International News

  Brussels / AFP The IMF raised its growth forecast for the eurozone on Tuesday, but warned of uncertainty due to the still unknown consequences of Brexit and damage caused by low inflation. The IMF edged up the growth forecast for the 19 nation currency bloc to 1.7 percent in 2016, from an earlier 1.6 percent, citing low oil prices ...

  Bloomberg Ericsson AB plans to cut 3,000 jobs in Sweden, a fifth of the workforce in its home country, as it curbs production to cope with shifting technology and stagnant demand for wireless-network equipment. The company will reduce manufacturing in the towns of Boraas and Kumla — a move it signaled last month— as it turns its focus to ...

  Strasbourg / AFP The European Parliament will vote on its “negotiating lines” for Britain’s exit from the EU after London triggers the divorce process next year, its Brexit pointman said on Tuesday. Former Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt welcomed Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcement at the weekend that Britain will start negotiations by the end of March but said there ...

  Rio de Janeiro / AFP The sweeping victory of centrist and right-wing parties in municipal elections on Sunday will give Brazil’s new President Michel Temer at least a temporary boost as he pushes through austerity reforms, analysts said. The once-dominant leftist Workers’ Party was routed in the nationwide polls, confirming Brazil’s shift to the right in the wake of ...

  Ottawa / AFP Canada will impose a national minimum carbon price in 2018 in order to meet its Paris accord commitment to slash greenhouse gas emissions, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “All Canadian jurisdictions will put a price on carbon pollution by 2018… To get there, the government will set a floor price for carbon pollution,” he said in ...

  Bloomberg It’s Italy’s turn to worry the bond market. Two months before a referendum on reducing the power of the Senate, the country now pays the most to borrow compared with Spain since 2014 based on government bond yields. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said previously he would quit if he lost the vote, making it effectively a judgment on ...

  Birmingham / AFP The pound hit a three-year low against the euro on Monday after Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain will trigger Brexit negotiations by the end of March and her finance minister warned of “turbulence”. Sterling weakened to 87.46 pence against the euro, the lowest level since August 2013, after May’s government gave more details about how ...

  Bloomberg U.K. factories had their best month in more than two years in September as the weaker pound sent export orders surging. IHS Markit’s monthly Purchasing Managers Index jumped to 55.4 from 53.4 in August, capping the industry’s best quarter this year. The reading, the highest since June 2014 and far above economists’ forecast for 52.1, pushes the index ...

  Frankfurt / AFP German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Sunday lashed out at Deutsche Bank’s handling of its troubles, saying “irresponsible” managers had put thousands of jobs at risk. “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry that the bank, which turned speculation into a business model, is now calling itself a victim of it,” Gabriel told reporters, after ...

  Lisbon / AFP Portugal’s economy will grow by just over one percent this year, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said in an interview published Monday, lowering his government’s initial estimate of 1.8 percent growth. “Everything indicates we will have growth above one percent,” he told daily newpspaper Publico, before adding that the expansion of the economy would not be “much ...