Connect with us

International

US consumer confidence dips in November: survey

| By AFP |

US consumers were gloomier about the state of the American economy in November, likely due to a rise in gas prices and as recession risks loom, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The closely-watched consumer confidence index dipped to 100.2 in November, down two points from the month before, in a second straight month of decline, said think tank The Conference Board.

“Consumers’ expectations regarding the short-term outlook remained gloomy,” said Lynn Franco, senior director of economic indicators at The Conference Board.

The drop in consumer confidence this month, in line with analyst expectations, was “most likely prompted by the recent rise in gas prices,” she said. 

Advertisement
20250509_dengue_728x90
20250501_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20250501_vacunacion-influenza-728x90
20250501_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

Data on consumers’ short-term outlook suggests the likelihood of a recession remains elevated as well.

“Inflation expectations increased to their highest level since July, with both gas and food prices as the main culprits,” Franco said.

Consumer inflation in the United States has been hovering at the highest level in decades, prompting the Federal Reserve to take aggressive steps to raise interest rates and cool the economy.

The central bank walks a tightrope trying to bring down surging costs while avoiding tipping the world’s biggest economy into a downturn.

For now, consumer intentions to buy homes, automobiles and big-ticket appliances have moderated.

Advertisement
20250509_dengue_728x90
20250501_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20250501_vacunacion-influenza-728x90
20250501_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow

“The combination of inflation and interest rate hikes will continue to pose challenges to confidence and economic growth into early 2023,” Franco said.

But with inflation showing signs of easing and central bankers noting it would take time for policy effects to be realized, a growing number of voices including Fed officials have advocated for smaller steps in the coming months.

The consumer sentiment reading “remains depressed compared to pre-pandemic” levels, said economist Rubeela Farooqi of High Frequency Economics.

Overall, measures of sentiment “are sending a negative signal about household spending,” even if consumption continues to support growth for now, she added.

Advertisement
20250509_dengue_728x90
20250501_mh_noexigencia_dui_728x90
20250501_vacunacion-influenza-728x90
20250501_vacunacion_vph-728x90
20231124_etesal_728x90_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_728X90
domfuturo_netview-728x90
20240604_dom_728x90
CEL
previous arrow
next arrow
Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Advertisement
20250509_dengue_300x250_01
20250509_dengue_300x250_02
20250501_mh_noexigencia_dui_300x250
20250501_vacunacion-influenza-300x250
20250501_vacunacion_vph-300x250
20231124_etesal_300x250_1
20230601_agenda_primera_infancia_300X250
MARN1

International

The Government of Colombia has received new information about a possible attack against Petro

The Minister of the Interior of Colombia, Armando Benedetti, warned on Monday that the Government has received “quite serious intelligence information” about a possible attack against President Gustavo Petro.

“Rately serious intelligence information has arrived, especially the last week (…) of an attack (…) The information that has arrived is quite serious (…) This time things were quite reliable to believe and fear that something may be in progress,” Benedetti said in an interview with Caracol Radio.

The minister highlighted that “there are some people who have been meeting who would like to hit the president.”

Last week, Petro accused US Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a member of the House of Representatives for the Republican Party, of leading meetings with those seeking to remove him from office.

Petro also accused former Chancellor Álvaro Leyva of contacting the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuela, where the Government and that guerrillas were negotiating peace, to see how to get him out of office.

He also said that Leyva, the first foreign minister of his government between August 2022 and February 2024, is part of the “plot” that “is not of Colombians, even if there are Colombians,” and “therefore it is very dangerous because it is an attack on the national sovereignty of Colombia, democracy and the freedom of Colombians.”

On March 10, President Petro said that drug traffickers who seek to control coca crops in the southwest of the country want to assassinate him and that “there are already four attempts.”

“There is a coordination of the South American mafia based in Dubai and the Police still do not investigate, through intelligence, that they even want to kill the president,” Petro said in a televised council of ministers.

Likewise, the president denounced a month earlier that drug traffickers bought two missiles to attack his plane because of the work his government is doing against “the great mafias” of the country.

That was not the first time that Petro denounced this type of action, because last September he assured that the United States drug agency (DEA), through the ambassador of that country in Bogotá, alerted him to an alleged plan to kill him before the end of 2024 in an attack with a truck loaded with dynamite.

Also in 2022, when he was a presidential candidate, the current president denounced that the criminal gang ‘La Cordillera’ intended to commit an attack to kill him.

Petro has fed during his mandate the idea of a coup d’état against him and a plan to assassinate him, without pointing to anyone in particular, through messages published on his social networks and in public interventions.

Continue Reading

International

Trump says he would “fly if he thought it would be useful” to the meeting of Russia and Ukraine in Turkey

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, said on Monday that he would “fly if he thought it would be useful” to the meeting proposed by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, next Thursday in Turkey to pave the way for talks for a future ceasefire.

Trump, who is touring Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates this week, insisted that both countries must sit down at the table to agree on a cessation of hostilities.

“I don’t know where I’ll be at that particular moment. I will be somewhere in the Middle East, but I would fly there (to Turkey) if I thought it would be useful,” he told journalists before embarking on the trip abroad, the first since he returned to power in January.

Kiev informed its European allies on Monday that “the Russians are completely ignoring the offer of a complete and lasting 30-day ceasefire” that should have begun this Monday, according to information received directly from the Ukrainian Army.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrí Sibiga reported that Zelenski has not received a response to the offer made on Sunday to Putin to meet with him in person in Turkey on Thursday and begin at the highest level the direct negotiations that Russia wants to open without first declaring a ceasefire.

Zelenski responded with this invitation to Putin’s proposal to start direct negotiations between both sides this Thursday in Turkey, which the Ukrainian leader raised to the highest level.

Sibiga also implied that Ukraine’s proposal to engage in dialogue is still standing despite the fact that Putin has not accepted the truce demanded of Kiev and several European countries.

The US president had already urged Ukraine on Sunday to accept “immediately” the invitation made by Russia to meet in Turkey and determine if an agreement is possible.

The Republican leader indicated on his network, Truth Social, that “Russia does not want to have a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, but wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOOD BATH.”

The leaders of France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland threatened on Saturday from Kiev to approve new sanctions against Russia if the Kremlin did not agree to put down the weapons for 30 days starting this Monday.

According to these leaders from Kiev, Trump supported this ultimatum and was willing to coordinate the sanctions with the Europeans if Putin refused to put down his weapons again.

Continue Reading

International

Israel will send a delegation to Doha on Tuesday to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave instructions to send a negotiating delegation to Doha on Tuesday in view of indirect talks with Hamas in search of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the president’s office reported after he met with the White House envoy in the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.

“In his meeting with the envoy Witkoff and the (US) ambassador to Israel, Mike) Huckabee, the prime minister discussed the last effort to implement the scheme for the release of hostages presented by Witkoff, before the escalation of the fighting” in Gaza, says the text of the Netanyahu Office.

In the statement, Netanyahu emphasizes that it is the last effort to promote Witkoff’s proposal, which Israel defends from the beginning (to extend the first phase of the ceasefire, instead of moving towards the second, as stipulated in the original agreement), “before the escalation of the fighting”.

The threat comes at the gates of Israel expanding its operations in Gaza, with the intention of occupying more and more land in this Palestinian territory and for which it is mobilizing thousands of reservist soldiers.

“The prime minister clarified that the negotiations will only take place under fire,” the statement added in this regard. Already on Sunday night, Netanyahu’s Office warned that all negotiations for the truce will take place while his Army maintains the fighting in the devastated Gaza Strip.

Witkoff’s proposal promulgated an extension of the first phase of the ceasefire of weeks during which about half of the remaining live hostages in Gaza would be released (24, according to the Israeli authorities, who in recent days acknowledged not to be sure of the state of three of them).

The Israeli president met with Witkoff and Huckabee on the first arrival in Israel on the occasion of the release of the captive soldier with American and Israeli nationality, Edan Alexander, announced last night by Hamas as the result of its indirect conversations with the Donald Trump Administration in the United States.

Alexander, whose release is expected for Monday afternoon, is the only hostage with American nationality left alive in Gaza, the Palestinian militias keeping the bodies of the remaining four.

His exit from Gaza was presented as a gesture by Hamas, without apparent compensation, with the aim of promoting dialogue for the ceasefire in the Strip.

Netanyahu spoke after the meeting with Trump, whom he thanked “for his help in the release of Army soldier Edan Alexander.”

The statement from the Netanyahu Office states that the US president, for his part, reiterated his commitment to Israel and “his desire to continue cooperating closely with the prime minister.”

The call between the United States tycoon and the Israeli leader also occurs at the gates of Trump’s first Middle East tour of this presidency, with stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Continue Reading

Trending

Central News