Headlines

Investors boosted bets on the peak for European Central Bank interest rates to 4% for the first time after inflation in France and Spain came in unexpectedly hot, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices in France jumped by a euro-era record 7.2% from a year ago in February as food and services costs increased. Spain saw a 6.1% advance. Analysts had estimated price gains would remain unchanged at 7% in France and slow in Spain.

Euro zone inflation pressures have begun to ease, including for all-important core prices, but the European Central Bank will not end rate hikes until it is confident price growth is heading back towards 2%, ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane said, Reuters reported. The ECB has raised rates by 3 percentage points since July and promised another half a percentage increase in March, in the hope that more expensive funding will curtail demand enough to get price growth down from levels still above 8%.

Britain and the European Union have reached a new agreement on post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland, raising hopes that more than six years of wrangling over the U.K.’s departure from the bloc may finally come to an end, the Associated Press reported. The deal, announced Monday by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is designed to replace existing rules that have been criticized for effectively creating a customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, weakening the region’s links to Britain.

Banks are becoming the leading buyers of some euro zone governments' bond sales, taking advantage of surging interest rates as the European Central Bank looks to reduce its presence in the market, Reuters reported. Euro zone governments need private buyers to pick up some 400 billion euros ($422 billion) of additional debt this year.

The Canadian economy unexpectedly stalled in the final three months of 2022, but likely rebounded in January, data showed on Tuesday, a result that backs up the Bank of Canada's aim to keep interest rates on hold at its next policy meeting in March, Reuters reported. Annualized fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) was flat versus the previous quarter, Statistics Canada said, ending a streak of five consecutive quarterly increases. It was far below analysts' median forecast for a 1.5% increase.

Property developer China Evergrande Group is struggling to reach a deal with foreign bondholders, raising the possibility that a court will tell the company to wind down, the Wall Street Journal reported. Evergrande, once China’s largest property developer by sales, sold more than $20 billion of dollar bonds during a debt-fueled spending spree. The company defaulted on its foreign debt in late 2021, and has since been embroiled in a difficult negotiation with international bondholders.

The Financial Stability Board, International Monetary Fund and Bank for International Settlements are committed to presenting a foundation for the regulation of private cryptocurrencies, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said, Fortune reported. “In that world of private issuances, there has to be more regulation,” Georgieva said on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting on Saturday. In a statement, India which heads the G-20, said the discussions helped initiate a broader dialog on crypto assets.

Toronto-Dominion Bank said Monday it agreed to pay more than $1.2 billion to settle a lawsuit by investors claiming it aided R. Allen Stanford’s $7 billion Ponzi scheme more than a decade ago, Bloomberg News reported. Settlements also were reached with HSBC Holdings Plc, which will pay another $40 million, and Independent Bank Group Inc., formerly known as Bank of Houston, which will pay $100 million, according to Ralph Janvey, the court-appointed receiver for Stanford International Bank.

UK taxpayers will be on the hook for as much as £200 billion ($240 billion) of potential losses from the Bank of England’s quantitative easing program after the Treasury lodged plans to cover any future shortfall with parliament last week, Bloomberg News reported.

A new deal agreed between Britain and the European Union to amend the Northern Ireland Protocol will allow the Stormont assembly to stop EU laws applying in the province, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Monday, Reuters reported. "Many had called for Stormont to have a say over these laws. But the 'Stormont break' goes further and means that Stormont can in fact stop them from applying in Northern Ireland," Sunak told a news conference.