In the first six months of this year, London-based Barclays bank set aside £896 million, or about $1.2 billion, to cover loans likely to turn sour, the bank disclosed on 27 July. The amount is more than double that in the first half of 2022.
Tag: Europe
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FALLING INFLATION RAISES HOPE THAT ECB WILL PAUSE RATE HIKES
Slowing inflation in the Eurozone’s two largest economies have raised hopes that the European Central Bank (ECB) will not raise interest rates again when it meets in September after it raised its key rate by another quarter point on 27 July.
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TOP TREND 2023: OFFICE BUILDING BUST, HSBC LATEST TO FLEE LONDON’S CANARY WHARF
HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, announced on 26 June it will leave its self-named Canary Wharf headquarters and move its 8,000 staff members to smaller digs in “The City,” the London district equivalent to New York’s Wall Street.
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EUROPE GOING FROM DIRTY CASH TO DIGITAL TRASH
The European Commission (EC), the European Union’s administrative body, has published draft rules that would govern the creation and implementation of a digital euro.
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SPOTLIGHT: EUROPE’S ECONOMIC CRISIS
Business activity in the 20-country Eurozone continued to slow this month after the region fell into a technical recession during this year’s first quarter, as we reported in “Eurozone in Recession” (13 Jun 2023).
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ECB CALLS IN €500 BILLION IN COVID-ERA LOANS TO BANKS
Eurozone banks must repay €476.8 trillion worth of COVID-era loans to the European Central Bank on 28 June.
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DEALS BETWEEN EUROPE’S PRIVATE EQUITY FIRMS STALL ON PRICE SQUABBLES
Deals involving Europe’s private equity firms transferring assets among themselves have fallen by more than 50 percent to €16.8 billion, year on year, as rising interest rates and a gloomy economic outlook have dimmed what the Financial Times called “buyout game of pass-the-parcel.”
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EUROPE’S NATURAL GAS PRICES FALL TO LOWEST SINCE UKRAINE INVASION
Europe’s benchmark price of natural gas sank to €35.20 per megawatt-hour on 5 May, its lowest since July 2021 when Russia first began cutting back its gas exports to the continent.
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DRAGFLATION TREND: EU EKES OUT SMALL GROWTH IN FIRST QUARTER
The European Union’s (EU’s) economy managed to grow by 0.3 percent in this year’s first quarter, even though Germany’s – Europe’s largest economy – flatlined for the period, showing neither growth nor contraction, the Financial Times reported.
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BANKING INDUSTRY TUMULT SINKS EUROPEAN REAL ESTATE STOCKS
In Europe, the share prices of publicly traded commercial real estate landlords finished their worst month in three years last week as investors feared the banking industry’s difficulties will make it harder for property owners to secure loans, which could sink property values, the Financial Times said.