Bloomberg Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party lost a regional election for the second straight week, suffering a fresh blow amid wavering support for the German chancellor’s Ukraine policy. The Christian Democrats, the main opposition party at the national level, were projected to take 35.7% of the vote in North Rhine-Westphalia, maintaining their hold over Germany’s most-populous state. In its former ...

  Bloomberg US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created a global crisis by exacerbating food security issues for the whole world. “The war is having an impact beyond Ukraine and it’s something that we’re very concerned about,” she said in Warsaw. “I’m afraid we really have a global crisis on our hands.” Wheat jumped by ...

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Senior Chairman Lloyd Blankfein urged companies and consumers to gird for a US recession, saying it’s a “very, very high risk.” “If I were running a big company, I would be very prepared for it,” Blankfein said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “If I was a consumer, I’d be prepared for it.” A recession is “not ...

Bloomberg The Dutch government is working on a plan to introduce a maximum salary threshold for expatriates who want to take advantage of a tax break, according to two people familiar with the matter. The government is planning to allow only individuals earning less than 216,000 euros ($224,000) a year to apply for a benefit that exempts 30% of an ...

  Bloomberg Surging inflation will pile £2,370 ($2,900) on to the bills of the average UK household this year, according to a new study, raising fresh pressure on the Bank of England (BOE) and government to step up their response to the cost of living crunch. With wages falling behind price gains and the government raising taxes, the report from ...

  Bloomberg Norway’s economy contracted as expected at the beginning of the year, while a rebound after removal of virus-related measures bolstered the outlook for quarterly interest rate hikes by Norges Bank. Mainland gross domestic product, which adjusts for the nation’s offshore industry, shrank 0.6 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months, dented by the last pandemic ...

  Bloomberg Shares in Venezuela’s state-owned telecommunications company soared this week in Caracas as the government announced plans to offer stakes in public companies, boosting expectations for a revival in the local market. Cia. Anonima Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela SA, or CANTV, surged 41% in two days, according to Caracas Stock Exchange data, after President Nicolas Maduro said his government ...

  Bloomberg The euro is on the verge of US dollar parity for the first time in two decades. Europe’s common currency has already slumped to a five-year low near $1.03, buckling from a rush into the greenback as a haven from market turmoil and on the war in Ukraine. That’s led the likes of HSBC Holdings Plc and RBC ...

  Bloomberg China’s central bank refrained from cutting interest rates despite mounting evidence of a sharp slowdown in economic growth, suggesting policy makers may be concerned about the currency’s depreciation and capital outflows. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) kept the rate on its one-year medium-term lending facility at 2.85% on Monday. Economists had been split on the decision, with ...

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc will allow senior staff to take an unlimited number of vacation days, the latest move by a Wall Street bank to retain talent in a heated job market. Partners and managing directors at the New York investment bank can take time off when needed “without a fixed vacation day entitlement,” according to a company ...