rate this week by 0.75 percentage point, or 75 basis points, at its fourth consecutive meeting to a level between 3.75% to 4%. That level is high enough to slow economic activity, and the question now is how much higher rates must go to sufficiently…