Headlines

The Dutch government expects to spend about 23.5 billion euros ($23.3 billion) on a price cap on energy contracts to shield consumers from surging prices, it said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The government last month said it would cap prices but had yet to agree final details. During the whole of 2023 prices will be capped at 0.40 euros per kilowatt hour of electricity and 1.45 euros per cubic metre of gas for a maximum of 2,900 kilowatt hours and 1,200 cubic metres respectively.

Further increases to Colombia's benchmark interest rate may be necessary in the coming months as the central bank tries to bring inflation in line with its 3% target, according to minutes from the bank's meeting last week, Reuters reported. Colombia's central bank board raised its benchmark interest rate by 100 basis points to 10% last Thursday, as inflation pressures and domestic consumption remain robust and central banks around the world boost rates. The country's 12-month inflation hit 10.84% in August and the market expects the figure to have risen to 11.25% in September.

European Union finance ministers on Tuesday added Anguilla, the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands to the EU list of tax havens, expanding the roster to 12 countries, Reuters reported. Turks and Caicos Islands, near the Bahamas and Cuba, are listed for the first time. The Bahamas were already once listed in 2018 and then taken off, and Anguilla once in 2020. "Fair taxation of businesses benefits all of us.

Australia's central bank on Tuesday surprised markets by lifting interest rates by a smaller-than-expected 25 basis points (0.25%), saying they had already risen substantially, though it added that further tightening would still be needed, Reuters reported. Wrapping up its October policy meeting, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised its cash rate to a nine-year peak of 2.60%, the sixth hike in as many months, which included four outsize moves of 50 basis points. The bank had recently flagged a possible slowdown in the pace of hikes at some point.

Outraged bank clients, at least two of them armed, stormed four commercial banks across Lebanon on Tuesday over withdrawal limits that have been imposed throughout the country amid a financial meltdown, Reuters reported. Cases of bank hold-ups have snowballed across Lebanon as residents have grown exasperated over the informal capital controls that banks have imposed since an economic downturn began in 2019.

Poland’s foreign minister on Monday signed an official note to Germany requesting the payment of about $1.3 trillion in reparations for the damage incurred by occupying Nazi Germans during World War II, the Associated Press reported. Zbigniew Rau said the note will be handed to Germany’s Foreign Ministry. The signing comes on the eve of Rau’s meeting in Warsaw with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who will attend a security conference.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss was forced on Monday into a humiliating U-turn after less than a month in power, reversing a cut to the highest rate of income tax that helped spark turmoil in financial markets and a rebellion in her party, Reuters reported. Finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng said the decision was taken with "humility and contrition", after some lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party reacted with fury to suggestions that public and welfare spending could be cut to fund tax cuts for the richest.

Governments and companies around the world are facing unprecedented costs to refinance bonds, a burden that’s set to deepen fissures in debt markets and expose more vulnerabilities among weaker borrowers, Bloomberg News reported. A corporate treasurer or finance minister looking to issue new notes now would likely have to pay interest that’s about 156 basis points higher on average than the coupons on existing securities, after that gap surged to a record in recent days.

A U.N. agency warned on Monday of the risk of a monetary policy-induced global recession that would have especially serious consequences for developing countries, Reuters reported. "Excessive monetary tightening could usher in a period of stagnation and economic instability" for some countries, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a statement released alongside its annual report.

The Bank of Israel on Monday raised its benchmark interest rate by three-quarters of a point for the second meeting in a row, citing its determination to move inflation back to within its target, Reuters reported. The central bank lifted its key rate to 2.75% from 2.0% in its fifth straight decision to hike rates. In April, policymakers had begun raising the rate from 0.1% -- an all-time low where it had stayed for the prior 15 decisions since a 0.15 point reduction at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.