Carlo Martuscelli
ECB seen holding one last time before June cut
The European Central Bank is set to leave its key interest rate at a record-high 4 percent on Thursday, as concerns over wage growth temper the urge to give more support to the economy. At the Governing Council's last meeting in March, ECB President Chris...
6 months ago
Euro plunges, eyes parity with dollar after Lagarde’s go-it-alone pledge
The euro slumped to its lowest level this year on Friday, in a delayed reaction to European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde's signaling on Thursday that the bank is willing to cut interest rates before her U.S. counterparts. By Friday afternoon i...
6 months ago
Springtime comes for Europe’s economy
The European economy emerged from a shallow recession in the first quarter of 2024, ending a year of virtual stagnation.Expansion in the bloc was broad-based, with all of the biggest national economies performing slightly better than expected, as falling...
5 months ago
Europe’s manufacturing slump shows no signs of ending
Manufacturing in Europe’s industrial heartland weakened further in July, confirming the worst fears of EU leaders concerned by the direction that the bloc’s economy is taking. S&P Global said today its eurozone manufacturing purchasing managers index...
2 months ago
UK inflation stays at 2 percent target in June
Britain's key inflation gauge was unchanged in June from a month earlier, but came in slightly above expectations. The consumer price index, or CPI, rose 2.0 percent from a year ago, the Office for National Statistics said today, in line with the Bank of...
2 months ago
Industrial revival stalled in June in Germany and France, survey shows
Industrial activity in the eurozone slumped to a six-month low in June, casting doubt over the strength of the region's economic recovery. The purchasing managers index (PMI) combined by S&P Global, a closely-watched real-time indicator of activity pr...
2 months ago
The green leftie lawmaker taking on Europe’s economy
BRUSSELS ― If lobbyists and the finance industry were hoping for a more malleable chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs — well, they just had their hopes dashed. For the next five years, ECON will be led by the Fren...
2 months ago
Eurozone debt keeps climbing
BRUSSELS ― Debt in the eurozone grew in the first three months of the year as France struggled to keep its finances in check after weeks of political turmoil. The 20 countries of the currency area recorded debt of 88.7 percent of GDP, up from 88.2 percent...
2 months ago
Europe’s €10 trillion gamble
BRUSSELS ― Unlike Americans, Europeans don’t take risks. If they did, the €10 trillion they have languishing in their bank accounts ― that’s more than a third the size of the U.S. economy ― could be invested in the stock market instead. That would give co...
2 months ago
Why your coffee got so damn expensive
Life used to be so simple. And cheap.Remember the good old days when you could pop into your local café for an espresso for just €1? Italians do. In Rome or Milan or Naples, the morning ritual would see workers hurry into their neighborhood bar and gulp d...
2 months ago
Cooling inflation sets up ECB rate cut in September
Inflation looks to have cooled further in August, removing one of the last remaining obstacles to an interest rate cut from the European Central Bank next month.In Germany, the continent’s largest economy, inflation returned to target for the first time i...
1 month ago
Interest rates are falling, but Europe’s big debtor countries still won’t get much relief
Fresh economic data suggests that interest rate cuts are around the corner. In theory, that's great news for European countries dealing with massive debt loads, but in practice, it won't make much of a difference. The European Union's statistics office re...
1 month ago
Mario Draghi’s plan to fix a broken Europe already looks impossible
BRUSSELS ― Mario Draghi's outlook for Europe is grim. What's worse is though he knows how to make it better, he probably can't.“We're going to be a society that basically shrinks,” the former European Central Bank chief said in Brussels on Monday as he pr...
1 month ago
Europe’s new normal: High energy bills, fading industry and one chance to fix it
ZIMMERN OB ROTTWEIL, Germany — You’ve never heard of Hans Keim Kunststoffe, but you’ve almost certainly come across one of its products.They’re protecting museum paintings, covering MRI machines during a hospital visit, forming a mobile caravan’s sunroof...
1 month ago