The EU on Wednesday unveiled proposals including a controversial expansion of state aid rules to counter the threat to European industry from US green subsidies and unfair competition from China.. The EU's competition chief Margrethe Vestager however insisted the bloc would act carefully and the relaxation of state aid rules would be "temporary, well targeted".
Activity in the US manufacturing sector shrank for a third straight month in January, hovering at the lowest levels since May 2020 as new orders and production slumped, according to survey data released Wednesday.. In recent months, the manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index has been at its lowest levels since the pandemic recovery began.
The Federal Reserve started the second day of its policy meeting Wednesday, on growing expectations that it will step down to a smaller interest rate hike as red-hot inflation shows signs of cooling.. In a statement, a Federal Reserve spokesperson said the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee meeting started at 9am ET (1400 GMT) as scheduled.
Half a million workers went on strike in Britain on Wednesday, calling for higher wages in the largest such walkout in over a decade, closing schools and severely disrupting transport.. He urged opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer to say "that the strikes are wrong and we should be backing our school children" - Nationwide rallies - The latest official data shows 1.6 million working days were lost from June-November last year because of strikes -- the highest six-month total in more than three decades -- according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Private employers in the United States slowed their hiring pace in January, payroll firm ADP said Wednesday, in the latest sign that economic activity is cooling on efforts to rein in inflation.. The Federal Reserve has raised the benchmark lending rate seven times last year in hopes of tamping down demand and countering inflation, but there are growing signs it might slow its pace of rate hikes further on Wednesday.
The head of French energy giant TotalEnergies is expected this week to visit Mozambique, where a multi-billion-dollar gas project has been on hold since a 2021 jihadist attack, according to government sources.. He is expected to hold talks with President Filipe Nyusi and government ministers, the sources said.
Inflation has risen to a 48-year high in crisis-hit Pakistan, where the International Monetary Fund is visiting for urgent talks, according to data released on Wednesday by the country's statistics bureau.. "Inflation is so high that one cannot earn enough."
The eurozone's annual inflation rate has fallen for a third consecutive month, official data showed on Wednesday, but uncertainty over the figures and continued price growth cooled optimism.. There had been fears that the eurozone's core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, would jump in January.
Norway has grown richer by the minute as the conflict in Ukraine boosts its gas revenues, but the country is not a war profiteer, its prime minister told AFP in an interview.. Calls have mounted in Norway and abroad for the country to redistribute at least part of the windfall to Ukrainians, or risk being called a war profiteer.
Half a million workers went on strike in Britain on Wednesday, calling for higher wages in the largest such walkout in over a decade, closing schools and severely disrupting transport.. With thousands of schools closed for the day, Education Minister Gillian Keegan told Times Radio she was "disappointed" teachers had walked out.
