- Kumara gives Sri Lanka edge on rain-hit day against South Africa
- Namibia votes with ruling party facing toughest race yet
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- Moscow expels German journalists, Berlin denies closing Russia TV bureau
- Spain govt defends flood response and offers new aid
- France says Netanyahu has 'immunity' from ICC warrants
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- Amorim eyes victory in first Man Utd home game to kickstart new era
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- Indonesians vote in regional election seen as test for Prabowo
- Guardiola says no intent to 'make light' of self harm in post-match comments
- New EU commission gets green light to launch defence, economy push
- Opposition figures killed as Tanzania holds local election
- Taiwan Olympic boxing champion quits event after gender questions
- European stocks drop on Trump trade war worries
- Volkswagen to sell operations in China's Xinjiang
- FA probes referee David Coote over betting claim
- Serbia gripped by TV series about murder of prime minister
- Putin seeks to shore up ties on visit to 'friendly' Kazakhstan
- New EU commission pushes for defence and economy spending
- Plastic pollution talks must speed up, chair warns
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- Philippine VP's bodyguards swapped out amid investigation
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- Ukraine sees influx of Western war tourists
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- Thousands of Lebanese head home as Israel-Hezbollah truce takes hold
- Australia takes step to ban under 16s from social media
- Volkswagen says to sell operations in China's Xinjiang
- Japan prosecutor bows in apology to former death row inmate
- Thailand to return nearly 1,000 trafficked lemurs, tortoises to Madagascar
- Namibia votes with ruling party facing its toughest race yet
- Indian protest wrestler given four-year ban for avoiding dope test
- UK parliament to debate assisted dying law
- Ireland has a cultural moment, from rock and books to cinema
- South Korean capital hit by record November snowfall: weather agency
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- Ceasefire takes hold in Israel-Hezbollah war
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- Vietnamese EV maker Vinfast reports $550 million Q3 loss
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- Giannis-less Bucks edge Heat, Rockets advance in NBA Cup
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US Fed expected to look beyond Trump win and cut rates again
The US Federal Reserve is expected to announce a quarter-point interest rate cut this week, shrugging off the economic uncertainty raised by Donald Trump's US election victory to continue easing borrowing costs on the back of cooling inflation.
The Fed's two-day rate meeting began at 10:00am in Washington (1500 GMT) on Wednesday, having been pushed back by a day because of US elections, the US central bank announced.
Fed policymakers are expected to tune out the political noise and focus instead on the health of the US economy.
Their favored inflation gauge eased to 2.1 percent in the 12 months to September -– just above its long-run goal of two percent -– while economic growth has remained robust.
The labor market has also remained resilient, despite a sharp hiring slowdown last month due to adverse weather conditions and a labor strike.
Against that backdrop, analysts and traders are confident that the Fed will announce a quarter percentage-point cut on Thursday, lowering the US central bank's benchmark lending rate to between 4.50 and 4.75 percent.
"Election news will not affect the Fed's setting of monetary conditions," economists at High Frequency Economics wrote in a note published Wednesday, adding that they still expect a cut of 25 basis points.
That would leave the bank's key lending rate 0.75 percentage points lower than it was before it began easing monetary policy in September.
Beyond Thursday, Trump's victory could also usher in some changes at the Fed.
On the campaign trail, the president-elect doubled down on his past criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell -- whom he first appointed to run the US central bank -- and indicated he would like to have "at least" a say over interest rate decisions.
Trump's tariff proposals have also been criticized by some analysts as inflationary, since they could put upward pressure on the price of imported goods and force the Fed into keeping rates higher in order to control rising prices.
I.Meyer--BTB