Bloomberg The European Central Bank’s ultra-loose monetary policy has helped boost growth and inflation in the euro area, according to research by the Bank of Spain assessing the impact of quantitative easing in the 19-nation bloc. The ECB’s actions would have added about 1.4 percentage points to the bloc’s total output and lifted prices by about 1.2 points respectively ...

  Paris / AFP The German and French central banks issued downbeat growth forecasts, as the EU Commission came under pressure to bring Paris in line over excessive deficits. The Bundesbank said the powerhouse German economy would expand by 1.7 percent this year, slowing to 1.4 percent in 2017. This was a downgrade of previous forecasts of 1.8 percent and ...

  Bloomberg Every state or municipal government will eventually face the question of whether to raise taxes. Since the era of George H.W. Bush, officials answer increasingly “No.” “It’s politically hard to make a case for tax increases, and particularly at a time when people have less money in their pockets,” said Lucy Dadayan, a senior policy analyst with the ...