AUSTRALIA
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept the cash rate unchanged at a record low of 0.1% for the 16th month in a row on Tuesday, as expected. “The Board has wanted to see actual evidence that inflation is sustainably within the 2 to 3 per cent target range before it increases interest rates,” said RBA Governor Philip Lowe. “Over coming months, important additional evidence will be available to the Board on both inflation and the evolution of labour costs.”
SINGAPORE
The private sector in Singapore continued to accelerate in March, the latest survey from S&P Global revealed on Tuesday. The PMI score was 52.9, up from 52.5 in February, and it moves further above the boom-or-bust line of 50 that separates expansion from contraction.
USA
Manhattan residential real estate sales topped $7 billion in the first quarter, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. There were 3,585 sales, up 46% from the first quarter of 2021. The average price of a Manhattan apartment jumped 19% over the previous year’s period, to $2,042,113.
BRAZIL
The weekly consumer price index (IPC-S) accelerated to 1.35% at the end of the month from 0.94% in the third week of March in the seven capitals, the Brazilian Economic Institute of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV Ibre) said in a report.
GCC
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are likely to see a GDP surge of 6.1% in 2022 on the back of a Ukraine war-driven rally in oil prices, as well as fiscal surpluses for the first time since 2014. The GCC consists of Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.
EUROZONE
The bloc’s economic activity dropped to 54.9 in March from 55.5 in February, but still came in slightly ahead of consensus estimates, final survey results from S&P Global showed on Tuesday.