VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The Colombian Central Bank is heading towards a hike in interest rate. The Colombian government is keen on checking inflation rise and control the current account deficit.

Falling in line with the economists' forecast, the inflation rate in South Africa rose to 4.8 percent in November, registering its highest since July 2015. Consumer prices marginally rose 0.1 percent during the month. South Africa's currency Rand fell against US dollar, euro and pound. The currency depreciation is likely to be a major risk to the inflation outlook.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.presented a bill that would pay social security beneficiaries a one-time stipend intended to balance the absence of a cost living adjustment in 2016. Investment News reported that Warren's arrangement calls for the elimination of a tax reduction that allows companies to discount CEO rewards, authorizing the cash to pay those on Social Security.

As the November 22 presidential election is fast approaching, the economic inflation of 35 percent a year is one of the major issues that the next president of Argentina will have to face.

U.S. jobs rate shows highest employment rate in seven years and dollar stays at seven month high. While Japanese and Chinese shares up, Asian stock markets were mixed as condition supports the case for Feds rate hike in December.

There is a possibility of an interest rate hike next month, according to two senior officials of the Federal Reserve. Speaking before the House Financial Services Committee during a hearing on financial regulation, Fed Chairperson Janet Yellen said the economy had been growing at a pretty good clip, an indication it might be time to raise short-term interest rates.

Gold prices are at their lowest in three weeks after the Federal Open Market Committee announced that they won't push through with the interest rates hike.

Brazil analysts expect faster inflation and lesser cuts in the base interest rate for 2016, as political crisis hinders the moves to strengthen fiscal accounts and avoid another sovereign downgrade to junk.

Giving much wider scope of speculation on possible interest rate hike in next October meeting, the US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has indicated that there would be interest rate hike this year. Yellen further opined that it's necessary to increase short-term rates in a gradual manner as the improvement in labor market further continues and inflation rate reaches to the government target of two percent. The US Central Bank has been sending feelers about the possible rate hike this year for some time. The job market growth is the major factor that puts the US Fed in a comfortable position to take a decision on interest rate hike.

Most financial markets in Asia ended the week higher after the US Federal Reserve decided to keep interest rates unchanged. China's Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.4% Friday. Despite that, the bourse was still down 3.2% for the week as investors worried over the Fed decision as well as weakness in economic data.

A tame inflation complicates the Federal Reserve's decision whether to raise interest rates this week. Data show that despite many signs of economic improvement, the pace of growth of US consumer prices last month was well below the central bank's target.

Surpassing analysts' projections, UK retailer Next Plc posted better than expected results for the first half of 2015. The pretax profit rose 7.1 percent to GBP347million ($533MN) for the first half. Retail profit margins grew 14.9 percent from 14.1 percent during the previous corresponding period. The strengthening British pound also helped Next Plc improve profit margins.

Global stocks are turning out to be more attractive for investors who prefer to put their eggs in different baskets rather investing in the US market alone.

Federal Reserve's Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer stated that although the US has achieved almost full employment, inflation is temporarily low.

A September interest rate hike is "very much in play" if the U.S. economy continues to strengthen, though the Federal Reserve could also wait until December to start tightening policy, an influential Fed official said in a newspaper interview.