Paris / AFP French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday he would push ahead with a controversial labour reform bill, but promised “improvements” to the proposed text after meetings with union and business leaders. Unveiled in mid-February and greeted with howls of protest from trade unions, the plans would make it easier for companies to lay off workers. “We …

Athens / AFP Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday said the IMF was employing “stalling tactics” and “arbitrary” estimates to hold up a reforms review crucial to the country’s economic recovery. The leftist PM said the Washington-based global lender was bent on counter-productive cuts that failed to take into account the improved performance of Greece’s economy. “The review will …

Frankfurt / AFP Despite a raft of different measures by the European Central Bank to kickstart sluggish consumer prices in the eurozone, inflation in the single currency bloc turned negative in February for the first time in five months. The ECB estimates that consumer prices need to rise at an annual rate of close to but just below 2.0 percent …