2.75: Canada’s central bank held its key interest rate steady at 2.75% this week, ending a streak of seven consecutive cuts. Despite concerns about a slowing Canadian economy, and a lower-than-expected inflation reading earlier this week, the regulator opted not to cut rates due to massive uncertainty about the extent and impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
100 and 25: Canadian industries are busy lobbying one of the world’s largest economies for tariff relief — but, in this case, it’s not the US but China. The world’s number two economy last month slapped a 100% tariff on Canadian canola products and a 25% levy on pork and seafood. The move, which could cost some Canadian meat-processors more than $100 million this year, was made in retaliation for Ottawa’s tariffs on Chinese EVs.
110,000: The Trump administration transferred nearly 110,000 acres of federal land along the US southern border to the Army, as part of its efforts to rein in illegal immigration and drug smuggling. The move, which lasts three years, will permit increased federal patrols, broaden the powers of US troops there to detain migrants, and facilitate the construction of more border security infrastructure.
2: Global economic growth will fall below 2% this year, the weakest showing since 2009, excluding the pandemic. That’s the grim new forecast from Fitch Ratings, a leading global ratings group. Fitch said it had slashed its global growth prognosis by 0.4 percentage points because of the expected impact of the US tariffs and the deepening trade war between the US and China, the world’s two largest economies.
6.2: This week Major League Baseball celebrated Jackie Robinson Day, honoring the storied Brooklyn Dodger who became the first Black player to take the field in the big leagues. But 78 years after Robinson broke the color barrier, black players made up just 6.2% of the names on Opening Day rosters this year, down from a peak of about 19% in the early 1980s.
On the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with Harvard economist and former IMF Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath to unpack how the conflict is rippling through the global economy. As oil and gas prices surge, inflation is climbing, adding new costs for households and businesses and putting pressure on growth worldwide.
Think you know what's going on around the world? Here's your chance to prove it.
The revenue generated by Russia’s main oil tax in April amid the Iran war, per Reuters calculations. The amount is double last month’s revenue, and up by 10% from this time last year.
The Iran war has pushed Brent crude prices to $100 per barrel, up from around $70 before the conflict began.
For sixteen years, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has won every fight: four consecutive parliamentary supermajorities for his party, Fidesz; a constitution rewritten to his specifications; courts, media, and oligarchs brought to heel.