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Sri Lanka will hold its presidential election on Sept. 21 in a crucial vote that will decide the future of the South Asian nation still struggling to recover from its economic collapse in 2022, which provoked mass protests and forced the former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and later resign. The election is seen as a referendum on President Ranil Wickremesinghe's two-year-long rule that has overseen a fragile recovery of the country's economy. Almost 17 million of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are eligible to vote, and 38 candidates are running for office. Who are the main candidates?

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut borrowing costs at its upcoming meeting Sept. and the strength of the job market is likely to be a deciding factor on whether it delivers a quarter-of-a-percentage-point cut or a bigger half-point cut. Below is a sampling of Wall Street banks' forecasts for the August employment report along with their expectations for the size of the Fed's rate cut later this month.

U.S. job growth likely picked up in August, with the unemployment rate forecast to have dropped to 4.2%, which would offer more assurance that an orderly labor market slowdown remained intact and cement expectations of a quarter-point interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve this month. The Labor Department's closely watched employment report on Friday would add to solid consumer spending in dispelling financial market fears of a recession, which were stoked by a rise in the jobless rate to a near three-year high of 4.3% in July. The fourth straight monthly increase in the unemployment rate put a 50 basis point rate cut on the table.

Friday's monthly jobs report will likely mark a pivotal moment for the economy and the Federal Reserve. If it shows that hiring was weak in August and that the unemployment rate rose — similar to the unexpectedly soft figures for July — it would heighten worries that the job market is stumbling. The Fed might then seek to deliver a stimulus with a larger-than-usual interest rate cut of a half-percentage point when it meets later this month.

Argentina's monthly inflation rate stood at 3.9% in August and is expected to close the year at an annualized rate of nearly 123%, according to analysts surveyed by the central bank in a poll published on Thursday. Prices are seen rising by 3.5% in September, according to the poll, slowing down after a surge that followed deep spending cuts as well as the devaluation of the peso currency enacted by libertarian President Javier Milei in a bid to reduce sky-high inflation.

Former President Donald Trump suggested to business leaders Thursday that his plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports would solve seemingly unrelated challenges such as the rising cost of child care in the U.S. The GOP presidential nominee promised to lead what he called a “national economic renaissance” by increasing tariffs, slashing regulations to boost energy production and drastically cutting government spending as well as corporate taxes for companies that produce in the U.S. Trump was asked at his appearance before the Economic Club of New York about his plans to drive down child care costs to help more women join the workforce.