Greece’s employment balance was strong in March, with 63,689 more hires than departures, according to data from the Labour Ministry’s Ergani information system.
Docklands financial estate secures backing from lenders for £550mn debt deal against backdrop of falling valuations
Following the European Commission’s legislative proposals of April 2023, the ECOFIN Council reached an agreement on the reform of the fiscal rules underpinning the EU Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) on 20 December 2023. This box provides a preliminary assessment of the potential macroeconomic effects of the EU fiscal framework reform over the horizon of the March 2024 ECB staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area.
When long-term inflation-linked swap (ILS) rates for the euro area peaked in summer 2023, some observers expressed concerns that ILS rates reflected not only inflation compensation, but also non-fundamental “technical” factors. Such factors potentially reduced the usefulness of ILS rates in terms of gauging inflation expectations and risks. This box contributes to that discussion using a novel econometric approach, suggesting that there is, on average, little scope for technical factors to affect ILS rates.
Changes in energy prices and wage costs can, to the extent these are passed through to consumer prices, have important effects on HICP inflation excluding energy and food (HICPX). Data from different sources can be matched to obtain the cost shares of energy and wages in various sectors.
This box investigates the drivers of the weakness in euro area imports in 2023. After rebounding in mid-2022 as a result of the easing supply bottlenecks for goods and the lifting of mobility restrictions in the aftermath of the pandemic, the euro area imports-to-GDP ratio fell in the first quarter of 2023 and has remained at a lower level since then. We show this is mainly due to the composition of GDP growth following a period characterised by weak exports and consumption.
Headline and core inflation levels and momentum dynamics in the euro area are currently somewhat weaker than in the United States, reflecting buoyant rent inflation and consumption growth in the United States but also the different cyclical positions of the two economies. Core inflation remains elevated overall in both economic areas, due notably to high levels of services inflation. At the same time, goods inflation has declined considerably, in line with the normalisation of disrupted supply chains at the global level and lower commodity prices.
British bank reports 13% decline in quarterly profits but still beats analysts’ expectations
Places that are not usual sites for the league’s marquee game are jumping at the chance to be the host of its three-day draft.
Greece’s debt managers leveraged the positive sentiment after S&P’s revision of the outlook for Greek Government Bonds (GGB) to positive last Friday and issued a new 30-year bond on Wednesday, the longest maturity since the same issuance in early 2021.
