Inditex staff in Spain say they are being forced out as the owner of fastfashion brand Zara rolls out its plan to shut up to 1,200 stores worldwide, despite a company agreement with Spanish unions to project jobs. The worlds biggest clothes retailer is closing smaller outlets while expanding flagship stores and the Spanish closures […]

Chinas rare earths, a group of 17 minerals used in military equipment and consumer electronics, are being undersold due to vicious competition domestically and face low resource utilisation, the countrys industry minister said on Monday. Prices for some rare earths in China, such as praseodymiumneodymium PrNd used in rare earth magnets have spiked to multiyear […]

U.S. consumer spending rebounded strongly in January as the government doled out additional pandemic relief money to lowincome households and new COVID19 infections dropped, setting up the economy for faster growth in the first quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than twothirds of U.S. economic activity, jumped 2.4 last month after decreasing 0.4 in […]

BENGALURU, Feb 26 Reuters Indias economy expanded by 0.4 yearonyear in the OctoberDecember quarter, returning to growth after shrinking for two straight quarters, government data showed on Friday. The readout for the December quarter was a tad lower than the 0.5 growth forecast of analysts in a Reuters poll. COMMENTARY KUNAL KUNDU, INDIA ECONOMIST, SOCIETE […]

Hong Kong residents are buying more houses and apartments to lease out for income in Britain, property agents say, a trend that coincides with what many expect to be a wave of emigration after China passed a national security law last year. Hong Kongers became the fifth largest foreign investors in central London as of […]

President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he would seek 37 billion in funding for legislation to supercharge chip manufacturing in the United States as a shortfall of semiconductors has forced U.S. automakers and other manufacturers to cut production. Biden also signed an executive order on Wednesday aimed at addressing the global semiconductor chip shortage that […]

DUBLIN, Feb 25 Reuters Ireland is targeting a return to full employment, where just about everyone who wants a job has one, no later than 2023, Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Thursday after data showed hours worked in the economy fell 8.5 last year. Irish businesses have been shut cumulatively for a longer […]

Looking to holiday in Greece or Spain? You could be waiting some time. European leaders are expected to say on Thursday that all nonessential travel needs to remain restricted as the Covid health situation remains serious across the continent, according to a document seen by CNBC. The European Unions 27 heads of state will gather […]

LONDON, Feb 24 Reuters When U.S. interest rates sneeze, Europe catches a cold. Market anxiety about the inflationary impact of the U.S. governments massive planned spending boost is driving up U.S. Treasury yields and undermining the dollar. That risks stifling Europes recovery with a stronger euro and relatively higher real borrowing rates, even though Europes […]

Britains jobless rate rose to 5.1 in the last three months of 2020, its highest in nearly five years but still lower than it would have been without a huge coronavirus jobs support scheme that finance minister Rishi Sunak looks set to extend next week. Separate data from the Office for National Statistics showed that […]