World Gold Council The two most significant events for gold demand in 2023 were the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the Hamas attack on Israel, the World Gold Council (WGC) said, estimating that geopolitics added between 3% and 6% to gold’s performance over the year. The WGC estimated thatRead More →
Fear or Fact? European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on Friday 17th November 2023 reportedly said that Europe is now at a critical juncture, with deglobalization, demographics and decarbonization looming on the horizon. Fragmentation ‘There are increasing signs that the global economy is fragmenting into competing blocs’, she said at theRead More →
IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva reportedly said that the public sector should keep preparing to deploy central bank digital currencies (CBDC’s) and related payment platforms in the future. But according to data from the Atlantic Council, only 11 countries have adopted CDBC’s thus far. Alternative to cash Central bank digital currencies (CBDC’s)Read More →
Central banks, 18 months ago got it fundamentally wrong and they got it wrong on many other occasions too. So why take any notice? The Fed and other central banks insisted that inflation would be ‘transitory’ – it wasn’t. It reached 7%. That’s 5% above the target of 2%. Along withRead More →
That’s still 3% above the target of 2% The Bank of England’s forecasting, which has a major impact on the UK economy, is being reviewed and has been criticised. After the Bank raised interest rates for a 14th time in a row in an effort to slow price rises inRead More →
New FED Payment System The FEDNOW payment system is a new instant payment infrastructure developed by the Federal Reserve that allows financial institutions of every size across the U.S. to provide safe and efficient instant payment services. Live system It went live on July 20, 2023 and enables individuals and businesses to send andRead More →
SEC Ruling – July 2023 XRP, the native token of the blockchain company Ripple, soared more than 60% on Thursday after a U.S. judge delivered a major victory to the firm in its legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC had sued Ripple in December 2020,Read More →
Interest rates and inflation in the UK The UK is facing a cost of living crisis as inflation has soared to its highest level in decades. The Bank of England has raised interest rates 13 times since December 2021 in an attempt to bring inflation back down to its originalRead More →
UK inflation rate remains high at 8.7% in May 2023 The UK inflation rate remained at 8.7% in the year to May 2023, according to the latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This is the same rate that was recorded in April, but down from theRead More →