At its Governing Council meeting today, the European Central Bank is expected to confirm the termination of the asset purchase programme by the end of December 2018. The expiry date had so far been subject to incoming data and the medium-term inflation outlook. While incoming data in the past weeks has been rather disappointing, economists at Julius Baer see the solid credit activity as a valid reason to stop asset purchases.
Countries in the Declaration of Co-operation (DoC, also known as OPEC) met in Vienna last week and announced a 1.2mn b/d crude production cut from an October 2018 baseline. In the end, OPEC interests came out first, as expected, and the rest of the world came second.
The times of wage containment are beginning to be left behind in Spain. The ILO and the OECD themselves favoured an increase in the minimum wage, basing itself on the slight improvement in productivity over the last two years, but the first question is whether the proposed increase in the minimum wage is possible.
Christmas came early this year in France as President Emmanuel Macron handed out gifts to his constituents like an end of the year bonus and a €100 increase of the minimum wage, explicitly not paid by employers. However, the European Union may not join in the celebrative Christmas conga as this spending spree will send the French budget deficit far north of what European budget rules allow.
The market is speculating that Banco Santander could return to business in Venezuela through the assets of Julius Baer. The Spanish bank has not operated in Venezuela since it sold its shares in Bank of Venezuela to the country’s government for 1.050 billion euros.
Delaying and praying seems to be the right summary of Theresa May’s latest strategy. Before yesterday’s statement there was always a date to look forward to that at least held the potential of bringing progress in Brexit negotiations.
After the winding management of Brexit, the EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg have opened a window for the UK to decide remain in the European Union in the end. The high court announced on Monday that Britain is free to revoke its so-called Article 50 notice any time before it’s due to leave the bloc on March 29., with no penalty.
Kourosh Ziabari | Croatia is a nation of about 4.1 million people. Situated at the crossroads of central and southeastern Europe, it is the newest member of the European Union (since 2013) and one of the youngest countries on the continent. This is an interview with Ivan Jakovcic, a member of the European Parliament and former Croatian minister of European integration.
P.Canadell, /C.Le Quéré /G. Peters/ Robbie Andrew/ Rob Jackson via The Conversation | Strong energy demand is behind the rise in emissions growth, which is outpacing the speed at which decarbonisation of the energy system is taking place. Total energy consumption around the world increased by one sixth over the past decade, the result of a growing global middle class and the need to provide electricity to hundreds of millions of people living in poverty.
While protectionism can hardly be positive for a net exporter like Japan, the fact that US and Chinese import tariffs are bilateral could also offer opportunities to Japanese companies if they manage to step into China instead of US companies for the sectors in which China has imposed tariffs upon. The same would be true for the US substituting Chinese companies.