#european-central-bank

#european-central-bank

The eurozone has defied predictions that the Ukraine war would plunge it into recession after a warm winter blunted the impact of higher energy prices.Data from Eurostat the EU's statistical agency showed that growth in the 20 countries using the single currency stood at 0.1% in the first three months of 2023.

The European Central Bank has raised interest rates across the eurozone by 0.5 percentage points, despite fears that higher borrowing costs could set off a domino effect across the financial sector amid fears about the stability of Credit Suisse.Officials at the ECB, the central bank covering the 19-member euro-bloc, said inflation was likely to remain high for too long, forcing it to continue with its planned run of rate increases.

Fears that Europe's companies are exploiting high inflation to increase their profit margins have prompted a warning from the European Central Bank that it is closely monitoring potential price gouging of consumers.Policymakers have repeatedly called for wage restraint but concerns are mounting that a bigger driver of the wave of price rises may be companies using inflation as an excuse to increase profit margins, a trend unions have described as greedflation.

UK interest rates are at their highest level in 15 years after the Bank of England announced a 12th consecutive increase but it forecast inflation would finally dip by the end of this year.Seven members of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to increase the base rate to 4.5% from 4.25%, representing a 0.25 percentage point rise.

One day before the coronation, many of Friday's newspapers plump for the coronation on the front pages, along with an array of other stories.The Daily Express echoes the words of the Dean of Westminster who said the King is relaxed ahead of the big day.There is a note of caution in the Daily Mail, which calls China's decision to send vice-president Han Zheng to the coronation as an insult to Britain after his role in restricting freedoms in Hong Kong.

The nation's papers continue to be led by widespread strike action, as well as reaction to the latest bombshell claims from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.The Guardian and Daily Express report senior Tories have joined calls urging Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to open pay talks with nurses in an effort to bring the strike action to an end.

European Union leaders Friday played down the risk of a banking crisis developing from recent global financial turbulence and hitting the economy even harder than the energy crunch tied to Russia's war in Ukraine.After a meeting in Brussels, the EU government heads said lenders in Europe are generally in sound health and in a position to weather a combination of rising interest rates and slowing economic growth.

The Federal Reserve is getting some unwanted help in its drive to slow the U.S. economy and defeat the worst bout of inflation in four decades: a cutback in bank lending.The upheaval in the financial system that's followed the collapse of two major U.S. banks is raising the likelihood that lending standards will become sharply more restrictive.

What to expect in 2023: Policy makers will need to ease off on the brakes as evidence percolates through that the upsurge in inflation is waning and economic growth is slowing.The UK is already seemingly in a recession, along with much of Europe.The big question for 2023 is when or if the US craters too.

German police have been left red-faced after a member of the public was able to slip into a VIP convoy for Chancellor Olaf Scholz and then give him a hearty hug as he prepared to board a plane at Frankfurt Airport.Tabloid newspaper Bild reported Friday that Scholz's bodyguards only realized their mistake later, and chased the man down.

Germany's biggest industrial union agreed with employers Friday on a pay deal that will see millions of workers get raises totaling 8.5% over two years as well as one-time payments meant to cushion the effect of sky-high inflation.The IG Metall union and employers reached a compromise in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a key industrial region.

The Bank of England hiked interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point Thursday, extending its long-running fight against inflation, which rose unexpectedly in February.The central bank's 11th consecutive rate hike takes its benchmark rate to 4.25%, the highest since October 2008.Like other major central banks, it has pushed ahead with raising the cost of borrowing despite recent turmoil in the banking sector.

Investors in a riskier type of Credit Suisse's bonds had the value of their holdings slashed to zero Sunday after Swiss authorities brokered an emergency takeover of the bank by rival UBS.On Sunday, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced that UBS would buy Credit Suisse for 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.25 billion) or about 60% less than the bank was worth when markets closed on Friday.

Inflation in Europe fell again in February, though not as sharply as expected, and national data showed accelerating price rises in many of the region's top economies.Annual inflation across the 20 countries that use the euro dipped to 8.5%, from 8.6% the previous month, according to an initial estimate released by the European Union's statistics agency Thursday.

Inflation eased only slightly in the 20 countries that use the euro currency as the pain from higher costs for food and fuel persists and gives the European Central Bank no reason to slow interest rate increases aimed at getting prices back under control.The consumer price index reached 8.5% in February compared with a year earlier, a drop from 8.6% in January, the European Union's statistics agency Eurostat said Thursday.

Many other kinds of food are about 50 percent more expensive, including pasta and vegetables.Especially the energy and food prices are still increasing substantially.The prices for milk products have increased by 60 percent in the past twelve months.This means a family the members of which spent 40 Euro on food per day in the fall of last year will be charged more than 60 Euro today.Germany's inflation rate has reached 10 percent.The government's energy price cap will help to some extent.The producer prices just saw the strongest increase since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says French-German meeting with the Ukrainian leader in Paris did help unity'.Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has criticised France and Germany after she was not invited to a dinner in Paris with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adding to friction between the European Union allies.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on Sept. 27, 2021.The Bank of Japan will release its quarterly Tankan business sentiment survey on Oct. 1. (Bloomberg)Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is due to step down in April after the longest stint at the helm of the central bank in its 140-year history.

A newly pressed Croatian two-euro coin.(Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)There is a new conventional wisdom about the euro, driven in part by the recent entry of Croatia into the euro zone with much cheer and little disruption: The currency works fine, thank you, and the euro crisis of 2011 is a distant memory.

Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan (BOJ), during a news conference at the central bank's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022.Kuroda shocked markets by doubling a cap on 10-year yields, sparking a jump in the yen and a slide in government bonds in a move that helps pave the way for possible policy normalization under a new governor.

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on Sept. 27, 2021.The Bank of Japan will release its quarterly Tankan business sentiment survey on Oct. 1. (Bloomberg)Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda is due to step down in April after the longest stint at the helm of the central bank in its 140-year history.

To call or not to call, that used to be the question for European banks deciding whether to refinance their riskiest debt in a tussle between pleasing investors or satisfying regulators.But there might be a compromise available.Rising interest rates and widening credit spreads over government debt are posing refunding problems for some of Europe's smaller banks.

A pedestrian in front of the Bank of Japan (BOJ) headquarters at dusk in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022.Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda appears as determined as ever to see out his inflation mission without buckling to market or political pressure.(Bloomberg)When it comes to future developments in Asia's biggest economies, the market can't help setting itself up for disappointment.

BERLIN  Price gains in Germany and Spain cooled in November, after months of climbing steadily, as lower energy prices helped to ease the pressure on consumers and businesses in two of Europe's largest economies.Yet even as signals pointed to easing inflation, Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, said on Monday that she did not believe that inflation in 19 countries using the common European currency had peaked.

The European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022.(Alex Kraus/Bloomberg)PARIS - The European Central Bank was expected to announce another major interest rate hike on Thursday, despite vocal opposition from some of the eurozone's biggest economies, including France and Italy.

When government spending collides with central-bank rate hikes in the face of rampant inflation, markets take fright.That's the lesson for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after the implosion of his predecessor's "Trussonomics" bazooka of energy aid and tax cuts.A more austere path beckons.The euro zone has dodged this turmoil, which gives an idea of where the real economic radicals sit these days.

The new government won't take office until late October, but with an economy expected to grow by only 0.4% this year, Meloni has little time to lose.Any sign that Italy is reneging on its commitments would also make it ineligible for the new bond-buying instrument approved by the European Central Bank in July.The sooner the new government moves beyond the incendiary rhetoric and focuses on delivering stable government and growth, the better her chances of staying relevant - and in office.(Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)Those disheartened by the election campaign run by Giorgia Meloni may think that the best thing about Italy's incoming government will be its likely transience.