British retail sales tumbled in January as nonessential shops went back into lockdown, official data showed, but lowerthanexpected public borrowing offered at least some relief to finance minister Rishi Sunak as he prepares a budget plan. Retail sales volumes slumped by 8.2 compared with December, a far bigger fall than the 2.5 decrease forecast in […]

Feb 22 Reuters Goldman Sachs Commodities Research raised by 10 its Brent crude oil price forecasts for the second and third quarters of 2021, citing lower expected inventories, higher marginal costs to restart upstream activity and speculative inflows. The Wall Street bank expects Brent prices to reach 70 per barrel in the second quarter from […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]