Mexico’s central bank raised borrowing costs for the second consecutive meeting Thursday, as stubbornly elevated and above-target consumer price increases have begun to contaminate inflation expectations.
Banco de Mexico boosted its key interest rate by a quarter-point to 4.5% after a surprise hike in June that did little to tame inflation, currently running at almost double the bank’s target.
Mexico’s economy is quickly rebounding so far in 2021 after shrinking 8.2% last year, the most in almost a century.
The recovery, with GDP seen growing 6.2% by economists surveyed by Citibanamex, is adding to inflationary pressures and helped lead the central bank to start tightening its monetary policy earlier than expected by most analysts.

The Turkish lira rallied to lead gains among emerging-market peers after Turkey’s central bank held its benchmark interest rate, defying President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s calls for a cut.
The currency rose as much as 1.2% after the Monetary Policy Committee held its one-week repo rate at 19% for a fifth month as forecast by all 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The decision appeased traders who were concerned that the policymaker would succumb to political pressure and lower borrowing costs despite the deteriorating outlook for inflation. Consumer-price gains accelerated to 18.95% in July, virtually wiping out Turkey’s real policy rate.
The central bank says the benchmark rate will continue to be determined at a level above inflation to maintain a strong disinflationary effect until strong indicators point to a permanent fall in inflation and the medium-term 5% target is reached.

President Joe Biden called on U.S. lawmakers to enact legislation aimed at lowering drug prices, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and imposing penalties on drugmakers that hike prices faster than inflation.
The President’s remarks laid out his vision to help reduce the costs for prescription medications as part of the Build Back Better agenda he is seeking to push through Congress as the nation continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden lauded drugmakers for their life-saving work developing the COVID-19 vaccines.
Biden says U.S. prescription drug costs were higher than any other nation in the world by two to three times.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC says its sleep disorder drug Xywav received U.S. regulatory approval for the expanded use in patients suffering from excessive daytime sleepiness despite a good night’s sleep.
Xywav is currently approved in the United States for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness and sudden loss of muscle tone in patients aged seven or older with a neurological disorder called narcolepsy.
Jazz shares rose as much as 1.1% to $146.66 in the afternoon session.
Jazz says that it plans to make Xywav available to idiopathic hypersomnia (IH) patients later this year.
Jazz has been attempting to expand its portfolio before the entry of cheaper generic competition for its top-selling drug Xyrem no later than 2023. In May, the drugmaker completed

The federal government has approved a total sum of N498.23 million for four power projects across the country.
Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, says the FEC meeting approved four power projects including the supply and installation of motorised portable hydraulic compressor for the Transmission Company of Nigeria in favour of Messrs Intern Equipment Nigeria Limited in the sum of US$502,950 plus N15,800,000.
He says the second approval was also received for the award of the contract for the supply and delivery of three sets of online partial discharge measurement and monitoring equipment for the TCN in favour of Messrs T and D Technology Limited in the sum of US$ 874,800 offshore plus N240,100,000 onshore with a delivery period of nine months.

The Department of Petroleum Resources says Investors have proposed to spend over $500m in building gas pipelines and other facilities in Nigeria following the implementation of the Nigerian Gas Transportation Network Code that was launched last year.
The Director and Chief Executive Officer, DPR, Mr Sarki Auwalu, says through the implementation of the network code, the DPR was able to improve the much-needed market alignment between critical demand points for gas and available supply opportunities.
He says the agency had so far issued 12 shipper licences, with three licences under processing; one transporter licence; and three agent licences.
He says the network code had improved investors’ confidence in the evolving domestic gas market.

Nigerian Lawmakers say the infighting among members of the executive arm of government and political intrigues in Nigeria are key issues stalling the growth of the power sector.
Chairman, House Committee on Power, Magaji Aliyu, Aliyu, stated that findings by the committee had shown that many Nigerians were paying for electricity that they did not consume.
He says the power sector is in a big problem because of the lack of efficient and dynamic policies.
Aliyu added that there are political machinations not to allow power to grow in this country adding that there are machinations to interfere with the power sector generally.

A new report by SBM Intelligence, a geopolitical and socioeconomic research firm, claimed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation incurred a loss of N473.3bn in operating moribund refineries between January 2015 and February 2021.
It further stated that the refineries had not been fully utilised over the years, adding that they had been unproductive since July 2019 despite the huge costs of maintaining them.
The report says that the Nigerian government had been bent on wasting money in this area, adding that the Federal Executive Council approved $1.5bn to rehabilitate the Port-Harcourt refinery in March and $1.48bn was approved for the Kaduna and Warri refineries.

The Minister of State for Power, Mr Goddy Jedy-Agba, says investments of over $400bn are required for Nigeria to achieve universal energy access by 2030 and net-zero emission targets by 2050.
Jedy-Agba shared the challenges facing the country in delivering energy to the 25 million Nigerians without access to energy using solar home systems and mini-grids.
The minister reassured delegates of the readiness of the country to participate in the forthcoming COP26 UN Climate Change Conference.
He says Nigeria would seek to align its position along with an energy transition that is equitable, inclusive and just.

Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany will earmark up to 30 billion euros to rebuild after last month’s deadly floods that washed away homes, businesses and critical infrastructure.
Merkel says the costs will be shared between the federal government and the 16 states calling it a sign of national solidarity.
NRW state premier Armin Laschet, says his region has not had to rebuild thousands of destroyed homes at once since World War II.
Merkel and regional leaders agreed to improve the country’s warning system, including by providing states with up to 88 million euros to upgrade and install sirens by 2023.