Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 210,000 in November, and the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported ...

In this speech, I want to discuss recent developments and prospects for the economy and monetary policy. I want to make five main points At the November monetary policy meeting, the MPC (myself included) judged that, provided the incoming data, particularly on the labour market, are broadly in line with the central projections in the November Monetary Policy Report, it will be necessary over coming months to increase Bank Rate in order to return CPI inflation sustainably to the 2% target. Relative to that MPR forecast, my view is that (conditioned on the market rate path and assumptions on the pandemic and public health measures used for that forecast) risks are on the side of a more persistent period of excess demand and above-target inflation, reflecting greater domestic cost and capacity pressures. Given this, at the November MPC meeting I voted to tighten monetary policy by curtailing the asset purchase program and raising Bank Rate to 0.25%. If the economy develops as I expect, then some additional tightening, on top of such a move, probably will be needed fairly soon. But policy is not on auto pilot. The pace, and scale, of any monetary policy changes will depend on economic developments and the outlook. In particular, at the December meeting, a key consideration for me will be the possible economic effects of the new Omicron Covid variant, and the potential costs and benefits of waiting to see more data on this before – i tweet at 6:04am: BoE's Saunders: In Considering If And When To Adjust Rates, There Is Always A Case To Wait And See More Data tweet at 6:06am: BoE's Saunders: Delay On Raising Rates Could Require A More Abrupt And Painful Policy Tightening Later. For Me, The Balance Between These Considerations Is Likely To Be A Key Factor At The December Meeting tweet at 6:07am: BoE's Saunders: Omicron Is Key Consideration For December Rates Decision And See’s Some Advantages To Waiting On Omicron Data

tweet at 9:34am: FED'S BULLARD CITES THE 4.2% JOBLESS RATE AS A GOOD CASE TO REMOVE FED SUPPORT.

tweet at 7:00am: BoE’s Saunders: Inflation Expectations Have Drifted Up, I Have Some Concern Over That tweet at 7:02am: MORE BOE'S SAUNDERS: OMICRON COULD AFFECT BOTH DEMAND AND THE COMPOSITION OF DEMAND, WORSEN UK POTENTIAL GROWTH THROUGH LOWER WORK FORCE PARTICIPATION #michaelsaunders #bankofengland #ukeconomy #monetarypolicy tweet at 7:03am: MORE BOE'S SAUNDERS: BOTH COSTS AND ADVANTAGES TO ASSESSING OMICRON EFFECTS BEFORE ACTING AT DEC MEETING, BUT 'YOU CAN GUESS WHAT MY VOTE WILL BE' #michaelsaunders #bankofengland #ukeconomy #monetarypolicy

The U.S. Department of the Treasury today delivered to its semiannual Report to Congress on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States. In this Report, Treasury reviewed and assessed the policies of major U.S. trading partners, comprising more than 80 percent of U.S. foreign trade in goods and services, during the four quarters through June 2021. In accordance with the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 (the 1988 Act), the Report concludes that no major U.S. trading partner manipulated the rate of exchange between its currency and the U.S. dollar for purposes of preventing effective balance of payments adjustments or gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade. The Report also concludes that both Vietnam and Taiwan continue to meet all three criteria under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 (the 2015 Act) during the period under review, and that the currency practices of twelve economies require close attention. Treasury has conducted enhanced analysis of Vietnam and Taiwan’s macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies, as reflected in the Report. “Treasury is working relentlessly to promote a stronger and more balanced global recovery that benefits American workers, including through close engagement with major economies on currency-related issues,” Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen said today. As a result of discussions through the enhanced engagement process, Treasury and the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) reached agreement in July 2021 to address Treasury’s concerns about Vietnam’s currency practices.[1] Treasury continues to engage closely wit tweet at 9:00am: US TREASURY FX RPT: NO MAJOR TRADING PARTNER NAMED AS MANIPULATOR; 12 COUNTRIES BEING MONITORED #FX #Treasury #ChinaMacroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States Following a steep contraction of the global economy in 2020 due to the impact of COVID19, recovery began to take hold in 2021; the IMF projects global growth of 5.9% in 2021 after a 3.1% contraction in 2020. The recovery has been most pronounced in economies that undertook strong macroeconomic policy support and where a larger share of the population has been vaccinated – though the COVID-19 Delta variant has complicated the full resumption in economic activity for most. Where policy space and vaccine distribution has been more limited, recoveries are nascent or weak, leading to a divergence in global growth. The global recovery is subject to downside risks from variants of COVID-19. Given this additional uncertainty and the potential for start-stop recoveries, countries should employ available policy space to minimize scarring. Similarly, actions to support the global rollout and distribution of vaccines are vital to minimize the divergence in growth that has started to take place. An uneven global recovery is not a resilient recovery. It intensifies inequality, exacerbates global imbalances, and heightens risks to the global economy.