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By Jan Strupczewski BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission will ask EU governments next week to start withdrawing in 2023 generous fiscal support they provided during the pandemic because the economy has recovered and is growing strongly, Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said. This move on March 2 will be the first time the Commission …

EU to ask governments to start withdrawing fiscal support in 2023 -Dombrovskis Read More »

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s coalition parties agreed on Wednesday a roughly 13 billion euro package of measures to help households cope with surging energy prices, including scrapping a surcharge levied on electricity bills to support green power. Energy prices in Germany have soared in the last year, and fears of an escalation of the crisis …

German parties agree relief for households as energy prices soar Read More »

By Elizabeth Culliford (Reuters) -Facebook-owner Meta is working on artificial intelligence research to generate worlds through speech, improve how people chat to voice assistants and translate between languages, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday, as he sketched out key steps to building the metaverse. Zuckerberg is betting that the metaverse, a futuristic idea of virtual …

Meta’s Zuckerberg unveils AI projects aimed at building metaverse future Read More »

LISBON (Reuters) – Rough waters forced authorities on Wednesday to postpone a salvage operation for a ship packed with luxury cars that have been on fire for a week in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a port official said. With teams unable to board the Felicity Ace, heavy tug boats sprayed water to cool …

Rough seas delay salvage operation for burning ship carrying luxury cars Read More »

MILAN (Reuters) -Italian tyremaker Pirelli on Wednesday reassured it was taking steps to offset higher costs as well as the impact of the crisis in Ukraine, and had a contingency plan ready were the situation to worsen. Wrestling like peers with rising costs for raw materials, energy, labour and logistics, Pirelli trimmed the top of …

Pirelli taking steps to counter higher costs, Ukraine crisis Read More »

By Andy Bruce LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, who takes home more than 500,000 pounds ($680,050) a year, faced ire on Wednesday from lawmakers over his call for people to show pay restraint in a bid to curb inflation pressure. Earlier this month politicians and workers’ groups criticised Bailey for telling …

‘What’s your pay, governor?’: BoE’s Bailey chided over wages talk Read More »

By David Milliken and Andy Bruce LONDON (Reuters) -Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said on Wednesday there were clear risks that inflation could again overshoot the central bank’s forecasts but markets should not get carried away about the likely scale of interest rate rises. The BoE forecasts inflation will peak at a 30-year high …

BoE’s Bailey sees inflation risk but says markets should not get carried away Read More »

LONDON (Reuters) – Bank of England policymaker Silvana Tenreyro said increasing Bank Rate by only a further 25 basis points to 0.75% might be a reasonable way to get inflation back to the central bank’s 2% target, based on its most recent forecasts. “Conditional on our forecast, you know, 75 would be a reasonable number,” …

BoE’s Tenreyro: one more rate hike might be needed, based on Feb outlook Read More »

(Reuters) – Fnac Darty on Wednesday reported better than expected annual earnings, helped by robust sales growth across its product categories as consumers returned to its stores. Retailers have seen their in-store sales rebound in recent months as vaccinations and easing pandemic restrictions encouraged shoppers to return after months of closures. The French books, music …

Fnac Darty beats full-year targets as shoppers return to stores Read More »

By Giulio Piovaccari and Gilles Guillaume MILAN (Reuters) – Stellantis made a fast start in its first year after the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot maker PSA, with the world’s No.4 carmaker reporting profitability and benefits from the combination both ahead of target. The group said on Wednesday the margin on its adjusted operating …

Stellantis beats profit target in first year after merger Read More »