Bank of Finland’s 4th International Monetary Policy Conference

At its meeting today, the Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 3.60 per cent. The decline in underlying inflation has slowed. Inflation has fallen substantially since the peak in 2022, as higher interest rates have been working to bring aggregate demand and potential supply closer towards balance. Both headline and trimmed mean inflation were ...

Here in Finland, the idea that economics cannot be separated from geopolitics is hardly new. During the early 1990s, as the Soviet Union collapsed, Finland lost more than 10% of its GDP when trade with its eastern neighbour suddenly evaporated. Few countries know better the costs of ignoring geopolitical realities. Today, the rest of Europe is facing a similar reckoning. We find ourselves in a new world – one where policymakers can no longer confine themselves to traditional economic and financial variables. Now, we must factor “geoeconomics” into our analyses. The term was coined in 1990 by Edward Luttwak, who described geoeconomics as “the admixture of the logic of conflict with the methods of commerce”. It is not protectionism in the old sense of sheltering vulnerable industries. Instead, it is trade deployed as a tool of power, a strategy of influence and dominance. MORE ECB'S LAGARDE: POLICY RATE AT 2% GIVES ECB SPACE TO RESPOND IN THE CASE OF SHOCKS OR SHIFTING INFLATION RISKS #christinelagarde #monetarypolicy #ecb #eurozone #monetarypolicy #trade #tariffs #inflation ECB President Lagarde: Inflation risks seen as contained MORE ECB'S LAGARDE: 2-SIDED RANGE OF RISKS TO INFLATION, BALANCED RISKS TO GROWTH HAVE NARROWED SINCE LAST RATE MEETING #christinelagarde #monetarypolicy #ecb #eurozone #monetarypolicy #trade #tariffs #inflation

Australia’s central bank expectedly held benchmark policy rates at 3.6% on Tuesday as inflation in the country stays at its highest level in more than a year. The move was in line with expectations from economists polled by Reuters, and comes after the country earlier this month reported headline inflation rate of 3% for August — the highest since July 2024 ...