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US companies find political positions under scrutiny

Location:

UNITED STATES

Election years always entail political risk for large US companies, but the polarising social and cultural issues likely to feature in the November midterms leave them more…

Ireland’s Varadkar will face daunting challenges

Location:

IRELAND

Varadkar’s Fine Gael (FG) has been in coalition with Fianna Fail (FF) and the Greens since 2020; they agreed that Varadkar would replace FF leader Micheal Martin as taoiseach…

Government is unlikely to overhaul Poland’s tax regime

Location:

POLAND

This continues the policy preference -- out of line with Poland’s peers -- for indirect taxes on goods and services, including a relatively high value-added tax (VAT) rate. The…

Canada’s provincial politics will likely go rightwards

Location:

CANADA

Facing challenges from resurgent conservative parties and widespread unpopularity brought on by economic circumstances and voter apathy, the centre-left governments in both…

Growth may accelerate under new Slovak government

Location:

SLOVAKIA

The governing coalition has a comfortable parliamentary majority, but faces gathering concerns over Prime Minister Robert Fico's health, teachers' protests over wages and…

Costa Rica’s pandemic response faces political hurdles

Location:

COSTA RICA

In August, it asked the IMF for a USD1.75bn credit under the Extended Fund Facility. This will come on top of the USD504mn approved by the IMF for emergency financial assistance…

New Irish leader will struggle to reverse polls

Location:

IRELAND

Harris replaces Leo Varadkar, who surprisingly announced that he was stepping down ahead of local, EU and national elections. In his first speech as party leader, Harris suggested…

Biden speech points to central campaign issues

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UNITED STATES

Biden used last week’s State of the Union address to lay out his priorities for the year ahead, offering a speech intended to rally his party and demonstrate his commitment and…

Greek coalition will play politics at debt talks

Location:

GREECE

The government, with half an eye on a snap election, is determined not to accede to prolonged austerity without the trade-off of significant debt relief. Timing is all. The…

Belgium assumes EU presidency at a crucial time

Location:

BELGIUM

Belgium’s priorities include: agreeing a Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI), to equip the EU to deal with future crises such as a new pandemic; establishing a stable…