Inflation 'number one economic problem' -Treasury Sec. Yellen

Reuters Videos

STORY: Yellen's comments came during a budget hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.

Data this week showed consumer prices rising at a 6% annual rate last month, slower than in January but still far higher than the Fed's 2% target.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark overnight interest rate by 450 basis points since last March to tame decades-high inflation.

Central bankers are seen pressing on with their campaign with a quarter-point interest-rate hike that just days ago looked possibly derailed by turmoil in the banking sector.

Latest stories

  • Armada chief lodges police report against PM Anwar, Guan Eng over Yayasan Albukhary

    KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Youth chief Wan Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal has urged the...

  • Report: Rohana Rozhan returns 1MDB-linked US$10m to MACC, says source

    KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Datuk Rohana Rozhan has returned US$10 million linked to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) s...

  • Umno’s suspension of Shahelmy a shot across political rivals’ bow, analysts say

    KOTA KINABALU, March 24 — Umno’s six-year suspension of Putatan MP Datuk Shahelmey Yahya was meant to show parties in Sa...

  • PM Anwar and wife perform Umrah during his first official visit to Saudi Arabia

    KUALA LUMPUR, March 22 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail have j...

  • Finance Ministry: Guan Eng never cancelled Yayasan Albukhary's tax exemption

    KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has come to the defence of its former minister Lim Guan Eng by st...

  • Sarawak Premier’s Office: Hydrogen-powered official cars were a gift from UMW Toyota

    KUCHING, March 24 — The state government did not buy the five hydrogen-powered Toyota Mirai used as the official cars of...

  • Kuching South mayor gets compound notice for parking official car illegally

    KUCHING, March 24 — Kuching South City Council Mayor Datuk Wee Hong Seng was issued a compound notice by the council’s e...

  • Transport minister says Puspakom to get 15-year extension, but won’t be sole operator of periodic motor vehicle inspection from Sept 2024

    PUTRAJAYA, March 24 — Puspakom, a computerised vehicle inspection company owned by DRB-Hicom Bhd will no longer have mon...

  • Trump lashes out at ‘hellhole’ Manhattan after supporters fail to turn up to protest indictment in native city

    Mr Trump’s rant about the city comes as a panel of New Yorkers will soon decide his fate – voting whether or not he will make history as the only former or current US president to ever be criminally indicted

  • A look at the uranium-based ammo the UK will send to Ukraine

    Russia threatened to escalate attacks in Ukraine after the British government announced it would provide to Ukraine a type of munition that Moscow falsely claims has nuclear components. The British defense ministry on Monday confirmed it would provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium. Such rounds were developed by the U.S. during the Cold War to destroy Soviet tanks, including the same T-72 tanks that Ukraine now faces in its push to break through a stalemate in the east.

  • India's Rahul Gandhi found guilty of defamation over Modi remark

    An Indian court Thursday found opposition leader Rahul Gandhi guilty of defamation for a 2019 campaign trail remark implying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a criminal.Gandhi is the son, grandson and great-grandson of a dynasty of former Indian prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.

  • Anger as Trump posts picture of himself wielding baseball bat next to Alvin Bragg’s head

    Manhattan district attorney leading probe into hush money payments allegedly made to Stormy Daniels

  • Ukraine says Russia's Bakhmut assault loses steam, counterstrike coming soon

    Ukrainian troops, on the defensive for four months, will launch a long-awaited counterassault "very soon" now that Russia's huge winter offensive is losing steam without taking Bakhmut, Ukraine's top ground forces commander said on Thursday. The remarks were the strongest indication yet from Kyiv that it is close to shifting tactics, having absorbed Russia's onslaught through a brutal winter. Russia's Wagner mercenaries "are losing considerable strength and are running out of steam", Kyiv's ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a social media post.

  • Macron says France pension reform is necessary

    STORY: "Do you think I enjoy doing this (pension) reform? No," Macron said in an interview aired on France's two biggest TV stations. "But there are not a hundred ways to balance the accounts ... this reform is necessary."Protests against the bill -- which lifts the retirement age by two years to 64 -- have drawn huge crowds in rallies organized by unions since January.Most have been peaceful, but anger has mounted since the government pushed the bill through parliament without a vote last week. The past six nights have seen fierce demonstrations in Paris and elsewhere with garbage bins set ablaze and scuffles with police.

  • NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang weighs in the Fed hiking interest rates

    Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell raising interest rates by another quarter point Wednesday, against the backdrop of chaos in the banking sector. In a wide ranging interview, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang told Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman and Dan Howley how the change in rates would affect the chipmaking business. "This is the time when we all have to do more with less," Jensen said, "and accelerated computing is really the best path forward to do so." Key Video Moments0:38 - Refactoring software to save money0:55 - Accelerating software for data processing1:07 - Reducing carbon footprints in computer processing

  • Rapid Bank Runs Reveal Deposits Are Now Magic Internet Money, Too

    One thing that has distinguished traditional banking from crypto, in the eyes of many financial experts, is stability. So if customers sitting anywhere in the world with an Internet connection can instantly move their money from one bank to another, the question arises of how different that traditional setup looks compared to notoriously fickle crypto, aside from the ostensible government backstop.

  • Zelenskiy visits troops near Bakhmut frontline

    STORY: Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited his troops near the frontline city of Bakhmut on Wednesday, the ongoing battle for the city being one of the bloodiest of the war.Footage released by the president's office shows him handing out medals and visiting wounded in the Donetsk region, where Bakhmut is located. He's telling the troops that they're there to protect the land for their children and later, in the hospital, "good luck, boys."Zelenskiy's visit came after a swarm of Russian drones hit Ukrainian cities including the capital overnight, said by Ukraine's military to include Iranian-built suicide drones.And in a tweet, Zelenskiy apparently referenced Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Moscow, saying: Every time someone tries to hear the word 'peace' in Moscow, another order is given there for such criminal strikes."And, video obtained by Reuters shows the moment a missile hits apartments in the city of Zaporizhzhia the following morning. Reuters verified the footage and witnessed the afternmath. Local authorities there say at least one person was killed and 25 wounded.Meanwhile, the British government is rejecting accusations from Moscow that ammunition it has given Ukraine made from depleted uranium risks raising the nuclear stakes in the war.Depleted uranium shells are used by many militaries including Russia to penetrate armor such as tanks. The UK doesn't consider it nuclear armament, but the dust it creates does pose a risk to people wherever the shells land after being fired.

  • Sweden approves NATO entry as Turkey, Hungary ratifications drag

    Sweden's parliament voted Wednesday in favour of joining NATO despite delays by Hungary and Turkey to ratify its membership bid, which will likely lead to Sweden joining after neighbouring Finland.But Sweden has had several diplomatic spats with NATO member Turkey, which have delayed its membership bid and chances of joining at the same time as Finland.

  • Penang exco assures residents of safety measures at highway project site on hill slopes

    GEORGE TOWN, March 24 — The Penang government said safety measures will be implemented to prevent any untoward incidents...

  • Federal Reserve raises interest rates by a quarter-point and calls banking system ‘sound and resilient’

    The Federal Reserve raises the interest rate for the ninth consecutive time in an attempt to tamp down inflation while also dealing with multiple bank failures.