British energy giant BP is shrinking its payroll by about 5 percent, lopping off 4,700 workers as it reins in costs and tries to boost its sagging share price, which has persistently lagged behind those of Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell.
Tag: Economy
Post
U.K. INFLATION TICKS DOWN, BOOSTING CHANCES OF INTEREST RATE CUT
In December, inflation in the U.K. eased back to 2.5 percent from 2.6 percent in November, the Office for National Statistics reported.
Post
CHINA’S ECONOMY GREW 5 PERCENT LAST YEAR, BEIJING SAYS. REALLY?
After a mid-summer economic slump, Chinese officials rushed an array of stimulus measures that shouldered the GDP to the 5-percent growth target Beijing had set for 2024, the Bureau of National Statistics (NBS) reported.
Post
CONFIRMED: GERMANY IS IN DRAGFLATION
The German economy contracted by 0.2 percent last year after shrinking by 0.3 percent in 2023, the Federal Statistics Office (FSO) said, while inflation in December was at 2.8 percent.
Post
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
About 54 percent of small and mid-size public companies and smaller private equity firms see 2025 as a good year for mergers and takeovers, according to a Citizens Financial survey.
Post
ARGENTINA’S MILEI ABOLISHES KEY TARIFFS
Javier Milei, Argentina’s maverick president, has abolished the country’s blanket tariff of 7.5 percent on imported goods and trimmed import duties on a broad range of items “from acne cream to funeral urns,” the Financial Times reported.
Post
CHINESE BOND YIELD SINKS TO RECORD LOW AS ECONOMY DEFLATES
The yield on the bellwether 10-year Chinese government bond slumped to 1.6 percent as the new year began and has remained close to that level, signaling that investors have glum expectations for the country’s economic growth and a reversal in the deflation that has plagued the world’s second-largest economy, the Financial Times reported.
Post
U.K. GOVERNMENT’S BORROWING COST REACHES 27-YEAR HIGH
On 7 January, the interest rate the British government offered on £2.25 billion in 30-year bonds climbed to 5.2 percent, the highest since 1998.
Post
TOP TREND 2025, THE TRUMP CARD: NATO ALLIES MUST SPEND MORE ON DEFENSE, TRUMP INSISTS
Europe’s NATO members need to spend 5 percent of their GDPs on defense, not the current 2 percent that the countries have set as their threshold, Donald Trump told a 7 January press briefing.
Post
SPOTLIGHT: BIGS GETTING BIGGER
Members of the Nordstrom family, with help from Mexican conglomerate El Puerto de Liverpool, are buying all outstanding shares of the department store chain for about $6.25 billion in cash and taking the 123-year-old retailer private.