News in Brief
Powell: Rate hike pressure diminished
REUTERS – Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that the aftereffects of recent banking sector troubles take some pressure off the US central bank to raise rates.
Tighter credit conditions mean that “our policy rate may not need to rise as much as it would have otherwise to achieve our goals,” Powell said at a central bank conference in Washington.
US, G7 widen Russia sanctions
AL JAZEERA – The Biden administration has added 71 companies to a trade blacklist for supporting Russia.
The US Department of Commerce’s action targets support for Russia’s military and expands the scope of export controls on Russia and Belarus. The blacklist includes 69 Russian entities, one from Armenia and one from Kyrgyzstan.
The new export controls target oil and gas projects in Russia and Belarus, Commerce said. Other companies include aircraft repair and parts production plants, gunpowder, tractor and car factories, shipyards, and engineering centres in Russia.
Lebanon receives Interpol red notice for c.bank governor
REUTERS – Lebanon has received an Interpol notice issued for its central bank governor Riad Salameh, the country’s Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi told Reuters on Friday, saying he would implement it if the judiciary instructed him to do so.
The notice was issued after France put out its own arrest warrant for Salameh as part of its investigation into whether the governor embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds, an accusation he denies.