International News

Bloomberg French economic activity is running at 5% below pre-crisis levels as the government holds off from imposing a full Covid-19 lockdown beyond the current curfew and closures in some sectors, the Bank of France said on Tuesday. After dipping to 7% below normal during November’s lockdown, the economy improved somewhat in December and is expected to remain steady through ...

Bloomberg Optimism among US small businesses falls in January to an eight-month low as the outlook for economic conditions deteriorated sharply. The National Federation of Independent Business index of sentiment falls by 0.5 points to 95, the third-straight decline, the group said. The figure was weaker than the median projection of 96.8 in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Weak consumer ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. said it will take stronger steps to eliminate false information about Covid-19 and vaccines on its social network, a move that could remove major groups, accounts and Instagram pages for repeatedly spreading misinformation. The company is acting on advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other groups to expand its list of false claims that are ...

Bloomberg German industrial production failed to grow for the first time in eight months in December, adding to signs that the economy is being weakened by the second wave of the pandemic. Output stagnated at the end of last year as gains in manufacturing were offset by weaker construction. Economists had expected a 0.3% gain. “The outlook for the industrial ...

Bloomberg Mario Draghi told lawmakers he’ll make a common euro-area budget a policy priority for Italy if he becomes prime minister this month, in a sign of his ambitions for the incoming administration. Carlo Calenda, head of the Azione party, and Manfred Schullian, head of the group of unaffiliated lawmakers in lower house, both told Bloomberg that Draghi had emphasised ...

Bloomberg German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz stepped up his bid to return the Social Democrats to the chancellery after Angela Merkel leaves this fall, presenting a fiscally expansive platform to finance a sweeping shift to cleaner energy and better digital infrastructure. Scholz, the SPD’s candidate for chancellor in Germany’s September 26 election, and his party are betting on a spending ...

Bloomberg The volume of goods going through British ports to the European Union has fallen by as much as 68% since Brexit, according to the Road Haulage Association, as the UK grapples with its new trading relationship with the bloc. The number of customs brokers need to be increased fivefold to help firms with extra checks, Richard Burnett, chief executive ...

Bloomberg By the end of this decade, more than 80% of all vehicles sold by Dr Ing hcF Porsche AG will be electric, CEO Oliver Blume told Bild am Sonntag in an interview. This will include fully electric and hybrid variants, while Porsche will continue to offer its 911 model with internal combustion engines, albeit able to handle synthetic fuels, ...

Bloomberg President Alberto Fernandez of Argentina, one of the world’s powerhouse food suppliers, is threatening farmers with a tax hike or quota for exports as he seeks relief for families grappling with inflation that’s forecast to reach 47% this year. If the farm industry continues to sell food at home for the same prices at which it exports, the government ...

Bloomberg The French government said it will provide another 300 million euros for projects to quickly increase the production of vaccines and treatments for Covid, extending its previous pledges of state aid for the pharmaceutical sector. Last year, the French government picked 17 projects for a total of 160 million euros of aid covering both mature and innovative medicines. Those ...