The European Central Bank is leaning toward lifting interest rates as soon as next month unless there are positive developments on energy prices and ending the Iran war.
President Christine Lagarde signaled earlier that the ECB will consider an increase in borrowing costs in June after debating and rejecting one this week.
Central bankers in the UK also kept interest rates on hold with several saying they might consider future hikes, just as oil prices soared within reach of the Bank of England’s most pessimistic scenario for the economy.
The rates outlook in Japan is more murky. While the Bank of Japan left borrowing costs unchanged, Governor Kazuo Ueda indicated there was less confidence in the economic outlook than before. But he also kept the door open to a June rate move even if the economy starts to slow.
In the US, Federal Reserve officials left rates unchanged in a decision that revealed a deepening division over the outlook for policy amid increased uncertainty caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
Here are some of the charts that appeared on Bloomberg this week on the latest developments in the global economy, markets and geopolitics:
World
In addition to rate decisions by the Fed, ECB, UK and BOJ, central bankers in Canada, Chile, Hungary, Thailand, Namibia, Guatemala, Ukraine, Malawi, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Uzbekistan also held the line on borrowing costs. Officials in Brazil lowered rates. Pakistan and Botswana raised them.
