International News

Bloomberg Spain is considering using part of a planned 11 billion-euro ($13 billion) fiscal package to provide debt relief to companies that have borrowed through the country’s state-backed loan program. The proposal would allow Spanish lenders a degree of flexibility to decide which borrowers should be granted relief, the officials said. Banks would absorb some of the write off and ...

Bloomberg Ireland’s economy expanded in 2020 despite the devastation of the pandemic as surging exports countered a slump in domestic demand. The nation’s GDP grows 3.4% in 2020, the central statistics office said, driven largely by the export sector. The domestic economy, however, struggled. “Today’s figures once again point to the dual economic impact of the pandemic, with domestic activities ...

Bloomberg German exports to Britain plunged in January, as the downward trend since the country voted to leave EU gathered pace. Already curtailed by the economic impact of the coronavirus, Brexit helped trigger a nearly 30% slump in German exports to the UK in the first month of the year, according to a preliminary estimate by the Federal Statistics Office. ...

Bloomberg Canada’s trade sector unexpectedly recorded its largest surplus in more than six years on across-the-board increases in exports. The nation ran a surplus of C$1.4 billion ($1.1 billion) in January from a revised deficit of C$1.98 billion in December, Statistics Canada said in Ottawa. Economists were predicting a gap of C$1.4 billion. It marked the first time Canada has ...

Bloomberg Rishi Sunak will extend furlough payments to UK workers until the end of September, protecting millions of people whose jobs were suspended during the coronavirus pandemic until after restrictions are set to be lifted. With the nation mired in a third lockdown, the government will keep paying 80% of wages for those in the program through the end of ...

Bloomberg Italy’s new government may soon seek parliamentary approval for more stimulus spending as a sluggish vaccination campaign and new coronavirus strains extend the nation’s reliance on fiscal support. Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s administration is planning to distribute about 32 billion euros ($38 billion) that was approved by the parliament in January through a new decree called “sostegno” or “support,” ...

Bloomberg The European Union’s (EU) executive arm is likely to extend a suspension of the bloc’s debt rules through next year amid uncertainty over the region’s economic recovery. In its guidance on fiscal policy for the coming months, the European Commission outlined its parameters for assessing whether to prolong a waiver of the EU’s spending limits, signaling that it won’t reinstate ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s claims there isn’t a trade-off between Canada’s strict lockdowns and economic growth will be tested this week with the release of new output data. Analysts expect gross domestic product (GDP) shrinks by more than 5% last year, a middling result among advanced economies. The US, with far less restrictive pandemic measures last year, shrinks by ...

Bloomberg Roblox Corp., the kid-focused gaming company that’s planning to go public this month, warned investors that the booming user growth it enjoyed during the pandemic is about to disappear. The total hours that users spend engaged with the gaming platform could drop by as much as 11% in the second quarter, Roblox said in a statement. Though the number ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel backed a relaxation of coronavirus restrictions despite a stubbornly high infection rate, acknowledging that many Germans are weary of curbs on daily life after months of lockdown. The German leader had been pushing back against increasingly insistent calls for a swifter loosening, but told lawmakers from her conservative bloc that “easing is necessary.” She explained her ...