Singapore and South Korea both tightened monetary policy on Thursday, hot on the heels of rate hikes in Canada and New Zealand, as global policymakers moved quickly to prevent soaring inflation from derailing a fragile world economic recovery.
China's explicit call to cut the amount of cash banks set aside as reserves and boost lending has reinforced expectations for imminent policy easing, but economists say any credit loosening may not be enough to beat back the prospect of a deep economic downtrend.
Some Asian central banks are shaking off their long-held reluctance to follow their global peers in lifting benchmark interest rates off historic lows, as the Ukraine war blows consumer prices well out of policymakers' comfort zones.
Federal Reserve officials are doing little to downplay rising market expectations the U.S. central bank will raise interest rates by half a percentage point in May to curb the surge in inflation, but they also are not dispelling fears the tightening cycle could blow a hole in the economy and labor market.
Russia on Friday demanded that Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google stop spreading what it called threats against Russian citizens on its YouTube video-sharing platform, a move that could presage an outright block of the service on Russian territory.