Crypto News: The turning point

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Central bankers have come in for some flak in recent weeks, criticized for being too slow to act as inflation gripped the world.

So when Bloomberg TV's very own Francine Lacqua this afternoon hosted an all-star panel — Fed Chair Jerome Powell, ECB President Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Agustin Carstens of the Bank for International Settlements — she grilled them all on whether they can make up for lost time.

Fresh off the back of a modest June interest-rate rise, Bailey indulged in some more nudging and winking today. He told Francine there is a chance of a 50 basis-point rate rise in the UK when the BOE next meets in August. "There will be circumstances in which we will have to do more," he said.

Bailey's remarks could be construed in other ways as well. Asked about the likelihood of a half-percent rise — on the day a new rate-setter said she favors a gradual approach — he said: "You shouldn't assume it's the only thing on the table." The UK economy is at a turning point, he told Francine, and he wants to see what happens in the coming month.

Andrew Bailey Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

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The stories you need to know about this evening

The UK sanctioned Vladimir Potanin, Russia's richest person.
Inflation hit 10% in Spain, but slowed in Germany.
Stocks dropped amid choppy global trading.

It was clear from Bloomberg TV's panel that central bankers remain gripped by red hot inflation.

Today brings yet more data on the impact this will have on the UK economy, but also households. Food prices are soaring now — and plunging millions of Britons into distress.

Even so, some inside government point The Readout to this story, admittedly from earlier in the month but something they are watching. For one cabinet minister it was significant that both the Bloomberg Freightos Index on shipping rates from China to Europe and the the Baltic Dry index — a key global measure of shipping costs — were down from elevated heights of earlier this year.

Then yesterday came a Bloomberg story offering at least a sliver of hope for the months to come. If grain harvests are big enough to replenish reserves depleted by war in Ukraine, that could tame inflation — and keep people fed over the winter.

Australian wheat is set for a bumper year, our reporters said. Brazilian corn is piling up. Nervousness in North America over weather woes has abated. The Bloomberg Agricultural spot sub index is also on track for its biggest monthly drop since 2011.

As well as this, as of June 24, the average US daily price of a gallon of gasoline has declined for 10 straight days. Of course, it's certainly still not cheap. Analysts suspect many benefits of all this will be subsumed, in the UK, by upcoming energy-prices hikes and the struggle to keep the lights on. Government insiders do phlegmatically accept this — and the price of oil rose again today.

As we all nervously watch the prices of everyday goods in the shops, it's welcome that some in government are watching for a wobble if not an absolute waning in inflation. But it's also the case that many economic indicators are still flashing red.

Since November 2020, Bloomberg's Covid Resilience Ranking has tracked the best and worst places to be during the pandemic, using a range of datapoints to capture a monthly snapshot of how the world's biggest economies were handling this once-in-a-generation health crisis.

Twenty editions in, the virus has become something most countries are living with. After nearly two years of fluctuation—during which the top and bottom of the Ranking shifted as the pandemic shape-changed—places have largely settled into their permanent positions, drawing the project to a natural close. With the UK firmly in mid-table at number 22, June will be our final edition.

Get ahead of the curve

Mr Resilience. Jonathan Mills will serve as the UK's winter resilience czar as the country works to keep the lights on over winter.

Herd immunity fears Abandoning Covid Zero policies would lead to "consequences that are unimaginable," China's President Xi Jinping said.

The power of coffee Sweden and Finland's NATO membership bid was on the line. Then negotiators broke for coffee, and everything changed.

Bored of the apes. The market for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, has "fallen off the cliff" this month amid a broader crypto selloff.

The cost of (expat) living. Hong Kong is the priciest place for expats to live in 2022, according to a survey. But what about London?

Hong Gone. Almost 25 years since handover from the UK to China, it's hard to find a trace of free-spirited Hong Kong, writes Matthew Brooker.

"The risk of recession will be at its highest around the turn of the year, when energy bills are set to rise by a further 40%.

Dan Hanson and Ana Andrade

Bloomberg Economics

One key story, every weekday

View of the main temple of Prasat Thom, Koh Ker, April 6, 2022. Photographer: Thomas Cristofoletti for Bloomberg Businessweek

Deep in the Cambodian jungle, investigators are unraveling a network that trafficked antiquities on an unprecedented scale and brought them all the way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For more than 40 years, Douglas Latchford was the world's foremost dealer of Cambodian antiquities. Today government officials and lawyers in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, academics in Paris, heritage advocates in Washington, and federal prosecutors in New York City are all trying to unravel what they consider an historic crime: the theft of Cambodia's archaeological treasures in a campaign of plunder that continued until almost the end of the 20th century.

Read The Big Take.

Your early warning system for the day ahead

12:01 a.m. Lloyds business barometer

7 a.m. GDP. first quarter 2022, final reading. Nationwide house prices

Follow all tomorrow's early news in The London Rush, live on Bloomberg UK from 8 a.m.

Please send thoughts, tips and feedback to readout@bloomberg.net. You can follow Allegra on Twitter. The Readout is edited by Adam Blenford.