Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund (IMF) sees ‘downside risks’ to the global economic rebound it forecast for this year and next, and is concerned that new coronavirus variants may hinder the recovery, its chief economist said. “Most of the overall risks are to the downside,” Gita Gopinath said in a virtual speech to an International Finance Forum conference in Guangzhou …

Bloomberg European Union (EU) legislators are looking to tighten the region’s planned green bond standards and make it harder for issuers of environmentally-friendly debt to overstate their promises to investors. Sellers of European green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds should develop a transition plan indicating how they will adhere to a 1.5°C global warming scenario and reach climate neutrality by 2050, …

Bloomberg Italy’s Finance Ministry said that it plans to spend about 2.8 billion euros ($3.2 billion) from the 2022 budget to help shield consumers from surging energy prices. The support will target the first quarter of the year, and will include 800 million euros of savings from a tax overhaul and unspent cash from previous months, according to people familiar …