Headlines

Government measures to ease the cost of Europe's energy price shock should not be ramped up further and should be wound down in the next two or three years, the head of France's central bank said on Thursday, Reuters reported. European governments have committed tens of billions of euros this year to help households and businesses cope with record power and gas prices with measures ranging from subsidies to tax breaks and price caps.

The Bank of Canada said decisions about future interest-rate increases will be guided by incoming economic data, though it’s still ready to move aggressively if needed, Bloomberg News reported. Deputy Governor Sharon Kozicki, in a speech Thursday in Montreal, said policymakers expect adjustments to monetary policy will be “more data-dependent,” but kept the possibility of larger hikes on the table. “If we are surprised on the upside, we are still prepared to be forceful,” Kozicki said.

The International Monetary Fund has urged default-stricken Zambia to strike a debt restructuring deal with its international creditors as soon as possible and will make a formal assessment of its predicament in spring next year, Reuters reported.

Wirecard's former chief executive, who steered the payments company through its rise and spectacular collapse two years ago, went on trial for fraud on Thursday after a scandal that shook German politics and tarnished the country's business reputation, Reuters reported. The 53-year-old former CEO Markus Braun, who has been in custody since his arrest in 2020, and two other managers of the former blue chip company face charges including fraud and market manipulation that could result in a jail term of up to 15 years for each of them if convicted.

Argentina's government will raise the floor for income taxes in January, the country's Economy Minister Sergio Massa said on Thursday, amid union demands to ease the burden on workers, Reuters reported. "With this tax relief, in 2023, no worker who earns less than 404,062 pesos (about $2,378 monthly) will pay the tax," Massa said in a tweet. The minister did not disclose the fiscal cost of the decision, which he said is set to benefit some 312,864 workers. The previous floor stood at 330,000 pesos ($1,942.32).

Sitting in a lake teeming with wildlife, several hours by train from Seoul, Korea’s Legoland is an unlikely poster child for the global struggle to fight inflation while maintaining financial stability. But a default on 205 billion won ($155 million) worth of debt by the theme park’s developer triggered the worst meltdown in South Korea’s 1,690 trillion won credit market since the global financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported.

The Bank of England looks set to raise interest rates to 3.5% or more next week, but policymakers appear increasingly split on how much tightening is needed to tame double-digit inflation as the economy heads into recession, Reuters reported. Last month BoE Governor Andrew Bailey said further rate rises were likely to be necessary, though fewer than financial markets had priced in before that meeting, when investors were betting rates would reach 5.25% in mid-2023.

The European Union published three draft laws on Wednesday to lift economic growth by deepening its capital market through less reliance on post-Brexit London, cutting red tape on company listings and streamlining insolvency rules. Britain's departure from the EU has forced the bloc to review its reliance on London for clearing trillions of euros in derivatives, EU financial services commissioner Mairead McGuinness said. The draft laws form the latest package in the bloc's efforts to build a capital markets union.

Euro zone gross domestic product (GDP) grew by slightly more than initially estimated, data from the European statistics agency Eurostat showed on Wednesday, with household spending and business investment propping up the economy, Reuters reported. Eurostat said GDP growth in the third quarter was 0.3% in the 19-country euro area in the July-September period from the previous quarter and 2.3% year-on-year, above its flash estimates of 0.2% and 2.1% published in mid-November. Household spending added 0.4 percentage points to euro zone growth and gross fixed capital formation 0.8 points.

Egypt is expecting approval of a new $3 billion Extended Fund Facility package from the International Monetary Fund next week, Deputy Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Egypt's finances remain fragile despite two major currency devaluations this year and the IMF package, which was announced in October as Egypt pledged to shift to "durable exchange rate flexibility" in line with long-standing IMF demands.