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EU energy market reform would carry important risks

Location:

EU

Southern European countries want to impose price ceilings and decouple the electricity market from gas prices. They face strong resistance from northern member states, who instead…

Disorderly Central European asset sell-off is unlikely

Location:

CENTRAL EUROPE

With inflation rates rising and speculation mounting about the timing of the ECB’s own exit from its programme of quantitative easing (QE), last month’s decision by the Czech…

Ukraine grain imports test EU unity

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EASTERN EUROPE

Ukraine’s free access to the EU market has caused a glut of wheat, maize, sunflower and rapeseed in neighbouring countries, triggering a political backlash and demands for…

TAP pipeline could reconfigure gas trade in Balkans

Location:

BALKANS

The pipeline will run from Greece's Turkish border across the Adriatic, at a cost of 45 billion dollars. It inaugurates the Southern Gas Corridor linking the EU to producers in…

Market nerves roil Turkey and Central Europe

Location:

EUROPE

Markets have taken badly the Fed's more hawkish policy guidance for 2017, not expecting such a shift in monetary policy so soon. The shift in US monetary policy comes just as the…

The ECB will set the speed of global credit tightening

Location:

INTERNATIONAL

The ECB's plan could tip the scales towards tighter credit conditions globally. However, there are concerns about global growth -- particularly in the euro-area -- and government…

Stagnant productivity to hold back global wages growth

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INTERNATIONAL

Trends in wages growth.

Pragmatism will sustain Italy’s support for Ukraine

Location:

ITALY

Allies feared that the election of Meloni and her populist right-wing government last September would threaten Western unity over Ukraine. However, Meloni has used the issue to…

Italy’s constitutional reforms face obstacles

Location:

ITALY

Proponents argue that the reforms would enhance political and policy stability; critics fear they would concentrate too much power in one individual. If the proposal fails to…

Pressure rises on Hungary’s central bank to hike rates

Location:

CENTRAL EUROPE

The long-anticipated change in ECB policy is contributing to the recent tightening in financial conditions. The credibility of central banks in Central Europe (CE), where…