Risks of a hit to the global economy and further sharp falls in financial markets have grown due to U.S. President Donald Trump's import tariffs and the UK is exposed to the fallout, the Bank of England said, Reuters reported. "The probability of adverse events, and the potential severity of their impact has risen," the BoE's Financial Policy Committee said on Wednesday. A major shift in global trade could damage the financial system by weakening economic growth, the FPC said in a summary of a two-day meeting which ended on Tuesday.

The European Central Bank should lower its key interest rate in response to the recent rise in U.S. tariffs, the head of the Bank of France said in an interview published today, the Wall Street Journal reported. U.S. President Trump last week imposed additional tariffs of 20% on imports from the European Union, adding to new duties on automobiles, aluminum and steel. Economists say that is likely to weaken growth in the eurozone as exports cool. “There is still room for rate cuts,” Francois Villeroy de Galhau told French newspaper Le Monde.

European Union officials on Monday were set to circulate a list of products they plan to hit with retaliatory tariffs, a major step toward striking back at President Trump as he ignites a global trade war, the New York Times reported. Representatives from across the bloc’s 27 member states are expected to vote on the wave of tariffs on Wednesday, and a solid coalition would be required to block them from taking effect. They are expected to go into force starting on April 15.

The tariffs announced by the United States will deal a major blow to the German economy, delaying a recovery and possibly putting Europe's biggest economy on track for a third year of recession for the first time in history, Reuters reported. Germany, the biggest trading partner of the United States, had a trade surplus of a record 70 billion euros with the U.S. in 2024. An export-oriented nation, Germany will be the biggest European loser in a trade war.

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.