European Central Bank (ECB) Executive Board member Isabel Schnabel said Tuesday that the ECB should raise rates in June even if ongoing U.S.-Iran peace talks succeed, as high energy prices continue to drive eurozone inflation above target.
Schnabel noted that the current round of war in Iran has lasted far longer than expected, with soaring energy costs spreading into the broader euro area economy. The ECB has kept rates unchanged for the past year, but inflation remains well above the 2 percent policy goal. Standing still is no longer an option, Schnabel said.
ECB President Christine Lagarde said Monday that, given the current level of uncertainty, the central bank will need to weigh all available data and assess the economic outlook before deciding on future policy actions.
EU's June rate hike needed despite US-Iran talks: ECB official
EU's June rate hike needed despite US-Iran talks: ECB official
Smart, terrain-adaptive harvesters are helping farmers in Bijie City, southwest China's Guizhou Province, make the most of the fine weather to bring in crops in its summer wheat harvest.
At a wheat farming base in Pingzhai Town of Zhijin County, several combine harvesters are busy working in the golden fields.
"We used to get in crops manually. It often rains in the wheat harvesting season, which would leave wheat rotten in the field, mildewed and sprouting. With mechanized harvesting, we've become more efficient. After it is harvested, the wheat can be quickly dried, guaranteeing the wheat quality," said Wang Jun, head of the wheat farming base.
This year, Bijie has widely introduced agricultural machinery services across all stages of summer grain production, from plowing, planting, managing to harvesting. To tackle the mountainous terrains, local operators have fine-tuned their equipment mix and promote small to medium-sized harvesters, which effectively improved the harvest efficiency.
"We're using tracked combine harvesters, which are advantageous in flexibility, as they turn easily in our hilly areas in Guizhou. With three machines, we can harvest about 10 hectares of wheat a day," said Peng Jian, head of an agricultural machinery service cooperative in Bijie's county-level city of Qianxi.
Bijie is set to harvest over 16,600 hectares of wheat this summer. Local authorities have implemented various subsidy policies for agricultural machinery while streamlining service links of equipment dispatch, maintenance, and technical support. The goal is to wrap up the summer wheat harvest by the end of May.
High-tech farming boosts summer harvest in Guizhou
