Bloomberg Germany’s public-sector workers and employers have agreed on a three-step series of wage hikes, providing the European Central Bank with fresh evidence of inflation-boosting pay deals and averting the threat of more disruptive strikes. Wages for 2.3 million workers in federal and local governments will rise by an annual 3.19 percent on average retroactive to March, by another 3.09 …

Bloomberg Investors are losing faith in the Bank of England delivering two interest-rate increases this year as UK economic data does little to suggest a full-blown tightening cycle is needed. While a hike in May is still almost fully priced in by markets, the chances of a second in 2018 fell further on Wednesday after inflation slowed to the weakest …

Bloomberg China’s banks stand to make higher profits from the government’s move to fine-tune monetary policy by slashing their reserve requirements. Banking shares jumped. The resulting drop in funding costs will boost the net interest margin of listed Chinese banks by 0.9 basis point and lift their profits by 0.6 percent, according to analysts at China International Capital Corp. Industrial …