Headlines

Three years after its departure from the European Union, Britain is yet to benefit from the Brexit dividend that was promised for its economy as it lags its peers on multiple fronts, including trade and investment, Reuters reported. Britain exited the EU on Jan. 31, 2020, though remained in the bloc's single market and customs union for 11 more months. On that day, then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the country could finally fulfil its potential and that he hoped it would grow in confidence with each passing month.

French workers are taking to the streets for the second time in two weeks, piling more pressure on President Emmanuel Macron‘s plans to raise France’s retirement age and threatening further walkouts that could grind much of the country to a halt, the Wall Street Journal reported. Striking teachers and railway, health and oil workers are staging marches in dozens of cities as a part of a nationwide day of action called by unions to force the government to back down from its pension overhaul.

Canada’s economy geared down at the end of 2022, growing at about half the pace of the third quarter and setting the stage for a period of little to no growth, Bloomberg News reported. Preliminary data suggest gross domestic product was flat in December as increases in retail, utilities and the public sector were offset by decreases in the wholesale, finance and oil and gas industries, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday in Ottawa. That followed a 0.1% gain in November, which matched economist expectations in a Bloomberg survey, and a 0.1% increase in October.

Norway's wealth fund, one of the world's largest investors, posted a record loss of 1.64 trillion crowns ($164.4 billion) for 2022, bringing to an end a three-year run of soaring profits as stocks and bonds were hit by the Ukraine war and inflation, Reuters reported. The previous largest loss was 633 billion crowns in 2008. It ends a record-breaking streak for the fund, where annual returns exceeded one trillion crowns in each of the three years from 2019 to 2021, amounting to more than four trillion crowns combined. "We are invested in 9,000 companies in 70 countries.

Venezuela's state oil firm PDVSA is toughening terms for buyers after a month-long halt to most exports of crude and fuel, demanding prepayment ahead of loadings in either cash, goods or services, company documents showed, Reuters reported. PDVSA's new Chief Executive Pedro Tellechea put the move in place this month. It reinforces measures implemented last year after several buyers skipped out on payments for oil, which provides most of the South American country's income.

The Charity Commission has launched an inquiry into UK-based Effective Ventures Foundation over its ties to bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, Bloomberg News reported. The Oxford, Oxfordshire-based charity had reported the FTX bankruptcy as a “serious incident”, as FTX’s philanthropic foundation had been a major funder of Effective Ventures, according to a statement Monday by the Charity Commission. The commission said there is “no indication of wrongdoing” by the charity’s trustees.

The German economy unexpectedly shrank in the fourth quarter, data showed on Monday, a sign that Europe's largest economy may be entering a much-predicted recession, though likely a shallower one than originally feared, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product decreased 0.2% quarter on quarter in adjusted terms, the federal statistics office said. A Reuters poll of analysts had forecast the economy would stagnate. In the previous quarter, the German economy grew by an upwardly revised 0.5% versus the previous three months.

Euro zone economic sentiment rose to a seven-month high in January on more optimism across all sectors except construction, with inflation expectations among consumers and companies both sharply down, data showed on Monday, Reuters reported. The European Commission's Economic Sentiment Index (ESI) rose to 99.9 this month, above an upwardly revised 97.1 in December -- the highest value of the index since June 2022.

Spanish inflation unexpectedly quickened in January after a five-month run of slowing price growth, prompting traders to boost their bets on how high the European Central Bank will raise interest rates, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices advanced by 5.8% from a year ago, up from the previous month’s 5.5% increase, the statistics institute in Madrid said Monday. That’s well above the 4.8% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists, though the predictions ranged from 3.8% to 6.5%.

Brazil's government debt as a share of gross domestic product ended 2022 at its lowest level in more than five years, central bank data showed on Monday, helped by nominal economic growth and net public debt redemptions, Reuters reported. The country's gross debt fell to 73.5% of GDP in December from 74.6% in November, accumulating a 4.8 points contraction in the year, to its lowest ratio since July 2017, when it reached 73.2%. The reduction was mainly led by a nominal rise in GDP, which is also affected by inflation.