Bloomberg Bank of France Governor and European Central Bank (ECB) policy maker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said the French government must be more careful about spending and debt that’s not linked to the novel coronavirus health-care crisis. The government must become more efficient as the pace of spending, stripping off Covid-19 measures, is accelerating “even more quickly” than before the ...

Bloomberg Unicaja Banco SA is moving closer to a long-mooted takeover of Spanish rival Liberbank as consolidation gathers pace among the nation’s financial institutions. The two banks have restarted informal talks with the help of advisers, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. Liberbank is working with Deutsche ...

Bloomberg The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is facing intensifying national scrutiny for its work culture as lawmakers focus on emerging allegations of discrimination against women. Twelve female members of parliament have tabled a motion asking how the SNB aims to boost the number of female managers, what it’s doing to prevent ill treatment and whether it has an ombudsman to ...

Bloomberg Consumer prices in the 19-nation euro area fall more than economists forecast in September, keeping up pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) as it debates whether to add stimulus to support the recovery from the coronavirus recession. The inflation rate came in at -0.3%, slightly below the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Prices for services were a ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank does little deliberation, ignores opposing views and its decision-makers “seem hostile to a consideration of evidence or research,” according to Peter Tulip, a former senior member of its economic research department. “We have a board that does not understand monetary policy or statistical research,” Tulip said in a farewell email to colleagues when he resigned from ...

Bloomberg While Amazon.com Inc. and its FANG cohort have grabbed the headlines, some of the biggest stock-market winners in Europe during the coronavirus pandemic may be companies you’ve never heard of. Investors seeking stellar returns have been snapping up shares of small companies that range from e-commerce merchants to mobile-game makers. Shares of German retailers Westwing Group AG and Home24 ...

Bloomberg First it was a shouting match of a presidential debate that raised doubts about the sanctity of the electoral process, then news Donald Trump had fallen ill with Covid-19. The S&P 500’s verdict on such a nerve-wracking week? Up 1.5%. Even with the decline on the president’s diagnosis, stocks managed enough buoyancy over the first four days to come ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Ministry of Presidential Affairs, in coordination with the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) announced the re-opening of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (SZGM) both in Abu Dhabi and Fujairah as well as the Founder’s Memorial in the UAE capital, to visitors from Sunday. The reopening will pursue a high-standard system of precautionary ...

Bloomberg Oil falls in New York and the global benchmark Brent plummeted to the lowest level since June after President Donald Trump’s positive Covid-19 diagnosis combined with labour market weakness heightened concerns over an economic recovery. US crude futures declined 4.3% and Brent slid below $40 a barrel in volatile trading. A top World Health Organisation (WHO) official said the ...

Ajman / WAM Dar Al Ber Society has started work on an endowment project, Al Jurf 2 in Ajman, at a total cost of AED47 million, to join its series of endowment projects in the UAE, which is a new residential building, consisting of 14 floors. Muhammad Suhail Al Muhairi, Executive Director of Dar Al Ber Society, said, “The project ...