Madagascar Development

  The   average long-term U.S. mortgage rate   topped 7% for the first time in more than two decades this week, a result of the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes intended to tame   inflation not seen in some 40 years. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average on the key 30-year rate jumped to 7.08% from 6.94% last week. The last time the average rate was above 7% was April 2002, a time when the U.S. was still reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but six years away from the 2008 housing market collapse that triggered the Great Recession. Last year at this time, rates on a 30-year mortgage averaged 3.14%. "We’re really viewing this as a spike in mortgage rates that is pretty dramatically impacting affordability in the market, really sharply curtailing demand," said Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Many potential homebuyers have moved to the sidelines as mortgage rates have more than doubled this yea...

(Reuters) - The average interest rate on the most popular U.S. home loan rose above 6% for the first time since 2008 and is now more than double the level it was one year ago, Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) data showed on Wednesday. Rising mortgage rates are increasingly weighing on the interest-rate sensitive housing sector as the Federal Reserve pushes on with aggressively lifting borrowing costs in order to tame high inflation. The central bank has raised its benchmark overnight lending rate by 225 basis points since March. Expectations for Fed tightening have led to a surge in Treasury yields since the start of this year. The yield on the 10-year note acts as a benchmark for mortgage rates. The average contract rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose by 7 basis points to 6.01% for the week ended Sept. 9, a level not seen since towards the end of the financial crisis and Great Recession. The MBA also said its Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volu...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by a hefty three-quarters of a point for a second straight time in its most aggressive drive in more than three decades to tame  high inflation . The Fed’s move will raise its key rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%, its highest level since 2018. Speaking at a news conference after the Fed’s latest policy meeting, Chair Jerome Powell offered mixed signals about the central bank’s likely next moves. He stressed that the Fed remains committed to defeating chronically high inflation, while holding out the possibility that it may soon downshift to smaller rate hikes. And even as worries grow that the Fed’s efforts could eventually cause a recession, Powell passed up several opportunities to say the central bank would slow its hikes if a recession occurred while inflation was still high. Roberto Perli, an economist at Piper Sandler, an investment bank, said...

 T he U.S. economy has contracted for a second straight quarter, sounding the alarm over a possible   recession   as the nation grapples with soaring inflation and rising interest rates. Top economists don’t believe a downturn has begun but some predict a mild one is likely by early next year. Residential investment plunged last quarter as the housing market slumped amid sharply rising mortgage rates while business stockpiling and investment also declined, more than offsetting a modest advance in consumer spending. The nation’s gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S., shrank at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.9% in the April-June period, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That followed a 1.6% drop early this year. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 0.5% rise in GDP. The second straight quarterly decline in output meets an informal threshold for recession but not the criteria rel...

 kSerach: Interest Rates Hike The Federal Reserve is turning to its most potent weapon to combat the highest inflation in 40 years: Boosting interest rates. On Wednesday, the central bank said it is increasing its benchmark short-term interest rate by 0.5%, marking the largest increase since 2000. The Fed's goal is to tamp down demand from consumers and businesses for goods and services. By boosting rates, the thinking goes, it will become more expensive to borrow money to buy a home, car or other needs, prompting some people to hold off on purchases. A drop in demand could help tame inflation, which accelerated to  8.5% in March , the highest increase since 1981. The move shouldn't come as a complete shock to consumers and businesses, given that the Fed already boosted rates by  a quarter point  in March and signaled that more hikes would be coming. At the same time, Americans have become used to low interest rates for everything from home-buying to auto loans. A ha...

  MIAMI — Puerto Rico received approval from a federal judge on Tuesday to leave bankruptcy under the largest public-sector debt restructuring deal in the history of the United States, nearly five years after the financially strapped territory   declared it could not repay its creditors . Since Puerto Rico entered bankruptcy, its economic crisis has only been further deepened by  Hurricanes Irma and Maria ,  a series of earthquakes  and  the coronavirus pandemic . The restructuring plan will reduce the largest portion of the Puerto Rico government’s debt — some $33 billion — by about 80 percent, to $7.4 billion. The deal will also save the government more than $50 billion in debt payments. And, though at a discount, Puerto Rico will start repaying creditors, something it has not done in years. The government  said in 2015  that it could no longer pay its loans. “ Today is truly a momentous day, and it is a new day for Puerto Rico,” Natalie A. Jare...

(Bloomberg) -- Puerto Rico is inching closer to ending its more than four-year bankruptcy as the judge overseeing the workout is reviewing a restructuring plan that cuts billions in debt, fixes a broke pension system and potentially returns the commonwealth to balanced budgets. Most Read from Bloomberg U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain may rule as soon as next month on the debt adjustment deal. If she approves it, Puerto Rico will be able to move past its bankruptcy and focus on boosting its economy and modernizing the island’s electrical grid to end chronic outages. “It removes a huge cloud that’s been hanging over the economy for four years now,” said Sergio Marxuach, policy director at the Center for a New Economy, a San Juan-based research institute that analyzes the commonwealth’s finances. “We can start to change the narrative from ‘Puerto Rico is in bankruptcy’ to ‘Puerto Rico is recovering,’ which is positive in terms of attracting investment.” Puerto Rico’s Bankrupt...