German chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz warned that international stock and bond markets could deteriorate further following the announcement of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff regime, in a statement to Reuters on Monday, Reuters reported. "The situation on the international equity and bond markets is dramatic and threatens to deteriorate further. It is therefore more urgent than ever for Germany to restore its international competitiveness as quickly as possible," Merz said in an emailed statement.

Grocery prices are now climbing much faster than they were this time last year with fresh data from retail analysts Kantar Worldpanel suggesting that inflation in Irish supermarkets currently stands at just over 4.5 per cent, the Irish Times reported. The latest figure compared to a rate of less than 3 per cent in June of last year with the spike in prices leading to a slowdown in sales recorded in recent weeks. Take-home value sales in Ireland increased by 3.4 per cent over the four weeks to March 23rd 2025 compared to the same period last year, according to the latest grocery data.

Two Polish policymakers threw their weight behind an interest rate cut of as much as 50 basis points next month, a day after central bank Governor Adam Glapinski unexpectedly pivoted toward monetary easing, Bloomberg News reported. The governor’s self-described “radical shift” in the outlook for interest rates continued to depress Warsaw-listed stocks and the zloty on Friday. The Polish currency has weakened 2.2% against the euro over the last two days amid a sharp global selloff stoked by new US tariffs. Glapinski’s all-or-nothing style is hard to grasp for financial markets.

The Italian economy will grow by 0.5% this year, far below the government's official 1.2% estimate, the country's central bank said on Friday, cutting a 0.7% forecast it made in December and warning of the impact of U.S. trade tariffs, Reuters reported. The central bank forecast that tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday would have a negative impact of more than half a percentage point on Italian growth in 2025-2027.

Rising U.S. tariffs on imports from other countries may lead to lower inflation in the U.K., a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee said Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a speech at a conference in South Africa, Swati Dhingra said global prices fell in response to higher tariffs during Donald Trump’s first term as president as sellers in China and other countries lowered their prices to find buyers elsewhere. Dhingra said that upward pressure on U.K.

Former presidential hopeful Boris Nadezhdin was forced to declare bankruptcy following a court order related to past campaign debt, the business newspaper Kommersant reported Thursday. Nadezhdin, 61, sought to challenge President Vladimir Putin in the March 2024 presidential race on an anti-war platform but was barred from running. Though unsuccessful, his short-lived campaign drew support from Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine despite a wartime crackdown on dissent.

A total of 2,718 companies shut down between January and March this year, the biggest number in the first quarter of any year since 2021, when 5,133 notices of liquidation were filed during the UK’s third lockdown, the Telegraph reported. There were 2,483 business closures in the first quarter of 2022, 2,348 in the first quarter of 2023 and 1,877 in the first quarter of 2024. Rachel Reeves raised taxes by a record £40 billion at the Budget in autumn, including a £25 billion rise in employers’ National Insurance.

Swiss inflation remained unchanged in March, though the impact of U.S. tariffs threaten to roil the country’s economy and push the Swiss National Bank to cut rates further, the Wall Street Journal reported. Annual inflation stayed at 0.3%, the same as February, matching the lowest level in almost four years, Switzerland’s federal statistics office said Thursday. Trends from increased package-holiday and clothing prices contrasted with declining energy and accommodation prices, it said.

The Spanish government will provide 14.1 billion euros ($15.66 billion) worth of measures to help its economy weather the impact of the new U.S. tariffs, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The new tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday have rattled markets and drew condemnation from world leaders facing an abrupt end of an era of trade liberalisation that has shaped the global order for decades. Spain, which like other European Union members was hit by U.S.