Bloomberg Confidence in Germany’s business outlook fell in August as soaring inflation and fears about a possible recession in Europe’s largest economy has intensified. The Ifo Institute’s gauge of business expectations for the next six months inched down to 80.3 from 80.4 in July, though economists had predicted a steeper decline. Current conditions were also assessed more negatively. Still, ...
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Scotland’s budget deficit shrinks
Bloomberg Scotland’s public spending deficit shrank after revenue from the North Sea oil industry jumped to the highest in eight years and helped offset the fallout from the pandemic. The shortfall dropped to 23.7 billion pounds ($28 billion), or 12.3% of gross domestic product, in the 2021-22 financial year, according to the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland report. That ...
Read More »Tesla raises price of driver-assistance system to $15,000
Bloomberg Tesla Inc will start charging $15,000 for the driver-assistance system it calls Full Self-Driving, raising the price of the controversial product for the second time this year. The hike for customers in North America will take effect from September 5, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted. The current $12,000 price will be honoured for orders made before that ...
Read More »London’s empty office space hits highest level in 15 years
Bloomberg Office availability in central London is at its highest level in more than 15 years, the latest sign of how the pandemic-driven shift to remote working is upending demand for the commercial property. Availability was close to 31 million square feet in August 2022, according to real-estate data and information company CoStar. That’s the equivalent of about 60 Gherkin ...
Read More »Americans’ pay floor for accepting a new job rises to $73,000
Bloomberg The average reservation wage, or the lowest pay level that Americans would be willing to accept for a new job, rose by 5.7% from a year earlier to $72,873 in July, according to the latest labour-market survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as soaring prices change the calculus for workers. The self-reported reservation wage has ...
Read More »Swedish construction activity drops amid sharpest fall in housing prices
Bloomberg Swedish home construction is falling amid what may be the sharpest drop in house prices since the global financial crisis. In the first six months of this year, the number of housing starts dropped by 11% compared with the year-ago period, data from Statistics Sweden showed. The data comes as Sweden’s broader housing market is showing clear signs ...
Read More »Argentina to tighten controls on imports
Bloomberg The Argentine government will impose restrictions to discourage imports in the coming days and protect reserves. The government is seeking to avoid losing more dollars after the national statistics agency reported that the country’s trade deficit widened in July to $437 million. Private consultants estimate that the country’s so-called net reserves — its assets on hand, minus the ...
Read More »Euro area’s economic activity falls in August
Bloomberg Euro-area economic activity declined for a second month, signalling that fears of a recession may already be coming to pass as record inflation saps demand and weakness seeps into more and more sectors. While August’s drop was driven by manufacturing, the post-lockdown rebound in services like tourism almost ground to a halt as consumers face steep gains in ...
Read More »Paytm billionaire founder wins resounding vote to stay at helm
Bloomberg The billionaire founder of Paytm emerged unscathed in a crucial test of investor confidence, with a forceful majority of shareholders voting to keep him at the helm of the fintech pioneer that made one of the worst market debuts in Indian history. An emphatic 99.67% of shareholders voted to maintain Vijay Shekhar Sharma as the managing director and ...
Read More »India’s laboratory-made diamond exports to hit $8b with US demand
Bloomberg India, which cuts or polishes about 90% of the diamonds sold in the world, is ramping up sales of laboratory-made gems as demand from the US surges and they become more accepted in other markets. Exports of polished lab-grown diamonds may double in the current financial year started from April 1 from $1.3 billion in the prior year, ...
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