Bloomberg Britain’s poorest households are facing a 3 billion pound ($4.1 billion) squeeze on living standards in April when their benefits will rise by half the expected rate of inflation, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said. To protect those on low incomes from the looming spike in energy in bills, the government should change this year’s benefit uprating to ...

  Bloomberg Italy’s government is working on a spending package that won’t require revising its budget to expand the deficit. The measures could be announced as early as next week and would bring targeted relief to sectors hit by the surge in Covid-19 infections, such as tourism, the people said, asking not to be named discussing confidential plans. The package ...

  Bloomberg Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc has delayed plans to bring employees back to the office, and will require those who do come back to have a booster shot to protect against Covid-19. Employees are expected to return to the office on March 28, according to a company spokeswoman. Meta already announced last summer that it would require ...

  Bloomberg Tesla Inc agreed to purchase nickel supplies from miner Talon Metals Corp. as an expected surge in demand spurs automakers to secure access to battery metals and other electric-car parts. Tesla committed to purchase 75,000 metric tons of nickel concentrates produced from Talon’s Tamarack project, with the price linked to the London Metal Exchange’s cash-settlement price for nickel, ...

  Bloomberg European stocks slipped with US futures as investors digested the latest read on American inflation and assessed bets on timing for the first Federal Reserve rate increases in the pandemic era. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index traded slightly lower after two days of gains, with technology and miners offsetting declines in travel and leisure and consumer products. Contracts ...

  Bloomberg The great sorting of electric-vehicle companies is under way in the stock market. Investors have embraced Tesla Inc and its meteoric rise as the biggest carmaker by market value, while Ford Motor Co has more than doubled in the past year on its EV plans. On the other hand, new entrants with little in the way of earnings, ...

  Sharjah / WAM Dana Gas, the Middle East’s leading publicly listed regional natural gas company, and its partner, Crescent Petroleum, the oldest private oil and gas company in the Middle East, have reported record sales gas production from their operations in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), reaching 452 million standard cubic feet of per day (MMscf/d) at the ...

  Bloomberg India is pushing for a valuation of about $203 billion for a state-owned insurer that’s soon expected to file for the nation’s biggest initial public offering, even as arrangers awaited a final report on the firm’s estimated worth. The so-called embedded value of Life Insurance Corp. of India is likely to be more than 4 trillion rupees, and ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) and Etisalat Digital announced that they will partner on an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project to enhance utility metering in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Over the next two years, Taqa’s power and water distribution companies – Abu Dhabi Distribution Company (ADDC) and Al Ain Distribution Company (AADC) – ...

  Bloomberg Oil climbed to its highest level since November as two major agencies indicated that markets may be tighter than previously forecast. West Texas Intermediate traded above $82. On Wednesday, the International Energy Agency’s Fatih Birol said the relatively small hit to demand from omicron means consumption has been stronger than many observers had expected. That followed a monthly ...