Headlines

The Italian electric motorcycle maker Energica has officially declared that it is ceasing operations and entering bankruptcy proceedings, ending speculation about the company’s precarious financial situation, Electrek.co reported. After reducing its workforce by around 70% recently, among other measures to tighten its purse strings, the famed Italian electric motorcycle maker’s board made the decision to enter bankruptcy proceedings after its latest meeting this week.

China’s policymakers rolled out fresh stimulus aimed at boosting the country’s sluggish property sector, though the measures fell short of hopes for more specific liquidity support, the Wall Street Journal reported. Authorities plan to fast-track credit for struggling property developers, and aim to renovate 1 million apartments in so-called urban shantytowns, a strategy used during the prior real-estate slump, the housing ministry and other policymakers said Thursday at a highly anticipated press conference.

The European Central Bank cut interest rates on Thursday for the third time in about four months, as inflation in the eurozone has cooled faster than expected and economic growth has been sluggish, the New York Times reported. Policymakers who set interest rates for the 20 countries that use the euro lowered their key rate by a quarter point, to 3.25 percent.

New forecasts by the International Monetary Fund point to a difficult future for the global economy marked by lackluster medium-term growth, escalating trade tensions and high levels of debt, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Georgieva painted a sobering picture in a speech ahead of next week's annual IMF and World Bank meetings, but said much could still be done to boost growth, reduce debt and build a more resilient economy.

Germany’s ruling coalition will repeal a tax rule that limits the use of derivatives losses to offset profits on investments, according to a government member, Bloomberg News reported. “The restriction on offsetting gains with losses from derivatives and total wipe-outs is finally going to end,” Katja Hessel, a deputy finance minister, said in a post on X. The regulation was introduced by the previous German government in 2020. It restricts investors’ ability to use losses in some instruments to lower their tax bills on gains in other investments, a practice known as netting, in two ways.

Turkey’s central bank extended its interest-rate pause for a seventh month and adopted a more hard-line stance on the course of inflation, pushing back expectations for a rate cut into next year, Bloomberg News reported. The Monetary Policy Committee under Governor Fatih Karahan kept the one-week repo rate at 50%, in line with almost all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey. The policymakers had appeared to soften their position last month, prompting analysts to believe a rate cut could be imminent, but Thursday’s statement reversed the course.

Like wine-growing heartlands everywhere from Bordeaux to Napa Valley, Lombardy’s Oltrepò Pavese region is grappling with two historic challenges: a changing climate and changing tastes. It’s been incredibly rainy in northern Italy this year. Fungi took hold of some vines, and had to be dealt with hastily, Bloomberg News reported. At the same time, great viniculture nations like Italy are having to adapt to the waning popularity of red wine, as younger drinkers opt for trendy craft beers and fizzy whites — or swear off alcohol entirely.

Troubled Swedish battery maker Northvolt AB has laid off nearly 400 white-collar workers at its center of operations in Skelleftea as part of concluded negotiations with two of the Swedish trade unions, Bloomberg News reported. The redundancies form part of a previously announced measure to cut 1,000 jobs at the Northvolt Ett plant in northern Sweden. The maker of electric vehicle batteries is racing to preserve cash while it negotiates a new financing pact with investors.

Argentina lost a bid at the U.K. Supreme Court to hear its appeal on a ruling that would force the South American nation to pay $1.5 billion in damages to holders of the country’s growth-linked bonds, Bloomberg News reported. In an order signed Monday, the U.K.’s top court refused to hear an appeal over payments to hedge funds including Palladian Partners LP. The holders of those notes argued the losses were a result of a change by a previous Argentine government in how it calculated gross domestic product.

Inflation in the U.K. fell to below the Bank of England’s 2% target in September for the first time in more than three years, boosting the chance of an interest-rate cut next month, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 1.7% higher in September than the same month of last year, easing from the 2.2% rate of inflation in August, and reaching the lowest level since April 2021, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. The pound fell 0.5% against the dollar after the data release.