Ghana Inflation Hits Three-Year Low, Putting Rate Cut in Play
Consumer prices rose to 13.7% in June, compared with 18.4% the previous month, Government Statistician Alhassan Iddrisu told reporters in the capital, Accra, on Wednesday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
2 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Australia's Women Have a Part-Time Problem
Tapping one of the world's most-educated female workforces should be a priority for Australia's government. Yet more women work part-time here than in almost any other developed nation. It's a missed opportunity to jump-start a once-lauded economy that's languishing. On one hand, the prevalence of part-time jobs shows employers offer flexibility to keep women — who still do the bulk of juggling family and other carer responsibilities — in the workforce. On the other, it stops them from getting the same career breaks as men and costs them dearly, both in earnings and retirement.
CBS News
32 minutes ago
- CBS News
Wages aren't keeping up with inflation, with some jobs falling farther behind than others
Wages still haven't caught up with inflation, four years after the pandemic caused prices to soar and created a cost-of-living crisis for many households, a new study finds. Americans on average are earning 1.2 percentage points below the rise in the cost of living over the past four years, which means that the typical worker's pay increases over that time haven't yet caught up to higher prices, according to Bankrate's 2025 Wage to Inflation Index. The findings come as Americans remain sour about the economy, with 55% rating it as either very or fairly bad, according to a July poll from CBS News. Three-quarters said their incomes haven't kept up with inflation, while a majority also said they've seen prices creep higher in recent weeks and also expect that to continue. But some professions are falling further behind than others, with educators seeing the biggest gap between income growth and inflation during the past four years, the study found. Teachers have long struggled with a "wage gap," meaning that they typically earn less than college graduates working in other fields, due to issues such as constraints on school funding, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. "Wage growth is often a reflection of who has the power in the labor market," Bankrate economic analyst Sarah Foster told CBS MoneyWatch. "If there are more job openings than workers to fill them, businesses will often lift pay to retain or attract talent." She added, "On the flip side, if there are too few job openings, companies don't have to work as hard to keep workers because they have nowhere to really go." Overall, the 1.2 percentage point gap between the typical workers' pay growth and inflation during the past four years signals that many households are continuing to feel financial strain, Foster added. Even before the pandemic, millions of Americans were struggling to save for emergencies. "Wages not keeping up with inflation translate to outright purchasing-power destruction," Foster said. "These are funds that households could be using to stash away for their goals, like saving for retirement and a home, or building up their safety nets and emergency fund." The professions that have outpaced inflation include those that saw a spike in demand after the pandemic, including leisure and hospitality workers, she added. "Health care, meanwhile, is driving job growth lately, accounting for 88% of private-sector payroll growth last month," Foster said. Only about 54% of Americans say they are satisfied with their current wages, according to a new analysis from Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That represents the lowest satisfaction level since the NY Fed began tracking the measure in 2014. Even high-income households, which contribute about half of all consumer spending and drive economic growth, are facing bigger financial hurdles, including surging delinquencies on credit cards and auto loans, according to recent research. For instance, the share of all new jobs that pay above-average wages has fallen to 7% this year, down from 38% prior to 2020, according to credit-scoring company VantageScore. That can make it tougher for professionals to find new jobs if they suffer a job loss, the group noted. Workers in white-collar industries like finance and business services "speak of a frozen job market," Foster noted. "Employed workers in the sector can't find anywhere else to go and unemployed workers struggle to find new work."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Vanguard's Joe Davis on AI and the ‘Second Half of the Chessboard'
Vanguard's top economist Joe Davis isn't trying to alarm you. His latest forecast, on the other hand, should. The company's global head of investment strategy looked at the megatrends, ran the numbers, and found the status quo — namely, that interest rates and global GDP both come in at about 2% annually over the next decade — is in for major upheaval. That's because of the massive global debt levels that could lead to higher interest rates and lower growth. The research found an 80% chance that bond yields will top 7% if deficits continue to rise. The good news is that an AI-driven productivity boom could supercharge the global economy and push through those debt headwinds. The outcome could all hinge on just how revolutionary artificial intelligence technologies ultimately become, and whether or not governments can rein in out-of-control spending. READ ALSO: VOO Becomes First ETF to Top $700 Billion in Assets and Advisors May Take the Next Exit if NJ Passes New Contractor Rule 'We're saying that the Federal Reserve's forecast has a 20% probability of being correct,' Davis told Advisor Upside. 'I can't think of a bolder economic assessment in the asset management industry.' While the future of the global economy is anybody's guess, Davis is confident that today's normal is unlikely to continue. 'I wish I had a higher probability in one scenario or the other,' he said. 'It would be much more convenient.' We sat down with Davis to talk about financial markets, economics and how advisors can stay on top of a changing financial future. Advisor Upside: What shocked you most about the new research? Joe Davis: The research is saying there is a greater than 80% probability that we will have a material change in the economy — and in the financial markets — over the next three to five years. Over 80%. And, we were not looking to find this. It just comes across from the push and pull of technology on one side, what I'm simply calling AI, and then deficits that come with aging demographics. We did not see that coming. But, AI better be transformational because, if not, we're going to have high interest rates and bond vigilantes. If you don't believe me, we caught a small glimpse of that future in April. But by the year 2030, we will have to start to enforce more discipline. It's not on our doorstep today, but if you are an advisor, I would respectfully say: How can you start thinking about that from an asset allocation perspective and given our probabilities? Ironically, it's actually overweighting high-quality fixed income. That's the irony — [it's] not gold and crypto. You have to believe in a lot of other things before it takes you down that path. So, how should advisors approach the upcoming AI boom? There are two phases of a technology cycle. The first one is the production of the technology, and loosely, the producers do really well. By the way, then, there's a massive amount of new entrants that erode the ROI of the incumbents — doesn't mean they all go out of business — but some of them do. Guess what? Next, you start seeing the technology consumption. Here's a little factoid: When electricity spread in the 1920s and '30s, what were some of the best performing stocks? Ford and General Motors. Because they used electricity to power the assembly line. They consumed electricity. Even in the '90s, Amazon came in, and they're using the internet, but they didn't produce it. I'm not saying sell technology, but as advisors, you have to start thinking about clients who have amassed significant wealth in the Mag 7 and that's driven a lot of the equity return. You can either de-risk, going forward, because you think AI is overrated. That's easy, move into fixed income, for sure. Or you can say: No, I'm just as bullish as before. But, now you can start thinking about: OK, what's the second half of the chessboard? What else should advisors keep in mind? Structurally overweight value stocks, even if you're extremely bullish on technology. Value stocks outperform growth stocks by roughly three or four percentage points per year. I don't know about next year; AI can keep running. But, there's a second half of the technology cycle. We're still in the first phase. I wish I knew the timing of it: I'd be retiring, but I'm still a working man. And you know, that's a cool thing. Another way to say it is that there's 80% odds, which means the non-consensus scenario, [of a change to the global outlook]. Here's another way to think about it: We are effectively saying there's over 80% odds that US exceptionalism ends. This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive financial advisor news, market insights, and practice management essentials, subscribe to our free Advisor Upside newsletter.
