China’s consumer prices rose for the first time in six months, official data showed on Saturday.

The consumer prices index (CPI) edged up 0.7% in February from a year earlier, up from a fall of 0.8% in January, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Prices rose 1% from January, slightly up January’s 0.7% monthly increase.

Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, grew 1.2% last month.

China’s new energy vehicles (NEVs) sales jumped 37.5% in the first two months of the year, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed.

Sales of battery-powered EV s rose 18.2% in January and February.

A total of 3.16 million passenger vehicles were sold in January-February, up 16.3% from the same period last year.
 

China's foreign exchange reserves rose 0.2% in February from January, official data showed.

The country’s forex reserves increased 6.5 billion dollars in February, which brings the country’s total reserves to 3.2258 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of February, data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) showed.

In a statement, the SAFE said that, affected by factors such as macroeconomic data and expectations of monetary policies of major economies, the dollar index increased while global financial asset prices were mixed.

 

China still faces pressure on employment as the country braces for a record number of graduates this year, the country’s Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping said on Saturday.

Wang said the job market has seen a good start this year particularly in artificial intelligence and big data areas. The country has held 32,000 job fairs so far this year.

China could see around 11.79 million college graduates this year, according to a forecast by the Ministry of Education.

US consumer prices rose 3.2% in the twelve months to February, official data showed on Tuesday.

The prices increased 0.4% in February on a monthly basis.

Prices increases in shelter and gasoline are two of the biggest contributors, making up 60% of the monthly increase in the index for all items.

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.4% in February, same as that in January.

India’s retail inflation eased slightly to 5.09% in February from a year earlier, down from 5.1% in January, official data showed on Wednesday.

Food inflation, which attributes to nearly half of the consumer prices, rose 8.66% in February,

India’s central bank the Reserve Bank of India left interest rates unchanged last month and signalled it would not lower rates until inflation falls to its target of 4%.


 

The European Central Bank (ECB) kept key interest rates steady at its latest meeting.

The interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 4.50%, 4.75% and 4.00% respectively.

"We did not discuss cuts for this meeting, but we are just beginning to discuss the dialling back of our restrictive stance," said ECB President Christine Lagarde at a press conference.

Canada’s unemployment rate edged up 0.1% to 5.8% in February, official data showed on Friday.

The country adds 41,000 jobs in February. In February, women accounted for 47.3 percent of the Canadian labor force, with 9.7 million women employed.

The unemployment rate has held relatively steady in recent months, sitting at 5.8 percent for three of the past four months. The labor force participation rate, the proportion of the population aged 15 and older who were employed or looking for work, held steady at 65.3 percent in February, according to the national statistical agency.

Uneven development exacerbates inequality by leaving the poorest behind, a report by the United Nations Development Porgramme (UNDP) finds.

In its latest Human Development Report, the UN organisation finds Global inequalities are compounded by substantial economic concentration. As referenced in the report, almost 40 percent of global trade in goods is concentrated in three or fewer countries; and in 2021 the market capitalization of each of the three largest tech companies in the world surpassed the gross domestic product (GDP) of more than 90 percent of countries that year.

"The widening human development gap revealed by the report shows that the two-decade trend of steadily reducing inequalities between wealthy and poor nations is now in reverse. Despite our deeply interconnected global societies, we are falling short. We must leverage our interdependence as well as our capacities to address our shared and existential challenges and ensure people's aspirations are met," said UNDP administrator Achim Steiner at the launching press conference of the report.