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US makes biggest interest rate rise for 22 years

Its central bank said it was raising the rate by half a percentage point

The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, has raised interest rates by 0.5% in a bid to combat rising inflation, which is currently running at 8.5%. We get analysis from our north America business correspondent Michelle Fleury. And Mitchell Hartmann of the Marketplace programme on American Public Media asks whether we might see a repeat of the 'wage-price spiral' of the 1980s.
The European Union has proposed a ban on imports of Russian oil and refined fuel products. Richard Bronze is head of geopolitics at the energy sector consultancy Energy Aspects, and talks us through the implications. And we get a sense of how this move could impact the Russian economy from Elina Ribakova, deputy chief economist at the Institute of International Finance.
Also in the programme, the 91热爆's David Reid reports on how fast and portable genome testing is unlocking the secrets to ourselves, and the environment we live in.
And Diego Maradona's infamous 'Hand of God' football shirt sells for a record 拢7.1 million. We assess the legacy of the footballer - and that 1986 game - with Marcela Mora y Araujo, an Argentine sports journalist based in London.

Fergus Nicoll is joined throughout the programme by James Mayger of Bloomberg News in Beijing and by Takara Small, tech reporter and podcast host, from Toronto.

(Picture: A supermarket in California. Credit: Getty Images)

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50 minutes

Broadcast

  • Thu 5 May 2022 00:06GMT

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