Headlines

Spiking trade uncertainty is compounding rising debt and sluggish growth problems facing emerging markets and developing countries, but cutting their own tariffs could provide a big boost, said Indermit Gill, the World Bank's chief economist, Reuters reported. Gill said global economists were rapidly lowering their growth forecasts for advanced economies and somewhat less so for developing countries, at least for now, in the wake of a tsunami of tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump.

U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats are creating uncertainty for economies around the world but there is still margin for further interest rate cuts in Europe as inflation in the euro-zone heads lower, European Central Bank (ECB) policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Monday, Reuters reported. "We are in a moment of great uncertainty ... Mr Trump's polices are not working. The policies of this Trump administration are playing against the U.S. economy and unfortunately also against the world economy," Villeroy - who is also head of the Bank of France - told RTL Radio.

The Bank of Japan is widely expected to maintain its policy rate unchanged at 0.5% at a two-day meeting ending Thursday as it waits to see if Japan will be exempt from President Trump’s tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. BOJ policymakers have grown more cautious about the impact of additional U.S. tariffs on the Japanese economy. Aside from the risk of exports slowing, they are worried that uncertainty over U.S. policymaking will make Japanese companies hesitant to allocate capital.

Spain’s unemployment rate rose in the first quarter, a sign of some caution among employers in an economy nonetheless expected to outperform its peers this year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Joblessness rose to 11.4% between January and March from 10.6% in the final months of last year, according to figures released Monday by Spain’s statistics authority. This is the first time since the first quarter of last year that unemployment has increased in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy. Joblessness rose in all sectors, including in services and industry.

China's industrial profits returned to growth in the first quarter, official data showed on Sunday, but are likely to come under further pressure amid a trade war with the United States, Reuters reported. With Washington's aggressive tariffs threatening to hit China's crucial export engine hit and no time frame yet for any bilateral trade talks, economists and investors are waiting for the Chinese government to roll out more support measures to cushion the blow to the world's second-largest economy.

Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Monday that he sees greater momentum for ratification of the long-delayed trade agreement between the South American bloc Mercosur and the European Union as geopolitical and trade tensions grow, Reuters reported. Following 25 years of talks, the free trade deal, which had divided European nations, was finalized in December. But it still requires legalization, translation, and approval by member nations from both blocs.

Talks between the UK and India on a free trade agreement have entered the final stretch, with both sides now wrangling over five unresolved issues, according to an official in New Delhi familiar with the matter, Bloomberg News reported. India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will tackle some of these issues during his two-day visit to the UK that begins Monday.He is scheduled to meet Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves.

Japanese corporate issuers are rekindling some shelved yen bond deals in a sign of pressing funding needs even as investors seek fatter premiums, the Japan Times reported. Suntory, one of a slew of firms that canceled or delayed deals in April due to sharp market fluctuations, is considering resuming the sale in May. Another beverage group, Asahi, sold yen bonds on Friday in an offering that was postponed at the start of the month. Companies paid about 60 basis points more than Japanese sovereign debt on average this month for new issuance, data showed.

India's Adani Green on Monday said that its independent review of the U.S. indictment of founder Gautam Adani and top Adani Green executives, who were accused of paying $265 million in bribes for power contracts, did not identify any non-compliance or irregularities, Reuters reported. In November, U.S. authorities indicted Gautam Adani, his nephew and Executive Director Sagar Adani and Managing Director Vneet S. Jaain, alleging that they paid bribes to secure Indian power supply contracts and misled U.S. investors during fund raises.

Spain and Portugal were hit by a major power outage that caused widespread disruption to flights, traffic and telecommunications across the Iberian Peninsula, the Wall Street Journal reported. Businesses, hospitals and other critical infrastructure were forced to rely on backup generators and homes were without electricity as authorities scrambled to identify the cause of Monday’s blackout. Grid operators in both countries said they were progressively reinstating power.