After US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the US will hike tariffs on goods imported from China, Wall Street will start the week with a sharp selloff, as investor optimism about the possible conclusion of a trade deal with China in the near future has faded.

Moscow’s sovereign gold stockpile jumped up to over 2,100 metric tonnes last year, with the country’s status as a major gold producer allowing for reserves to be built up using domestically sourced bullion.

The Russian currency has proven itself to be the most stable of all developing countries during recent volatility, according to the deputy head of the Central Bank of Russia.

Geopolitical and trade tensions along with US sanctions have shaken trust in the US dollar over recent years. As a result, a number of global central banks have been boosting their national reserves of gold bullion.

Last year, several countries including India began taking measures to reduce their dependency on US currency to make foreign trade payments in the wake of the economic sanctions and trade conflicts triggered by Washington. The Indo-Japan move is part of this trend.

Earlier, Bank figures showed that Russia added nearly to 275 tonnes of gold to its coffers in 2018, with total reserves climbing to over 2,100 tonnes of the precious metal.

A decade after the Great Recession in the US, approximately half of the economists at the National Association for Business Economists say that the next economic contraction will begin by the time US voters go back to the polls to decide whether they’ll keep US President Donald Trump in office.

Ratings agency S&P Global said governments are continuing to run up huge debt levels and will borrow an equivalent of $7.78 trillion this year, which would be up 3.2 percent on 2018. That will come as another jump in borrowing to take the global mountain of sovereign debt to $50 trillion in 2019.

Turkey does not want to be on the hook with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, as he blasted the Washington-based organization.

The US national debt has climbed above $22 trillion. It is projected to continue rising by a trillion each year over the next decade, due to the cost of pensions and medical care for the retiring Baby Boomers. On Tuesday, the US Treasury Department published the daily statement showing outstanding public debt standing at $22.01 […]

The Russian ruble has been gaining ground on the US dollar and the euro after global credit rating agency Moody’s upgraded Russia’s sovereign rating to investment grade with a stable outlook.

NEW YORK (Sputnik) – Moody’s Investors Service said in a statement that it upgraded Russia’s issuer and unsecured senior debt ratings from Ba1 to Baa3 and changed its outlook from positive to stable.

Global central banks bought more bullion last year than at any time since 1971, when the US ended the gold standard. Governments added 651.5 tons of gold to their coffers in 2018, according to the World Gold Council. It said that Russia, China and Turkey are leading the gold-buying spree.

The freezing of Venezuelan gold by the Bank of England is a signal to all countries out of step with US interests to withdraw their money, according to economist and co-founder of Democracy at Work, Professor Richard Wolff.

The ongoing government shutdown in the United States could soon start to negatively impact the country’s debt ceiling, ratings agency Fitch said. The US runs a record deficit and pushes overall borrowing past $22 trillion. A shutdown of about a quarter of the US government entered its 19th day on Wednesday, with lawmakers and the […]