May, 2016

• 31 May

  Euro-area inflation rate stays negative as ECB mulls outlook

  

    Bloomberg Euro-area consumer prices failed to increase for a fourth consecutive month, highlighting policy makers’ struggle to stoke inflation despite multiple rounds of stimulus. Prices fell 0.1 percent in May from a year earlier, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said on Tuesday. That’s in line with the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists and follows …

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• 31 May

  Pound weakens amid signs of Brexit camp gaining ground

  

    Bloomberg The pound weakened amid signs that support for the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union had increased. Sterling fell against most of its major peers as Bookmaker William Hill Plc said 85 percent of all EU referendum bets taken over Monday’s public holiday in the U.K. were in favor of Britain exiting the bloc, and that …

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• 31 May

  VW emissions cheating hits profit at biggest brand

  

    Bloomberg Profit at Volkswagen AG’s namesake brand crumbled 86 percent in the first quarter, highlighting the challenge the carmaker faces in emerging from the nearly nine-month-old emissions cheating scandal. Operating profit at the VW nameplate dropped to 73 million euros ($81 million) from 514 million euros last year, Europe’s biggest carmaker said in a statement. That gave the marque …

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• 31 May

  Italian unemployment rate climbs back to highest since June

    Bloomberg Italy’s unemployment rate rose more than estimated in April amid weakening business and household expectations for recovery in the euro region’s third-biggest economy. Consumer prices on an annual basis fell for a fourth month in a row in May. The jobless rate rose to 11.7 percent from a revised 11.5 percent in March, national statistics agency Istat said …

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• 31 May

  German jobless queue shrinks to post-unification low

  Frankfurt / AFP Unemployment in Germany fell to its lowest level since East and West Germany reunited after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as Europe’s top economy continues to recover, data showed on Tuesday. The unemployment rate — which measures the jobless total against the working population as a whole — fell to 6.1 percent in May from 6.2 …

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• 31 May

  OPEC’s cheap oil strategy lures drivers back into gas guzzlers

  

    Bloomberg As OPEC ministers gather in Vienna, they may notice more sport utility vehicles on the streets of the Austrian capital than on previous visits. Last year, SUVs outsold any other type of passenger vehicle in Europe for the first time, according to auto industry consultants JATO Dynamics. The trend has continued in 2016, with demand for SUVs such …

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• 31 May

  Treasuries lose their lead over shares as Fed moves towards shift

  

    Bloomberg Treasuries have lost their edge over stocks as the U.S. economy expands enough to push the Federal Reserve toward raising interest rates. U.S. government securities stagnated for a second month in May, leaving them little changed for the second quarter. The S&P 500 Index of shares has returned 2.3 percent since the end of March, based on data …

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• 31 May

  Chilean retail sales jump 7.9% on early onset of winter

  

    Bloomberg Chilean retail sales rose at the fastest pace in two-and-a-half years in April as early rains and cold weather encouraged consumers to shop for winter clothes earlier than last year. Sales leaped 7.9 percent from the year earlier, the national statistics agency said on its website, compared with the 4.5 percent median forecast of 13 analysts surveyed by …

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• 31 May

  Brazil’s April primary budget surplus exceeds all estimates

  

    Bloomberg Brazil’s central government posted a higher-than-expected primary fiscal surplus in April due to a seasonal windfall, a week after the government of Acting President Michel Temer obtained permission to close the year with the widest budget gap on record. The surplus before interest payments, which excludes results of states, municipalities and state-owned companies, reached 9.8 billion reais ($2.7 …

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• 31 May

  Big airline LATAM suspends flights to Venezuela

    Santiago, Chile / AFP Latin America’s biggest airline LATAM said it will suspend its flights to crisis-hit Venezuela for an indefinite period, following a similar move by German carrier Lufthansa. Chile-based LATAM Airlines group and its Peruvian and Brazilian subsidiaries decided to cut the flights “due to the complex macroeconomic situation that the region is currently going through,” it said …

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