Federal Reserve Sees Rates Near Zero At Least Through 2023

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve expects to keep its benchmark interest rate pegged near zero at least through 2023 as it strives to accelerate economic growth and drive down the unemployment rate.

The central bank also said Wednesday that it will seek to push inflation above 2% annually. The Fed left its benchmark short-term rate unchanged at nearly zero, where it has been since the pandemic intensified in March.

The Fed’s benchmark interest rate influences borrowing costs for homebuyers, credit card users, and businesses. Fed policymakers hope an extended period of low interest rates will encourage more borrowing and spending, though their new policy also carries risks of inflating stock or causing other financial market bubbles.

The Fed’s moves are occurring against the backdrop of an improving yet still weak economy, with hiring slowing and the unemployment rate at 8.4%. Yoshihide Suga named Japan’s prime minister, succeeding Abe

TOKYO — Japan’s Parliament elected Yoshihide Suga as prime minister Wednesday, replacing long-serving leader Shinzo Abe with his right-hand man.

Suga bowed deeply several times when the results were announced, as fellow governing party lawmakers applauded in parliament’s more powerful lower house. He was also confirmed in the upper house.

Suga, who was chief Cabinet secretary and the top government spokesman under Abe, selected a Cabinet with a mix of fresh faces and current or former ministers, a lineup that suggests a continuation of Abe’s influence while reflecting Suga’s pledge of administrative reforms.

Suga has stressed his background as a farmer’s son and a self-made politician in promising to serve the interests of ordinary people and rural communities. He has said he will pursue Abe’s unfinished policies and that his priorities will be fighting the coronavirus and turning around an economy battered by the pandemic.

“Response to the coronavirus is the immediate priority,” Suga, wearing a formal suit, said at his first news conference as prime minister Wednesday night. “I will carry on former Prime Minister Abe’s policies and push them forward in order to overcome this national crisis and restore safety for the people.”

Suga was a loyal supporter since Abe’s first stint as prime minister from 2006 to 2007 and helped him return to the job in 2012.

Abe, 65, announced last month he was resigning because of a chronic illness. He said Wednesday that as a lawmaker, he will support Suga’s government. German government calls Navalny recovery ‘encouraging’

BERLIN — The German government on Wednesday welcomed news that poisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s condition has further improved after his poisoning in Russia and confirmed that Moscow had sent a second request for judicial assistance in the case.

Navalny, who fell ill on a domestic flight in Russia on Aug. 20, posted a selfie photo Tuesday from Berlin’s Charité Hospital, where he has received treatment for almost four weeks. “I still can’t do almost anything on my own, but yesterday I managed to breathe on my own for the entire day,” he wrote.

Germany has insisted that Russia answer questions about what happened to politician and anti-corruption researcher. A German military laboratory confirmed the presence in Navalny’s body of Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent linked to a previous attempted assassination of a Kremlin enemy. Celebs join Instagram ‘freeze’ to protest Facebook inaction

LONDON — Kim Kardashian West, Katy Perry, Leonardo DiCaprio and other celebrities are taking part in a 24-hour Instagram “freeze” on Wednesday to protest against what they say is parent company Facebook’s failure to tackle violent and hateful content and election misinformation.

Hollywood stars and influencers are lending their backing to the “#StopHateforProfit” movement’s latest campaign. The movement asks people to put up a message highlighting what they called the damage Facebook does but otherwise refrain from posting on Instagram for a day.

“I can’t sit by and stay silent while these platforms continue to allow the spreading of hate, propaganda and misinformation — created by groups to sow division and split America apart — only to take steps after people are killed,” Kardashian West posted on her Instagram account on Tuesday.— Wire report