ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s economy rose 0.6% in the first quarter, boosted by strong domestic demand, national statistics bureau ISTAT said on Wednesday, lifting a preliminary estimate of a 0.5% rise in gross domestic product. On a year-on-year basis, GDP in the January-March period was revised up to 1.9% compared with the 1.8% printout in ISTAT’s flash …
Italy Q1 GDP revised up to 0.6% q/q, 1.9% y/y -ISTAT Read More »
By Prerna Bedi and Yadarisa Shabong (Reuters) – British discount retailer B&M on Wednesday forecast higher core earnings for its 2023-24 financial year, as customers snap up budget food and goods in a cost-of-living crunch, sending its shares nearly 6% higher. The FTSE-100 firm said it was benefitting from people switching to cheaper alternatives including …
B&M sees higher profit as Britons hunt for bargains Read More »
By Supantha Mukherjee and Martin Coulter STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) – Top artificial intelligence (AI) executives including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday joined experts and professors in raising the “risk of extinction from AI”, which they urged policymakers to equate at par with risks posed by pandemics and nuclear war. “Mitigating the risk of extinction from …
Top AI CEOs, experts raise ‘risk of extinction’ from AI Read More »
By Bart Meijer AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Netherlands is set for a major overhaul of its 1.45 trillion euro ($1.6 trillion) private pension industry, Europe’s largest, that will see funds ditch the promise of guaranteed benefits as they try to keep a lid on costs. Following years of debate, the Dutch Senate on Tuesday gave …
Netherlands set to reform $1.6 trillion private pension sector Read More »
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican bottler FEMSA on Tuesday offered 3.3 billion euros ($3.63 billion) worth of its shares in Heineken, the second large offering in its divestment of holdings in the Dutch brewer. The shares are equivalent to a stake of about 5.9% in Grupo Heineken, the Mexican company said in a statement. FEMSA …
Mexico’s FEMSA launches second 3 billion euro sale of Heineken shares Read More »
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – The Danish state will take a 20% stake in four planned offshore wind farms with a total capacity of at least 6 gigawatts (GW), the country’s ministry of climate, energy and utilities said on Tuesday. Under the terms in the upcoming tenders, developers will compete to offer the state the highest fixed …
Denmark to take 20% ownership of new offshore wind farms Read More »
By David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s highest inflation in four decades failed to boost company profits last year, with the exception of oil and gas extractors who benefited from a surge in energy prices, official figures showed on Tuesday. The average net rate of return on capital employed by British companies not involved in …
High inflation fails to boost most UK companies’ profits Read More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Euro zone bank lending slowed again in April, supporting the case for careful interest rate hikes in the months ahead as weak growth and surging borrowing costs are already denting demand for credit, European Central Bank data showed on Tuesday. The ECB has raised rates at the fastest pace on record over …
Euro zone lending takes another hit from higher rates Read More »
By Sam Tobin and Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) – Microsoft on Tuesday accused Britain’s anti-trust regulator of being a global “outlier” in blocking its $69 billion takeover of “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) vetoed the deal in April, saying it could hurt competition in the nascent cloud gaming …
Microsoft says UK regulator an ‘outlier’ for blocking Activision deal Read More »
By Muvija M LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s competition regulator told supermarkets on Tuesday it was looking at their earnings to identify which supply chains it needed to examine more closely as part of efforts to tackle food price inflation. Food prices are up more than 19% over the last year, after the most sustained inflation …
UK scrutinises supermarket profits as food prices stay high Read More »
