PARIS (Reuters) -Finance Minister Eric Lombard opened the door on Friday to letting France’s budget deficit reduction target slip this year, ruling out extra spending cuts and tax increases to offset a potential shortfall in growth because of a trade war. Lombard told BFM TV it would be necessary to wait to see how negotiations …
France open to letting deficit slip if trade war flares Read More »
(Reuters) -Sales of UK’s battery electric vehicles (BEVs) rose to their highest ever in March but their market share held below the 28% target set by the government, industry data showed on Friday. 69,313 BEVs were sold in March, generally the busiest month of the year, as buyers rushed to beat future tax hikes and …
UK EV sales fail to meet 28% target despite March surge, industry data shows Read More »
By Shashwat Awasthi and Aby Jose Koilparambil (Reuters) – British healthcare REIT Assura has received a 1.5 billion pound ($1.96 billion) indicative cash-and-stock bid from Primary Health Properties, above an earlier offer it had rejected, but below a U.S. consortium’s all-cash bid. This is the seventh proposal in as many weeks fielded by Assura, which …
Bidding war for UK healthcare REIT Assura heats up after new $1.96 billion bid Read More »
By Kate Holton and Catarina Demony LONDON (Reuters) – Britain said it believed a trade deal with the United States was close as it sought to soften the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs which threaten an escalating global trade war that would hurt its open economy. Britain was spared the most punitive …
UK pins hopes on US trade talks after Trump tariff blitz Read More »
ROME (Reuters) – Italy posted a public budget surplus of 0.4% of gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of last year, compared with a 6.6% deficit in the same period of 2023, official statistics agency ISTAT said on Friday. It was the the first quarterly surplus since the last quarter of 2019, the statistics …
(Clarifies to show meeting was not related to U.S. tariffs) PARIS (Reuters) -France organised a meeting of 10 EU countries on Thursday to discuss a trade deal with Latin America’s Mercosur bloc, reaffirming its opposition to the deal as it stands but pushing for the inclusion of an “emergency brake” on farming imports. The meeting …
France pushes for farming ’emergency brake’ in Mercosur deal Read More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s construction industry shrank sharply last month, with civil engineering declining at the fastest rate since 2020 due to weak orders and a lack of new infrastructure work, according to a survey published on Friday that showed optimism plunged. There was also concern among firms about the impact of the increase in …
UK construction sector tumbles, costs pressure and job cuts intensify, PMI shows Read More »
By Maria Martinez (Reuters) -German industrial orders stagnated in February and January’s drop was revised to be less steep, showing that Germany’s industrial sector slump could have bottomed out, but the recovery may be slow as the impact of U.S. tariffs takes hold. A Reuters poll of analysts had pointed to a rise of 3.5%, …
German industrial orders stagnate unexpectedly in February Read More »
WARSAW (Reuters) – It is highly likely the central bank of Poland will cut rates in May and that this year’s reduction in the cost of credit could reach 50-100 basis points, central banker Ludwik Kotecki told private broadcaster TOK FM on Friday. The National Bank of Poland has kept its main interest rate at …
Polish central banker Kotecki expects May rate cut Read More »
PARIS (Reuters) – The European Union should not respond to U.S. President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs with exactly the same counter-measures as it would impact EU consumers, French Finance Minister Eric Lombard said on Friday. Trump on Wednesday unveiled sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries with a baseline rate of 10% on all imports to …
EU should not retaliate in kind for US tariffs, French finance minister says Read More »
