Cost of living rising at the fastest rate in single currency zone. Rising energy and food prices pushed inflation to 8.1% in the year leading up to May. Analysts warn of recession risk for 19-nation bloc. The level of consumer confidence in the eurozone has reached its lowest point since the beginning of the coronavirus … Read more
Indigenous protesters in Ecuador defied a state of emergency, continuing with road blockages that are now on their sixth day. The demonstrations have blocked roads across the country, including highways leading into the capital Quito. Fuel prices have risen sharply since 2020, almost doubling for diesel and rising from $1 to $1.90 per gallon (3.8 … Read more
Thousands of Sri Lankan university students mobbed Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s domestic on Sunday annoying his resignation over the island kingdom’s worsening economic crisis. Months of lengthy blackouts, file inflation, and acute meal and fuel shortages have sparked growing public discontent in Sri Lanka, which is managing its worst financial downturn when you consider its … Read more
Italian police said Wednesday they have got busted a chief operation to defraud a central authority scheme to assist companies at some point of the coronavirus pandemic, recuperating extra than 400 million euros ($430 million). Twelve human beings have been arrested as part of the edge in opposition to a crook community based in Rimini, … Read more
Tourists tired of the continuing coronavirus pandemic have been drawn to a topsy-turvy mansion in Colombia. Fritz Schall, an Austrian who resides in Colombia with his family, designed the upside-down house in the Guatavita district, with ceilings in place of floors. According to the media, Schall stated, “Everyone looked at me like I was mad, … Read more
RAMAT GAN, Israel, Dec 31, 2021 (AFP) – Israel on Friday started giving fourth Covid vaccine shots to people with weakened immunity, becoming one of the first countries to do so in hopes of countering a case surge driven by the Omicron variant. The effort comes almost exactly one year after Israel began a massive vaccination … Read more
International ratings agency Fitch downgraded cash-strapped Sri Lanka on Saturday by one notch to ‘CC’ due to mounting fears of a sovereign default on its $26 billion foreign debt. The downgrade came a day after Sri Lanka reported a 1.5 per cent contraction in the third quarter of this year, as a foreign exchange crisis … Read more
PESHAWAR: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin has expressed gratitude to the members of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly for electing him as the senator and asserted that Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf would continue to serve the masses. Talking to newsmen after winning the Senate election from the provincial assembly, he said, he would … Read more
COLOMBO: International ratings agency Fitch downgraded cash-strapped Sri Lanka on Saturday by one notch to ‘CC’ due to mounting fears of a sovereign default on its $26 billion foreign debt. The downgrade came a day after Sri Lanka reported a 1.5 per cent contraction in the third quarter of this year, as a foreign exchange crisis … Read more
SAO PAULO: Clapping their hands, ringing bells and yelling at the top of their lungs to find the right recipient, delivery workers for Brazilian startup Favela Xpress dare to go where traditional companies won’t: the slums. The firm launched in April in Paraisopolis, Sao Paulo’s second-biggest ‘favela’, a sprawling shantytown of 100,000 people with a maze … Read more
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s economy shrank in the third quarter as a foreign exchange crisis wrecked its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, official data showed on Thursday. The GDP contracted 1.5 per cent on-year in the three months to September, the department of census and statistics said, ending four consecutive quarters of growth. The island’s tourism-dependent economy … Read more
LONDON: Unemployment in Britain has fallen again, despite the end of a government scheme to keep millions of private-sector workers in their roles during the coronavirus pandemic, official data showed on Tuesday. The jobless rate, which measures the number of people out of work as a proportion of the working population as a whole, slipped to … Read more
FRANKFURT – The coronavirus pandemic is not the first crisis to force monetary policymakers into drastic action to avert economic disaster. As the European Central Bank readies for a crunch meeting Thursday to discuss soaring inflation and a path out of stimulus, here is a look at other times the Frankfurt institution was put to … Read more
HONG KONG – Chinese artificial intelligence start-up SenseTime said Monday it was postponing a planned $767 million initial public offering in Hong Kong after it was blacklisted by the US over human rights concerns in Xinjiang. The US Treasury announced the ban on Friday, saying SenseTime’s facial recognition programmes were designed in part to be … Read more
DUBAI: Being raised in the Middle East with a lack of savings and investment culture, many young Arabs are turning to online banking services to help track their spending and budget. When Mayar Akrameh was growing up in Lebanon, financial advice was simple: work long, work hard and aim for a high-paying job. Now the 29-year-old … Read more
HONG KONG: Chinese artificial intelligence start-up SenseTime said Monday it was postponing a planned $767 million initial public offering in Hong Kong after it was blacklisted by the US over human rights concerns in Xinjiang. The US Treasury announced the ban on Friday, saying SenseTime’s facial recognition programmes were designed in part to be used against … Read more
UNITED NATIONS: The coronavirus pandemic is likely to halt two decades of global progress towards Universal Health Coverage, according to reports released on Sunday from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank, which reveal more than half a billion people are being pushed into extreme poverty because they have to pay for health … Read more
MADRID, The Spanish government adopted Friday measures to attract so-called digital nomads — remote tech workers who can do their job from anywhere with a good internet connection. A growing number of countries are seeking to lure digital nomads with easy visa conditions and tax breaks as they can help boost the local tech start-up scene. The Spanish measures, … Read more
KARACHI: The Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association (PYMA) officials have expressed concern over the increase in the interest rates by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), despite the demands of the business community. They said the central bank has increased the interest rates by 150 basis points, and the news is circulating for another increase in … Read more
LONDON – Stock markets and oil prices plunged Friday over fears of a new coronavirus variant that scientists warn could be more infectious than Delta and more resistant to vaccines, potentially dealing a heavy blow to the global economic recovery. Haven investments the yen and Swiss franc rallied but the dollar floundered. US crude oil … Read more
LONDON: British banking startup Atom has said that it was allowing all staff to reduce their working week, while remaining on the same pay to boost mental and physical wellbeing. Since the start of November when the change was introduced, a majority of the fintech’s 430 staff have taken up the offer to work 34 hours … Read more
PARIS: Countries must prepare for future “shocks” to their agricultural and food systems from droughts, floods or diseases following the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, a UN agency said on Tuesday. “The Covid-19 pandemic has left the fragilities of national agri-food systems widely exposed,” the Food and Agriculture Organization said in an annual report. “An … Read more
THE HAGUE – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday announced Western Europe’s first partial lockdown of the winter, with three weeks of Covid curbs on restaurants, shops and sporting events. Protesters set off fireworks in The Hague after Rutte unveiled the “annoying and far-reaching” measures following a record spike of infections to more than … Read more
Abu Dhabi Researchers are producing a technology that could allow masks to filter particular viruses, such as Covid-19 and the flu. Associate professor at Khalifa University, Dr Ammar Nayfeh and a team of academics and doctors are currently developing the new mask consuming nanotechnology. “The idea is to create specific fibres with certain bonds that … Read more
VIENNA – Austrian capital Vienna said Thursday it would tighten coronavirus restrictions to only allow those vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19 to enter restaurants, go to hairdressers and attend bigger gatherings. The new rules come as the daily surge in cases nationwide hit a record high for 2021, at almost 8,600 infections. “The situation in all … Read more
FRANKFURT: German national carrier Lufthansa said on Wednesday that it was back in the black in the third quarter of this year, for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as restrictions are lifted and air travel takes off again. “With rising demand for business travel and a record result of Lufthansa Cargo, … Read more
Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa were briefed on the coronavirus situation in the country on Monday, said a statement issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). A statement issued by the country’s nerve centre against the coronavirus said that the PM and the … Read more
GENEVA – Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended on Monday that booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines should be offered to moderately and severely immunocompromised people. After four days of talks last week, the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) recommended that such people should receive a third dose of a … Read more
