2025-11-06 18:58
BELEM, Brazil, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Norway will contribute about $3 billion to the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a multilateral fund proposed to support global conservation of endangered forests, the government said on Thursday, during a leaders' summit ahead of the U.N. climate talks known as COP30. The donation, first reported by Reuters, is the largest contribution announced yet to the new fund proposed by the summit host Brazil. Sign up here. Norway's government confirmed in a public statement that it would contribute up to 30 billion crowns ($2.99 billion) by 2035 to the fund, which aims to use government contributions to raise far more private funding. Brazil and Indonesia have each committed $1 billion to the fund. Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said this week he sees $10 billion in public funds as an ambitious but feasible target for the fund's first year. Policymakers envision the TFFF as a $125-billion fund combining sovereign and private-sector contributions that would be managed like an endowment, paying countries annual stipends based on how much of their tropical forests remain standing. ($1 = 10.04 Norwegian crowns) https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/norway-invest-3-billion-tfff-forest-conservation-fund-2025-11-06/
2025-11-06 18:42
BRASILIA, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Brazil's trade surplus jumped 70.2% in October from the same month last year, official data showed on Thursday, beating economists' estimates. Latin America's largest economy posted a $7 billion trade surplus for October, above the $6.2 billion expected by economists polled by Reuters. Sign up here. The improvement was driven by a 9.1% rise in exports, while imports fell 0.8% over the same period, according to the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services. That development broke a pattern seen earlier this year, when imports had been rising much faster than exports, reflecting the resilience of the Brazilian economy despite high borrowing costs aimed at curbing inflation. Export growth in October was driven by stronger sales of key commodities in Brazil's trade portfolio, including crude oil, iron ore, soybeans, coffee, corn and beef. Due to a 50% tariff imposed by the Trump administration in August on Brazilian goods exported to the U.S., the South American country's second-largest trading partner, shipments to the U.S. market fell 37.9% in October from a year earlier. By contrast, exports to China, Brazil's top trading partner, rose 33.4% in the same period. Brazil's trade surplus was $52.4 billion on a year-to-date basis, down 16.6% from the same period in 2024. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-trade-surplus-boosted-october-by-exports-key-commodities-2025-11-06/
2025-11-06 18:15
TORONTO, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Ontario, whose manufacturing-linked economy has been badly hurt by trade uncertainty, forecast a slightly narrower fiscal deficit than previously expected and said it would increase support for first-time home buyers, a fiscal update showed on Thursday. Canada's most populous province projected a deficit of C$13.5 billion ($9.63 billion) for the 2025-26 fiscal year that began in April. That's down from a C$14.6 billion deficit forecast in a May budget, helped by higher tax revenue, but far wider than the 2024-25 deficit of C$1.1 billion. Sign up here. A deficit is also expected in the 2026-27 period, of C$7.8 billion, before a shift into a modest surplus over the 2027-28 fiscal year. A C$2 billion reserve is set aside in each fiscal year, while a topped-up contingency fund has a projected balance of C$4.5 billion. Ontario sends more than three-quarters of its exports to the United States, including autos, steel and aluminum, which are facing hefty U.S. duties. Its premier, Doug Ford, has outraged U.S. President Donald Trump with a recent TV ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan's condemnation of protectionism. "With tariffs taking direct aim at Ontario workers and communities, it has never been more important for the government to deliver on its plans to protect Ontario," Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said in a statement. Economic growth was forecast to slow to 0.8% this year, matching May's projection, from 1.4% in 2024 before picking up slightly to 0.9% in 2026. Measures the province is planning include rebating the full 8% provincial portion of a sales tax for first-time home buyers on qualifying new homes, investing an additional C$100 million in a fund to help small and medium-sized businesses diversify into new markets and temporarily increasing the rate of a manufacturing investment tax credit. In May, Ontario set aside a C$5 billion emergency backstop for businesses facing significant tariff-related disruptions. The province, one of the world's largest sub-sovereign borrowers, projected a net debt-to-GDP ratio of 37.7% in 2025-26 after it fell to a 13-year low of 36.2% in the previous fiscal year. Total long-term borrowing was expected to decline to C$42.5 billion from C$49.5 billion in 2024-25. ($1 = 1.4024 Canadian dollars) https://www.reuters.com/business/ontario-hit-by-us-tariffs-cuts-deficit-forecast-pledges-support-businesses-2025-11-06/
2025-11-06 18:11
Nov 6 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran says he expects the U.S. central bank to cut interest rates in December, despite the number of non-voting policymakers who may not want to. "I expect us to cut in December unless there's some sort of surprise," Miran told the Monetary Matters podcast. "When you look at the distribution of votes around the table, it's different than the distribution of views. And so for that reason, I would expect based on current information that we end up cutting in December, but nothing is absolutely guaranteed at the end of the day." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/feds-miran-says-he-expects-rate-cut-december-2025-11-06/
2025-11-06 18:10
NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack said Thursday she’s concerned monetary policy may not be in the right place to deal with current inflation. “I think we're pretty close to neutral right now, which makes me a little bit nervous, given that I see the bigger mess on the inflation side” of the Fed’s goals versus the job market, which is still largely holding together, the official said at a gathering of the Economic Club of New York. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/feds-hammock-is-nervous-about-fed-policy-given-high-inflation-2025-11-06/
2025-11-06 17:39
Nov 6 (Reuters) - The independence of the Federal Reserve is "incredibly important" not just for the U.S. economy but also for the global economy because it is what allows the U.S. central bank to control inflation without regard to short-term political consequences, New York Fed President John Williams said on Thursday. "Where central banks have lost their independence (this) has had horrible consequences in terms of price stability, economic stability," he said at an event at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. "The evidence is pretty very compelling that independent central banks have been able to make tough decisions and unpopular decisions in the short run that pay off in the long run, especially around price stability." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/feds-independence-has-global-importance-williams-says-2025-11-06/
