Biden signs bill to boost US chips, compete with China

CAIRO: China’s new yuan loans are expected to fall back in July after record lending in the first half, a Reuters poll showed, but they are still likely to exceed the year earlier amount as the central bank seeks to underpin the economic recovery.

Chinese banks are estimated to have issued 1.10 trillion yuan ($162.81 billion) in net new yuan loans last month, less than half the 2.81 trillion yuan in June, according to the median estimate in the survey of 23 economists.

It would still be higher than the 1.08 trillion yuan issued in the same month a year earlier.

German economy to lose $265bn

Germany’s economy will lose more than €260 billion ($265 billion) in added value by 2030 due to the Ukraine war and high energy prices, spelling negative effects for the labor market, according to a study by the Institute for Employment Research.

In comparison with expectations for a peaceful Europe, Germany’s price-adjusted gross domestic product will be 1.7 percent lower next year and there will be about 240,000 fewer people in employment, said the study published on Tuesday.

Romania inflation forecasts

Romania’s central bank has raised its annual inflation forecast for this year and next, but it should still be on a downward trend from the fourth quarter of 2022, Gov. Mugur Isarescu said on Tuesday.

Inflation is being driven primarily by supply-side shocks amplified by the war in Ukraine, he said.

The bank expects inflation to be at 13.9 percent in December, compared with a previous forecast of 12.5 percent.

Inflation hit 15.05 percent in June, a near 19-year high. Isarescu said inflation will start falling from the fourth quarter of this year and return to the bank’s 1.5 percent-3.5 percent target range in the second quarter of 2024.

(With input from Reuters)