The euro zone economy showed some signs of life on Tuesday with a raft of indicators pointing to lukewarm but still positive growth for a bloc that has been skirting a recession for over a year. Industrial output expanded and lending demand rose, while expectations in a key German sentiment survey also increased more than predicted, offering some reassurance after key indicators tended to underperform expectations over the past month. The figures are likely to reinforce bets that the bloc is still growing, even if at the slowest possible pace, ...

Fitch Ratings forecasts that leverage of its rated EMEA corporate portfolio will remain stable in 2025, supported by higher earnings and despite increased capex, while leverage headroom will improve. Most sectors will have broadly stable leverage metrics, according to our Global Corporates Macro and Sector Forecasts — September 2024 data file. Some sectors, including real estate, aerospace and defence, and consumer-focused, will continue their deleveraging from 2023. The property sector is under pressure to cut high debt in the troubled commercial segment, while other industries are supported by strengthening demand ...

Citing a recent uptick in inflation and data showing the U.S. economy and labor market are stronger than previously thought, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller on Monday called for “more caution” on interest-rate cuts ahead. “Whatever happens in the near term, my baseline still calls for reducing the policy rate gradually over the next year,” Waller said at a ShadowOpen Market Committee conference at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, noting that there is “considerable” room for easing the Fed’s restrictive policy rate. The labormarket remains healthy, he said, even as labor ...

Bank of America’s BAC.N third-quarter profit dropped as it paid more to customers to hold onto their deposits but the earnings beat estimates, propelled by stronger investment banking and trading. Investment banking fees jumped 18% compared with a year agoto $1.4 billion as confidence among clients improved, spurring them to issue more debt and equity. “Our customers’ deposit balances and asset quality are healthy, and we believe we have good opportunities to grow,” Chief Financial Officer Alastair Borthwick told journalists. Regarding investment banking, Borthwick said, “We feel pretty good looking ...

Growth across the Pacific Islands is expected to slow to 3.6% this year, down from 5.8% in 2023, as a post-pandemic rebound fades and Fiji, contributing half of the region’s output, slowed significantly, the World Bank said on Tuesday. A long-term slowdown was caused by weaker investment, increasing climate risks, and structural challenges, a report said. Without immediate action to ramp up investment, Pacific Island nations may struggle to reduce poverty and generate new economic opportunities, it added. The Washington-based global lender said investment had shrunk on average across Pacific ...

Over in the US, the Federal Reserve has made a big call that the jobs market is no longer a source of inflation. And more than that, Chair Jerome Powell has told us he doesn’t welcome any further increase in unemployment. So far, we’ve not seen that sort of signal here in the UK. The Bank of England still speaks of employment growth that’s more robust than the official figures are telling us. And those latest official numbers show another fall in the unemployment rate, down to 4.0%. The hawks, ...

German investor morale improved more than expected in October, the ZEW economic research institute said on Tuesday, reporting a rise in its economic sentiment index to 13.1 points from 3.6 points in September. Analysts polled by Reuters had pointed to a reading of 10.0. The contributing factors for the rise include the expectation of stable inflation rates and the associated prospect of further interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank, ZEW president Achim Wambach said. Positive signals are also coming from Germany’s export markets, with economic expectations for the ...

The U.S. Federal Reserve will continue cutting interest rates in November, but policymakers are walking a thin line as inflation is no longer cooling at an accelerated pace, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management’s chief investment officer said. The Fed is focused on a labor market that has shown evidence of being “mixed in pockets”, Lisa Shalett told the Reuters Global Markets Forum (GMF). “They’re not going for the 2% (inflation) target; they’ve abandoned it,” she said. Most Fed policymakers last week gave the green light for more rate cuts in coming ...

Demand for bank loans across the 20-nation euro zone rose in the third quarter and a further increase is expected in the final three months of the year, with household mortgages driving the expansion, a European Central Bank survey showed on Tuesday. Lending growth has been hovering just above zero all year as high interest rates and weak economic growth have pushed down demand, depressing prospects across a bloc that has been skirting a recession for years. This weak growth is one of the main reasons why the ECB is ...

Russia’s economic growth has exceeded expectations since President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in 2022, despite punishing measures by the West. But the performance is due to massive military spending, coupled with sanctions-busting and the redirection of commodity exports to friendlier countries. This war addiction is Moscow’s key financial vulnerability. Compared to the dire forecasts made at the time, Russia’s economy has performed well since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. After a 1.2% fall that year, GDP rebounded to grow 3.6% in 2023 and is on track to ...

Citigroup C.N has struggled to adequately train employees in risk, compliance and data roles, according to the bank’s own assessment, shedding light on why it is taking it years to fix regulatory issues even as billions are spent on an overhaul. Citi’s analysis, a portion of which was seen by Reuters and has not been previously reported, shows the bank has been grappling with a shortage of skilled personnel, finding at times that it did not have the right training and assessment tools to fix its regulatory challenges. The bank, ...

Chinese banks are set to cut rates on 300 trillion yuan ($42.20 trillion) of deposits as soon as this week, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Major banks including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China 601938.SS and China Construction Bank Corp 601939.SS will be guided by the central bank’s interest rate self-disciplinary mechanism to lower the rates on a number of deposit products, the report said. Rates on one-year time deposits may drop by at least 20 basis points (bps), while those on longer tenors ...

Global merchandise trade turned upwards in the first half of 2024 with a 2.3 percent year-on-year increase, which should be followed by further moderate expansion in the rest of the year and in 2025, according to Global Trade Outlook for October. The rebound comes on the heels of a slump in 2023 driven by high inflation and rising interest rates, it noted. WTO economists now anticipate that the volume of world merchandise trade will increase by 2.7 percent in 2024 and 3.0 percent in 2025, while global GDP growth at ...

British pay grew at its slowest pace in more than two years in the three months to August and vacancies fell again, according to official data that will likely be welcomed by the Bank of England as it considers when to cut interest rates again. Average weekly earnings, excluding bonuses, were 4.9% higher than a year earlier in the three months to the end of August, the Office for National Statistics said,in line with the median forecasts of economists polled by Reuters. Sterling was little changed after the data and ...

Finally a strong number out of eurozone industry. The production boost was driven by Germany, which saw production increase by 3.3% in August, erasing losses from the 3.3% decline in July. France and the Netherlands also experienced fast growth at 1.4 and 2.2% month-on-month. This mid-quarter growth spurt will be helpful in supporting economic activity in the quarter, which has been under pressure judging from weakening survey data evidence on economic growth. Still, expectations about industry remain lacklustre for the rest of the year. The list of concerns for eurozone ...