«Українська сторона утримається від експорту в Польщу чотирьох культур: пшениці, кукурудзи, соняшника і рапсу до нового сезону»
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America’s employers added a solid 236,000 jobs in March, reflecting a resilient labor market and suggesting that the Federal Reserve may see the need to keep raising interest rates in the coming months. 

The unemployment rate fell to 3.5%, not far above the 53-year low of 3.4% set in January. Last month’s job growth was down from February’s sizzling gain of 326,000. 

Friday’s government report suggested that the economy and the job market remain on solid footing despite nine rate hikes imposed over the past year by the Fed. The March jobs gain may lead the Fed to conclude that the pace of hiring is still putting upward pressure on wages and inflation and that further rate hikes are necessary. When the central bank tightens credit, it typically leads to higher rates on mortgages, auto loans, credit card borrowing and many business loans. 

Despite last month’s brisk job growth, the latest economic signs increasingly suggest that an economic slowdown may be upon us. Manufacturing is weakening. America’s trade with the rest of the world is declining. And, though restaurants, retailers and other services companies are still growing, they are doing so more slowly. 

For Fed officials, taming inflation is job one. They were slow to respond after consumer prices started surging in the spring of 2021, concluding that it was only a temporary consequence of supply bottlenecks caused by the economy’s surprisingly explosive rebound from the pandemic recession. 

Only in March 2022 did the Fed begin raising its benchmark rate from near zero. In the past year, though, it has raised rates more aggressively than it had since the 1980s to attack the worst inflation bout since then. 

And as borrowing costs have risen, inflation has steadily eased. The latest year-over-year consumer inflation rate — 6% — is well below the 9.1% rate it reached last June. But it’s still considerably above the Fed’s 2% target. 

Complicating matters is turmoil in the financial system. Two big American banks failed in March, and higher rates and tighter credit conditions could further destabilize banks and depress borrowing and spending by consumers and businesses. 

The Fed is aiming to achieve a so-called soft landing — slowing growth just enough to tame inflation without causing the world’s biggest economy to tumble into recession. Most economists doubt it will work; they expect a recession later this year. 

So far, the economy has proved resilient in the face of ever-higher borrowing costs. America’s gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — expanded at a healthy pace in the second half of 2022. Yet recent data suggests that the economy is losing momentum. 

On Monday, the Institute for Supply Management, an association of purchasing managers, reported that U.S. manufacturing activity contracted in March for a fifth straight month. Two days later, the ISM said that growth in services, which accounts for the vast majority of U.S. employment, had slowed sharply last month. 

On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that U.S. exports and imports both fell in February in another sign that the global economy is weakening. 

The Labor Department on Thursday said it had adjusted the way it calculates how many Americans are filing for unemployment benefits. The tweak added nearly 100,000 claims to its figures for the past two weeks and might explain why heavy layoffs in the tech industry this year had yet to show up on the unemployment rolls. 

The Labor Department also reported this week that employers posted 9.9 million job openings in February, the fewest since May 2021 but still far higher than anything seen before 2021. 

In its quest for a soft landing, the Fed has expressed hope that employers would ease wage pressures by advertising fewer vacancies rather than by cutting many existing jobs. The Fed also hopes that more Americans will start looking for work, thereby adding to the supply of labor and reducing pressure on employers to raise wages. 
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Nigeria has secured an $800 million relief package from the World Bank to help cushion the impact of a plan to remove in June a long-held fuel subsidy. 

Nigeria’s finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, on Wednesday said the money would be disbursed to 10 million households as cash. She said authorities would also develop a mass transit system to ease the cost of daily commutes. 

Ahmed made the announcement to journalists at the state house after a weekly Cabinet meeting with officials.

She said the money was ready to be disbursed but did not provide details on how much beneficiaries would receive.

“We’re on course,” she told the local station TVC News. “We made that provision to enable us [an] exit fuel subsidy by June 2023. We’ve secured some funding from the World Bank. That is the first tranche of the palliatives that would enable us to give cash transfers to the most vulnerable in our society.”

Ahmed said authorities were also working with the incoming government to deploy non-cash interventions, including a mass transportation system to ease daily commutes for workers.

The ruling party candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu was declared the winner of February’s presidential election and will be sworn in next month.

It is unclear if the new administration will discontinue the subsidy program. 

The country spends more than $850 million each month on fuel subsidies, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. 

And the past government’s decision to halt the costly venture has sparked mass protests and unrest across the country. 

“How much will each household be getting? Let’s say roughly around 60,000 [naira],” said Emmanuel Afimia, the head of Enermics Consulting Limited, an oil and gas consulting firm. “But then once that is exhausted, what’s next? How do they intend to select the 10 million households? Who’s sure that the10 million households will receive this package? I just don’t believe it.”

Nigeria is one of Africa’s leading producers of crude oil, but Nigeria has been struggling to stem oil theft and revive local refineries.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria said this week that Nigeria must commence local refining before removing subsidies to keep costs of petroleum products within reach.

But Afimia said citizens have already gotten used to fuel shortages and price hikes.

“People have bought fuel at ridiculous prices in December and January. So, if [the] subsidy is finally removed by June and then the price goes up, Nigerians may actually frown, but it won’t be as bad.”

Nigeria is reeling from controversial elections and a cash crunch resulting from the country’s currency reform policy that took effect in January.

This week, the World Bank said the incoming government faces weak growth and multiple policy challenges.
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При цьому економіка України скоротилася на 29,2% у 2022 році, порівнює Світовий банк
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