Alexander Weber

3 weeks ago | news.bloombergtax.com | Mark Schroers |Alexander Weber |Jana Randow

The European Central Bank is coming to the end of its campaign of interest-rate cuts following the eighth reduction in a year, according to President Christine Lagarde. With the euro zone suffering repeated blows from US tariffs, the deposit rate was lowered by a quarter-point to 2% on Thursday — as predicted by all analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The ECB described inflation as “currently at around” its 2% target.

Feb 21, 2025 | irishexaminer.com | Alexander Weber |Mark Schroers

Business activity in the euro area hardly grew again in February, reinforcing fears the bloc remains mired in stagnation amid increasing concerns over a trade war with the US. The Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) by S&P Global held at 50.2, just above the 50 threshold separating expansion from contraction. Analysts had predicted a reading of 50.5.A PMI is a measure of business activity and is based on surveys of various companies.