Madagascar Development

  US consumer prices spiked last month, with the inflation rate accelerating to five percent for the 12 months ending May as energy and used car prices rose, the government said Thursday. That continues the trend seen since January as the world's largest economy rebounds and prices recover from the sharp declines in the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic. Excluding volatile food and energy goods, the "core" consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.8 percent over the last year, without seasonal adjustment, "the largest 12-month increase since the period ending June 1992," the Labor Department said. CPI rose 0.6 percent last month, seasonally adjusted, slower than in April but higher than the consensus forecast. Core CPI increased 0.7 percent. One third of the rise was due to used cars, which rose 7.3 percent compared to April and are up nearly 30 percent in the latest 12 months, the report said. Oil prices -- which collapsed and even turned negative last year -- have ...

s economic activity bounces back and the  labor market  continues to improve, RSM Chief Economist Joe Brusuelas told Yahoo Finance Live the U.S. economy is “entering boomtown.” “I think we're about to pivot from recovery to expansion in the economy,” Brusuelas said. “It's appropriate that members of the Federal Reserve begin to signal to markets that things are not going to be the same forever. It's appropriate [for the Fed] to begin to think about tapering the pace of asset purchases… or altering the composition of those asset purchases” Over the last several weeks, a number of  Federal Reserve policymakers  have signaled a willingness to start talking about scaling back the central bank’s bond purchases, which is currently about $40 billion of mortgage-backed securities and $80 billion of Treasuries per month. Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker and Fed Governor Randal Quarles  are among Fed officials who have expresse...

  Despite the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, the annual barometer by accountancy firm EY firm, published on Monday, made cheerful reading for the French government, which has worked hard at attracting more foreign investment. The 20,000 foreign firms which are based in France create 2 million jobs and contribute 30 percent of the country’s exports, according to the report. In 2020 there were  985 foreign direct investments announced in France, against 975 projects in the United Kingdom and 930 in Germany. Among these investors was Barilla, the world’s largest pasta producer. With its industrial bakery Harrys, the Italian multinational food company has five factories and employs 1,500 people in France.  While the firm traditionally invests €10 -15 million per year in France, it invested €33 million last year, with €28 million for the construction of a new line of production in the factory of Talmont-Saint-Hilaire in the department of Vendée, reported Le Parisien....