Author: RTTNews Staff Writer

The International Monetary Fund on Monday cut the global growth forecasts for this year and next, mainly due to the weaker-than-expected expansion in India. Global growth for this year is projected at 3.3 percent, which is 0.1 percentage point less than the forecast made in October, the international lender said in the latest update to its World Economic Outlook report. The growth rate is projected to rise to 3.4 percent next year, which is 0.2 percentage points less than the October forecast. The growth estimate for 2019 was lowered to…

With utilities output plummeting amid a slump in demand for heating, the Federal Reserve released a report on Friday showing a modest pullback in U.S. industrial production in the month of December. The Fed said industrial production fell by 0.3 percent in December after climbing by a downwardly revised 0.8 percent in November. Economists had expected industrial production to dip by 0.2 percent compared to the 1.1 percent jump originally reported for the previous month. The pullback in production came as utilities output plunged by 5.6 percent in December after…

The total number of building permits issued in New Zealand tumbled a seasonally adjusted 8.5 percent on month in November, Statistics New Zealand said on Tuesday – standing at 3,204. That followed the downwardly revised 1.3 percent decline in October (originally -1.1 percent). Individually, permits were issued for 1,980 stand-alone houses, 722 townhouses, 291 apartments and 211 retirement village units. In the year ended November 2019, the actual number of new dwellings consented was 37,010, up 13 percent from the November 2018 year. The annual value of non-residential building work…