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Slower
growth to ease inflation pressures: Fed chairman
Washington: Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke
while warning that the U.S. economy still faced inflation
risks said slower growth would curb inflationary pressures
over time.
His
remarks are being seen as leading to a pause in a two-year
credit-tightening campaign. Delivered the Fed's semiannual
report on monetary policy Bernanke said the Fed faced
both the risk of pushing rates too high and damaging the
economy, and the danger of not doing enough to curb inflation.
Core
consumer prices in June rose by a steep 0.3 per cent leading
financial markets to expect an 18th straight increase
in benchmark overnight rates at the Fed's next meeting
on August 8. However, traders have rolled back those expectations
on Bernanke's testimony. The trend of futures markets
implied that investors were expecting about a 65 percent
chance of a quarter-percentage point boost to borrowing
costs next month. Bernanke's comments led to investors
going on a stock buying spree. The blue chip Dow Jones
industrial average ended the day up 212 points, its second-best
day of the year. Bond prices also gained, while the dollar
fell.
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Amnesty
International charges US companies of net censorship
Beijing: Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Yahoo Inc
breached the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in
colluding with China to censor the Internet, according
to Amnesty International.
"The
three publicly traded companies have, in one way or another,
facilitated or concluded in the practice of censorship
in China," London-based Amnesty said in a report.
"All three companies have demonstrated a disregard
for their own internally driven and proclaimed policies.
They have made promises ... which they failed to uphold
in the face of business opportunities and pressure from
the Chinese government," Amnesty said.
Yahoo
defended itself by saying its presence in China, even
with the restrictions, could still help open up the country
and added that it, too, was concerned by the issue.
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