Germany’s seasonally adjusted retail-sales figure surged 3.3 percent month-on-month in January to its highest level since October 2016, rebounding sharply from a downwardly revised -3.1 percent in December, according to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) left benchmark interest rates, or the cash rate, unchanged at 1.5 percent following its monetary-policy meeting on February 5.
The Indian Government pushed for a populist interim budget by raising the income-tax ceiling for salaried employees and doling out cash to farmers, in addition to providing monthly pensions to workers in the unorganized sector
The unemployment rate in the United States climbed to 4.0 percent in January, the highest since June 2018 and marginally higher than the 3.9 percent recorded in December of last year.
Spot gold rallied to more than a 10-month high in January after oscillating in a broad $1,180-1,235 range for a major portion of the second half of 2018.
There have been 22 federal government shutdowns in the United States since 1979, with three last year alone, including the most recent 35-day partial shutdown, which came into effect on December 22, 2018. Considered the longest in US history
China’s factory orders fell for the second month in a row, with the Caixin/Markit Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) indicating further contraction in the country’s manufacturing activity in January.
Brazil’s current account deficit (CAD) narrowed to $0.82 billion in December 2018 from $2.07 billion a year earlier on the back of a widening trade surplus in goods, even as the country’s services industry recorded an annual deficit.
The pound sterling rebounded from its April 2017 low after the Brexit deal of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party was defeated by a record margin of 230 votes in the House of Commons on January 3 of this year.
The US Federal Reserve (the Fed) voted unanimously to raise benchmark interest rates by 25 points at its concluding monetary-policy meeting in 2018 on December 18-19.