Banks in the eurozone can restart dividend payments next year if their balance sheets show resiliency, a senior European Central Bank official told the Financial Times. A long-lasting ban on paying dividends to shareholders may not even be legal if banks have the capacity to deal with economic fallout, the […]

European governments are spending trillions to protect their economies against the coronavirus pandemic, but their debt burden is sustainable, according to European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane. “Yes, there will be more public debt at the end of this, but in fact that is the correct response to this […]

COVID-19 has produced a highly unusual recession and recovery is likely to be uneven, even with the roll-out of a vaccine, the European Central Bank president, Christine Lagarde, told a meeting of central bankers. Lagarde signalled the central bank will continue to support the eurozone economy and bond-buying is its […]

US stock futures and European equities staged cautious rise ahead of Tuesday’s election, buoyed by strong Chinese data. Oil slid another 2% to its lowest in five months, hammered by rising crude supply and the prospect of another drop-off in demand, as restrictions on mobility tightened in Europe. A second […]

ECB left eurozone rates unchanged, but signalled it could provide extra support for the economy in December. “We’re not going to just stand still,” central bank president Christine Lagarde said at a press conference. The ECB’s Governing Council said it would recalibrate its monetary-policy instruments to respond to the second […]

The Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares hits its lowest in four months, while German bond yields fall to their lowest since mid-March. Surging cases in France may bring another national lockdown, which hit the euro, the oil price and French banking stocks in particular. “Markets have already begun […]

A sweeping Democratic win could entail significant increases in financial stimulus, boosting US output by two to three percentage points, Goldman Sachs said in a note Using previous studies, a team of Goldman Sachs economists believe this could boost euro area GDP by around 0.5% in the next two years. […]

ECB president Christine Lagarde leaves the door open to tweaking the central bank’s 2% inflation target at a speech in Frankfurt. “In the current environment of lower inflation, the concerns we face are different and this needs to be reflected in our inflation aim,” she told the “ECB and Its […]

Business activity in the eurozone avoided stagnation in September, as German factories expanded activity to meet export demand, despite a resurgence in cases of COVID-19. French business activity fell to a four-month-low as the country struggled to contain an outbreak of new infections in recent weeks. The UK also lost […]

Eurozone GDP fell by 12.1% in the second quarter, its biggest decline in history. This is significantly higher than the Eurozone’s Q1’s GDP contraction of 3.6% Spain was the worst hit country, suffering an 18.5% decline compared to the previous quarter. The European Union clinched a historic deal last week […]

France posted a nearly 14% decline in output, a third consecutive quarterly drop for the economy, and the worst three month fall in history, according to data released Friday. Although things were expected to be worse as economists predicted a decline of 15.2%, the second-quarter figures reflect the painful economic […]

Some European economies are picking up from coronavirus-led recessions earlier in the year as they loosen lockdown restrictions and reopen businesses, a set of business surveys showed. IHS Markit’s Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index showed significant improvements in both manufacturing and service sectors in July for the UK, France, Germany, and […]

Europe’s major economies continued to bounce back from their coronavirus driven slump in June, according to a widely-watched set of business surveys. IHS Markit’s Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) posted better than expected readings for the Eurozone, the UK, France, and Germany. France even registered an expansion in activity. The […]

Europe’s economic slump has “likely bottomed out” and is bouncing back, according to a set of closely watched business surveys released Thursday. IHS Markit’s Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) posted an improved reading of 30.5 in May, up from 13.6 in April. The UK’s Composite Index came in at […]

The German economy plunged into recession as the country’s federal statistics authority released grim data showing a contraction of 2.2% on Friday. The economy’s decline reflects its biggest quarterly drop since the global financial crisis and its second largest fall since German unification. Germany is the latest country in Europe […]

Europe will fall into a “recession of historic proportions” this year, the European Commission said. The EU economy will shrink by 7.4% in 2020, despite unprecedented economic stimulus measures to stem the economic downturn caused by the pandemic, it said. Italy and Spain will be the worst-hit major economies, contracting […]

The eurozone’s private sector economy nosedived in April, with surveys from the region’s four largest powers shrinking to record lows far worse than those seen during the 2008 financial crisis. Reflecting the impact of ongoing restrictions to non-essential economic activities across the euro-region, both service and manufacturing activity levels contracted […]