News from Around the World

ECB Keeps Rates Steady as Christine Lagarde Makes Debut as President

FRANKFURT—The European Central Bank joined the Federal Reserve Thursday in pausing a wave of monetary easing, leaving its key interest rates unchanged at Christine Lagarde’s first policy meeting as the bank’s president.

ECB Reiterates Plan to Halt Bond Purchases in December

The European Central Bank has signalled that market turmoil and mounting risks to the eurozone economy will not deter it from withdrawing one of the most important strands of its crisis-era stimulus, after it confirmed plans to halt the expansion of its quantitative easing programme by the end of this year.

ECB to halt expansion of €2.6tn QE programme

The European Central Bank has called time on its contentious experiment in bolstering its balance sheet to support the eurozone economy, confirming on Thursday that it will halt the expansion of its €2.6tn bond-buying programme this month.

In a widely expected decision on its quantitative easing policy, the governing council said “the net purchases under the asset purchase programme . . . will end in December 2018.”

ECB's de Guindos raises bar for further rate cuts-Market News

BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank’s vice-president on Wednesday raised the bar on further interest rate cuts, saying the side effects of the ECB’s easy money policy were becoming more tangible.

In an interview with Market News, Luis de Guindos also ruled out a “policy U-turn” under the ECB’s incoming president Christine Lagarde and weighed in on a public spat among policymakers on last month’s decision to resume a 2.6 trillion euro bond-buying program.

ECB’s Lagarde urges governments to boost public investment

Christine Lagarde has called on European governments to boost public investment and increase harmonisation in services, banking and capital markets to rebalance the region’s economy away from exports to domestic demand.

Giving her first big policy speech since replacing Mario Draghi as European Central Bank president on November 1, Ms Lagarde said Europe had a “moment of opportunity” to tackle the challenges presented by trade tensions and technological disruption.

Emerging Markets Can't Evade a China Slowdown

U.S. measures to confront China on trade are shifting from tariffs to imposing restrictions on the activities of Chinese firms, which will have adverse consequences not only for the yuan but emerging markets overall.

EU Officials Are Considering Mark Carney for Top IMF Job

European governments are actively discussing nominating Bank of England Governor Mark Carney as the next head of the International Monetary Fund, according to a person familiar with the matter.

EU ready to offer limited support to Theresa May on Brexit deal

Leo Varadkar, Irish prime minister, has confirmed the EU is ready to provide new “written guarantees, explanations and assurances” to help Theresa May surmount huge opposition to her Brexit deal in the House of Commons next week.

Mr Varadkar’s comments will give Mrs May hope, but many MPs are demanding legal guarantees that the so-called Irish backstop— which would create a “temporary” EU/UK customs union to avoid a hard border in Ireland — will not be a permanent arrangement.

EU seeks more Asia trade deals after Vietnam pact

Brussels has approved a trade agreement with Vietnam in the latest sign of how the EU is trying to strike deals to fight a growing climate of protectionism.

Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU’s trade commissioner, said Europe was determined to deepen commercial ties with Asia, saying the deal and a similar agreement with Singapore would move the bloc closer to a broader regional trade pact with south-east Asia.

The deal with Vietnam was the “most ambitious agreement we have ever made with a developing country”, Ms Malmstrom said.

Europe faces ‘crying need’ to loosen purse strings, warns OECD

Europe is not well enough prepared for an economic shock and faces a “crying need” to loosen the public purse strings to stimulate growth, the OECD’s chief economist has warned.

Laurence Boone, who joined the Paris-based organisation a year ago, told the FT there was “a big question mark” over Europe’s ability to give fiscal support to the economy, which has been weakened by trade tensions.