International News

Bloomberg UK bond investors eager for the government to sell more of its longest-dated debt appear to have gotten their way. A bond auction on Tuesday will include a 1 billion-pound ($1.37 billion) offering of gilts maturing in 2071 with more scheduled for sale in June. Minutes of a conference call with the Debt Management Office last month revealed investors ...

Bloomberg Daimler AG’s new flagship electric sedan will generate “reasonable” returns right from the start as the vehicle features top-line technology, Chief Executive Officer Ola Kallenius said. The Mercedes EQS, which debuts this week, will produce attractive profits while still lagging the returns of its combustion engine-powered sibling, the S-Class, due to the higher cost of electric-car components, Kallenius said ...

Bloomberg Costa Rica’s president says he’ll bring an end to years of excess government borrowing, even if it hurts his popularity. With just over a year left in office, Carlos Alvarado is fighting to pass spending cuts and tax increases, and narrow the fiscal deficit which brought the country to the brink of crisis two years ago. He’s also pushing ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden proposed major boosts in funding to combat inequality, disease and climate change as part of a $1.52 trillion budget request for 2022, part of his wider push to redefine the role of government in American lives. The administration’s outline, released by the White House, kicks off a months-long process in which Congress is likely to significantly ...

Bloomberg Canada’s jobs market blew past expectations for a second straight month, one more sign the nation’s economy is on the cusp of fully recovering from the pandemic. The economy added 303,100 jobs in March, Statistics Canada reported in Ottawa. That’s triple what economists were anticipating, and follows a gain of 259,200 in February. The two-month jump was led by ...

Bloomberg Spain’s government trimmed its 2021 annual economic growth forecast to 6.5% after renewed pandemic restrictions led to a worse-than-expected first quarter, Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said in a presentation. The government’s previous outlook, published in October, forecast a baseline economic expansion of 7.2% this year and as much as 9.8% if the European Union pandemic recovery funds were quickly ...

Bloomberg Italy eased lockdown restrictions, lifting some curbs that have been weighing on the economy in the region surrounding Milan and across the country as the latest virus resurgence slows. Health Minister Roberto Speranza signs a decree to shift six regions classified as high-risk “red” areas to medium-risk “orange” status, his office said in a statement. The development means that ...

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn faces a probe by the Italian privacy watchdog after reports that the personal data of some 500 million users was scraped off the platform and posted online. The Italian authority said in a statement that it started an investigation following “the dissemination of user data, including IDs, full names, email addresses, telephone numbers.” The regulator said ...

Bloomberg Norway’s government, which oversees the world’s biggest sovereign-wealth fund, expects climate and social issues to dominate investment decisions in the coming decades. “There is a growing expectation, not only in Norway, but internationally that there will be a high level of ethical awareness,” Finance Minister Jan Tore Sanner said in an interview. “We must have the highest possible return ...

Bloomberg Euro-zone companies have returned to broad-based growth for only the second time since the pandemic started, with factories booming and confidence high that vaccinations will soon end the coronavirus crisis. Germany, Italy, Spain and Ireland all saw business activity rise last month and France halted its contraction, according to IHS Markit’s latest survey of purchasing managers. Those nations, the ...