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Bloomberg As the European Union (EU) seeks to disburse funds from its 750 billion-euro ($888 billion) recovery program as soon as next year, some of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic are struggling to work out how to best keep their finances in check once they take on billions of euros of new loans. Spain, Greece and Portugal plan ...

Bloomberg The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) effort to name a new leader hit a new roadblock on Wednesday after the Trump administration said it won’t back the appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to be the WTO’s next director-general. The US could not support a consensus decision to appoint Okonjo-Iweala, Deputy US Trade Representative Dennis Shea said during a meeting of WTO ...

Bloomberg Argentina is considering fiscal incentives to encourage companies to hire workers after unemployment spiked to the highest in at least 16 years amid pandemic. Labour Minister Claudio Moroni said he’s been working with the Production Ministry to lower some employer contributions. The incentives will probably be aimed at hard-hit industries in Argentina’s least-favoured provinces, he said. “The idea is ...

Bloomberg Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government has approved a new relief package to help sectors hit hardest by the latest coronavirus restrictions amid growing protests in cities including Milan and Turin. Conte’s cabinet signed off on measures worth about 5 billion euros ($6 billion) to partially compensate businesses that suffer from the partial lockdown approved over the weekend. The ...

Bloomberg Consumer confidence unexpectedly pulled back in October as Americans became more concerned about prospects for employment, incomes and the economy. The Conference Board’s index decreased to 100.9 from a downwardly revised 101.3 reading in September, according to a report Tuesday. The reading fell below the median estimate of 102 in Bloomberg’s survey of economists. The gauge of expectations slipped ...

Bloomberg The UK’s recovery already looks well past its peak, putting the economy on a shaky footing as it enters a winter of stricter restrictions to control the coronavirus. The worrying outlook prompted JPMorgan Chase to almost halve its forecast for fourth-quarter growth, with the bank expecting regional lockdowns to have a wider impact on sentiment across the country. That ...

Bloomberg European stocks dropped to a five-month low and US equity futures slumped as rising coronavirus infections and tougher lockdowns added to worries about the economic hit from pandemic. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index sinks 2.5% after German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed closing bars and restaurants for a month to curb the spread of the virus. The selloff across Europe ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s main stock index dropped as much as 0.8% to the lowest since September 28 as major mining companies led the declines, with investors globally concerned about the impact of the worsening pandemic on economic activity and as jitters over next week’s US presidential election rise. Locally, traders are awaiting Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s medium-term budget statement. The ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MoFAIC) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on reinforcing bilateral relations in the humanitarian and development fields. The MoU was signed by Sultan Al Shamsi, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for International Development Affairs, and John Rakolta, ...

Bloomberg Green power is set to draw around $11 trillion of investment in the coming decades as the cost of renewables plummets and more of the world’s energy comes from electricity. That’s the latest analysis from BloombergNEF (BNEF) in its annual New Energy Outlook report. It’s further evidence of how cheap renewable power sources will continue to push aside fossil fuels ...