International News

  Frankfurt am Main / AFP Global markets face rising instability due to political uncertainty after the election of Donald Trump and with polls next year in key European countries, the European Central Bank warned on Thursday. “Risks of global asset market corrections have intensified, partially due to political uncertainty and expected US policy changes,” the ECB said in its ...

  Athens / AFP Strikes hit Greece on Thursday against a new round of tax hikes and labour changes considered by the government under the country’s EU rescue deal. Civil servants, teachers, sailors and hospital doctors walked off the job to protest the new austerity measures currently negotiated with the country’s creditors. Some 6,500 people demonstrated in Athens in support ...

  Berlin / AFP The German economy has shrugged off the shock election of Donald Trump as US president, with business confidence holding at a two-year high and consumption expected to rise in December. “The economic upturn in Germany remains intact. The German economy seems to be unfazed by the election of Donald Trump as US President,” said the Munich-based ...

  London / AFP Official forecasts that Brexit will blow a £59-billion hole in the British government’s budget drew fire from eurosceptics on Thursday, and even finance minister Philip Hammond said there was a “high degree of uncertainty” about the numbers. Former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith said the predictions from the government’s budget watchdog, the independent Office for Budget ...

  Barcelona / AFP Barcelona city hall said on Thursday it would fine home rental websites Airbnb and rival HomeAway 600,000 euros ($635,000) each for marketing lodgings that lacked permits to host tourists. The fine comes as the popular seaside resort struggles with a rising tide of tourism that has exasperated locals, threatening to drive out poorer residents and spoil ...

  Bloomberg As India undergoes the world’s biggest currency overhaul in decades, one official is noticeably absent: central bank Governor Urjit Patel. The head of the monetary authority has spoken just once since the government invalidated 86 percent of currency in circulation in a surprise move on Nov. 8. Mounting cash shortages pushed the Supreme Court to warn of riots, ...

  Bloomberg The rupee’s slide toward a record low, amid $2.8 billion in outflows from Indian stocks and bonds, is prompting speculation the central bank will step up intervention to stem losses. With a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase next month all but a certainty for bond traders, the rupee has slumped 2.6 percent in November, the most in 15 months. ...

  Johannesburg / AFP South Africa’s political turmoil and weakening economy will come under the harsh spotlight of international credit ratings from this week amid predictions the country could lose its investment-level status. Moody’s will release its updated grading on Friday, before Standard & Poor issues its key announcement a week later on December 2. S&P currently has South Africa—the ...

  Bloomberg Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will lead a meeting of the economic coordination board on Wednesday, a day after a session under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to discuss the slide of the lira was canceled. Government officials said ministers in charge of the economy and senior advisers are expected to attend the 7:30 p.m. meeting ...

  Karachi / AFP Shah Nawaz walks Karachi’s dusty streets, one of thousands in the financial hub who are being fed by charities as Pakistan’s economy picks up pace—but, some say, not fast enough for its poverty-stricken millions. Confidence in Pakistan is growing, with the International Monetary Fund claiming in October that the country has emerged from crisis and stabilised ...