Headlines

Rachel Reeves risks being forced to nationalise Thames Water just two days before her Spring Statement in a move that would force the Chancellor to tear up her spending plans, The Telegraph reported. The Treasury is drawing up fresh contingency proposals for Britain’s biggest water supplier ahead of a court showdown that could plunge the business into special administration. The threat of special administration is still looming over Thames Water, which has 16m customers, despite the High Court approving an emergency loan from its lenders last month.

The European Central Bank lowered interest rates for the sixth time since June and indicated that its cutting phase may be drawing to a close as inflation cools and the economy digests seismic shifts in geopolitics, Bloomberg News reported. The deposit rate was reduced by a quarter point to 2.5% as officials described their monetary-policy stance as becoming “meaningfully less restrictive.” Revealing that inflation will take slightly longer to reach 2%, the ECB is switching “to a more evolutionary approach,” President Christine Lagarde said Thursday.

China submitted a revised request for dispute settlement consultations with the United States to address new U.S. tariffs applied on goods originating in China, the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The Trump administration's latest tariff hike on Chinese imports has heightened fears of a renewed trade war between the U.S. and China, the world's two largest economies. China's revised request comes after an extra 10% duty on Chinese goods took effect Tuesday, adding to the 10% tariff imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on February 4.

Canada's trade surplus in January exceeded expectations by a wide margin to post a 32-month record as fears of tariffs from the U.S. pushed exports of cars and energy products, especially south of its border, data showed on Thursday, Reuters reported. Canada posted a trade surplus of C$3.97 billion ($2.76 billion), more than double the upwardly revised C$1.69 billion seen in December, Statistics Canada said. This was a second consecutive month when exports far exceeded imports although both grew by a healthy margin. U.S.

Retail trade ticked lower in the eurozone at the start of this year, with January’s decline marking four months of no growth in sales for the sector, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sales volumes were down 0.3% on month in January, European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Thursday, weaker than economists’ forecast of a slight rise. While December’s figure was revised upward to record flat growth, from a 0.2% decline previously reported, volumes only last grew in September.

Malaysia’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged as expected, citing a balanced outlook on growth and inflation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Bank Negara Malaysia on Thursday maintained its overnight policy rate at 3.00%, where it has been since May 2023. “At the current OPR level, the monetary policy stance remains supportive of the economy and is consistent with the current assessment of inflation and growth prospects,” Bank Negara said.

Turkey lowered its benchmark one-week repo rate from 45% to 42.5% on Thursday, EuroNews.com reported. The decision came after official data showed annual inflation dipping below 40% for the first time in nearly two years. In a statement released after the committee meeting, the bank said it would review inflation trends and adjust rates cautiously in upcoming policy meetings. “While inflation expectations and pricing behaviour tend to improve, they continue to pose risks to the disinflation process,” the bank said.

South Korea’s headline inflation eased in February, providing room for the central bank to loosen monetary policy further to support the slowing economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The benchmark consumer-price index rose 2.0% from a year earlier, following a 2.2% increase in January, the country’s statistics office said Thursday. The slowdown in price growth was largely driven by stabilizing prices of some agricultural products as well as lower services prices, according to the statistics office.

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has introduced a proposal aimed at significantly lowering the tax rate on crypto gains from the current maximum of 55% to 20%, CoinMarketCap.com reported. This proposal seeks to classify cryptocurrencies as a new asset class under the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, thereby aligning the tax treatment of crypto with that of traditional securities. Currently, Japan categorizes crypto gains as miscellaneous income, subjecting investors to a steep tax burden.

Integrated steel mill Liberty Galati in Romania (formerly Sidex), with a liquid steel capacity of 3 million tonnes, part of steel group Liberty, announced on March 4 that it entered the pre-insolvency procedure "to stabilise the business, optimizing the allocation of resources and opening up new investment opportunities," Romania-Insider.com. The measure is taken in the context of geopolitical changes, new tariffs imposed by the US on steel imports (25% as of March 12), and the lack of real measures to protect the steel industry at the European Union level, the company said.