US crude, fuel stockpiles fall amid hefty SPR release: EIA

CAIRO: Brazil reported consumer price deflation in the month to mid-August, the country’s IBGE statistics agency said on Wednesday, as it benefited from tax cuts on key products while the central bank maintained its aggressive monetary tightening cycle.

Brazil’s consumer price index fell 0.73 percent in the period, compared to a 0.13 percent rise in the previous month, keeping the downtrend already seen earlier this month in data for the full month of July.

It was the lowest rate recorded since mid-month inflation measurements began in November 1991, even though economists polled by Reuters had expected an even deeper drop of 0.81 percent.

Russia’s central bank says inflationary expectations up in August

Inflationary expectations for the year ahead among Russian households rose in August to 12.0 percent from 10.8 percent in July, the central bank said in a report on Wednesday.

The Russian central bank said it will closely watch changes in inflationary expectations which will play an important role in discussions at the bank’s board meetings in September and October.

The bank cut its key interest rate to 8.0 percent in July and said it would study the need for more cuts as inflation slows and an economic contraction continues for longer than previously thought.

National Bank of Canada beats quarterly profit expectations

National Bank of Canada beat analysts’ estimates for third-quarter profit on Wednesday, on the back of growth in the lender’s personal and commercial banking and financial markets segments.

Net income excluding one-off items stood at C$826 million ($635.93 million), or C$2.35 per share, in the three months ended July 31, compared with C$839 million, or C$2.36 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts had expected earnings of C$2.34 a share, according to Refinitiv data.

Venezuela’s economy grew 17 percent in Q1, says central bank president

Venezuela’s economy grew 17.04 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022, the country’s central bank president said on Tuesday.

“This is the highest growth in the Latin American region,” central bank President Calixto Ortega said in a state broadcast, giving the first official data on Venezuela’s economic growth since the first quarter of 2019.

Ortega said the central bank has an estimate for second-quarter growth, but did not share the figure. He did say the private sector rebounded 18.7 percent in that period.

(With input from Reuters)