The Financial Times reported on its front page that the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.25% yesterday as expected, which is the second time this year. However, the report also revealed that there were divisions among the 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee on this rate cut decision, with the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Schmid, voting to keep the interest rate unchanged, while two other members supported a 0.5% rate cut. At the same time, the Federal Reserve also announced yesterday that it would stop the practice of reducing its balance sheet (i.e., selling held bonds) that has been in place for more than three years starting from December 1st this year. The report pointed out that the Fed is concerned that the "quantitative tightening" measures have already affected the trends in short-term lending markets and may increase the Fed's funding costs.
The newspaper's top news today is that after analyzing satellite images, flight data, and customs records, it found that Lakshmi Mittal, a steel magnate who has long lived in the UK, through a ship listed on the sanctions list, purchased nearly $280 million worth of Russian crude oil at a joint venture refinery he invested in India. After the newspaper disclosed online that this refinery has purchased four batches of Russian crude oil this year, the refinery announced yesterday that it will stop purchasing Russian crude oil. The report also revealed that the refinery first used ships listed on the U.S. government's sanctions list to transport Russian crude oil out of Russia, then transferred it to ships not on the U.S. sanctions list but on the EU sanctions list, and finally transported the Russian crude oil to India.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1847358429607040/
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