May’s financial headlines were dominated by the negotiations going on between US President Biden and the Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy around increasing the US government debt ceiling to $31.4 trillion.
However, pretty much as expected, the parties came to an agreement ahead of the deadline and the bill passed through both chambers of Congress, which avoided a default and provided some reassurance to markets. It runs until 2025 and caps some government spending.
Elsewhere, the focus continued to be on inflation and central banks’ action in relation to it.