Eurozone inflation hit 2% in October, exceeding forecasts and up from September’s 1.7%, driven by services and food prices. Germany witnessed unexpected price increases. The euro strengthened. Inflation in the eurozone accelerated in October, with the consumer price index reaching 2% year-over-year, surpassing economist predictions of 1.9% and marking an uptick from 1.7% in September,…
Eurozone business activity contracted in September, and weaker demand eased inflationary pressures. This supports the case for a European Central Bank (ECB) rate cut in October, seen as needed to encourage growth. The eurozone’s private sector declined more sharply than expected in September, entering contraction territory with a drop to levels last seen in January,…
The eurozone economy performed marginally better than expected in the first quarter of the year but it wasn’t enough to prevent the single currency area from officially falling into a double-dip recession. The eurozone’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.6 percent in the first three months of the year, compared with the previous quarter….
Eurozone retail sales plunged in September – even before latest Covid lockdowns. A customer passes the closed toy department of a supermarket in Bordeaux on November 4. Supermarkets in the country have banned the sale of ‘non-essential products’. AFP Eurozone retail sales dropped 2 percent on the month in September, a bigger-than-expected decline as purchases across…
Getty Images The European economy has fallen into its worst recession on record as strict quarantine measures earlier in the year to stop the spread of the coronavirus brought economic activity to an abrupt halt. According to figures released on Friday by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, gross domestic product dropped by 11.9 percent in the…
Collage sources: EU Website NEW YORK (IDN) – Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” is a play featuring two characters waiting for a character, Godot, who never arrives. As such, it is a useful metaphor for the goings-on of the European Union (EU). Observers of the EU’s evolution in the capital of Brussels have witnessed a…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, hold a joint news conference via video conference to mark Berlin taking over the EU’s rotating presidency from July 1 until the end of the year, in Berlin, Germany, July 2, 2020. Kay Nietfeld/Pool via Reuters As Germany takes over…
The Commission’s $825 billion rescue fund would break many taboos, possibly paving the way for EU taxes and an EU treasury. A radical transformation. –Photographer: Vanden Wijngaert/Bloomberg The European Union has a habit of disappointing when trying to design a joint response to an economic crisis. However, Ursula von der Leyen’s speech at the European Parliament on Wednesday…
Despite positive developments in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel has cautioned that the pandemic has only just begun. She also said Germany should be prepared to open its pocketbook to help the EU. The decision to impose restrictions on public life in the face of the coronavirus outbreak was one of the hardest choices of her…
FILE PHOTO. © Global Look Press / www.imago-images.de The European Union urgently requires financial injections to stay afloat and survive the coronavirus epidemic currently ravaging the continent, the European commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni, has warned. A whopping €1.5 trillion ($ 1.63 trillion) could be needed to “deal with this crisis,” Gentiloni told Der Spiegel…