US interest rate hikes could end

Minutes from the Federal Reserve's policy meeting could indicate that the US central bank could pull the trigger on further raising interest rates. The Fed previously raised its benchmark overnight, hiking interest rates from the 5.25% to 5.5% at the last meeting in July. At the time, Fed Chair Jerome Powell hinted that this wouldn’t be the last of its hikes which began in March 2022 to offset the fastest breakout of inflation since the 1980s. But since then, Powell also said the "pieces of the puzzle" were beginning to fall into place to push inflation lower, including improved supply chains, a moderation in the demand for workers, and tighter lending conditions.

Dutch economy slides into a recession

The Dutch economy has entered into a recession as it shrank 0.3% on a quarterly basis in the second quarter, a first estimate published by Statistics Netherlands today shows. The euro zone's fifth largest economy shrank for the second consecutive quarter, after a 0.4% contraction in the first three months of the year. Economic growth in the Netherlands had been almost 5% per year in 2021 and 2022 in a quick recovery from a Covid-19 slump. 

Argentina’s unavoidable economic collapse

Argentina’s central bank devalued its currency, the peso, by close to 18% and hiked its benchmark interest rate by 21 percentage points to 118% on Monday. This comes after the shock presidential primary victory of a radical right-wing candidate, Javier Milei, who will now be in the running for presidential elections in October. Argentinian stocks and its sovereign dollar bonds are lower, and the central bank announced that the peso would be held at 350 to the dollar on Monday. Now Argentina is on the brink of its sixth recession in a decade.

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Sources: Reuters, Financial Times, CNBC