Martin Arnold

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The European Central Bank is expected to announce a pilot scheme for a digital currency this year as the EU seeks new ways of promoting the euro’s weight globally © FT montage/Getty/Bloomberg

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

When more than 1,000 demonstrators marched through the streets of Amsterdam in early February, they directed their ire at something that does not even exist: the digital euro.

The protesters voiced a kaleidoscopic array of objections to the European Central Bank’s plan to issue an electronic version of the continent’s single currency. Some feared the state would use it to track and control their spending, while others suspected a plot to replace cash. One protester told Dutch media she feared the authorities would stop her buying meat or alcohol.

Willem Engel, the event’s organiser who was a ringleader for Dutch opposition to Covid-19 vaccines, whipped up the crowd by telling them to “avoid companies that don’t accept cash”.…  Seguir leyendo »

European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde © FT montage/AP/Getty Images

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

Christine Lagarde’s partner has asked her to stop changing jobs, the European Central Bank president likes to joke, because each time she begins a new role a major crisis seems to follow.

Soon after becoming French finance minister in 2007, she found herself handling the global financial crisis for which she eventually won plaudits.

After being appointed head of the IMF in 2011, the eurozone debt crisis escalated. Despite early criticism for siding with German-led austerity policies, she was admired for her calm diplomatic skills and played a key role in finding consensus on the 2012 Greek bailout that saved the euro.…  Seguir leyendo »

Inflation in the Baltics: a warning for the rest of Europe

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía,

When inflation reached an almost unthinkable 20 per cent this year in Lithuania, residents in the rural south of the Baltic country began to tighten their belts.

“People are buying less. It’s hard. Everybody is trying harder, wearing what they already have more, shopping less”, says Laima, a 58-year-old woman who sells socks and other clothes from the boot of her car.

Across the main road in Sangrūda, a sleepy village of 200 people close to the border with Poland, it is the same story at the Aibė grocery store. “When the war broke out, people’s purchasing power dropped and they started saving money”, says Gintarė, the 32-year-old cashier.…  Seguir leyendo »

The central bank governors Andrew Bailey, Jay Powell and Christine Lagarde all shifted rates up © FT montage: Reuters/Bloomberg/Getty Images

InternacionalEconomía

The world’s leading central banks talked tough this week, but carried a smaller stick.

After a series of meetings on Wednesday and Thursday, the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England all chose to shift their inflation-fighting strategy from a recent pattern of interest rate rises of 0.75 percentage points down to a half point. Switzerland, Norway, Mexico and the Philippines also slowed the pace of interest rate rises.

They married weaker action, however, with stronger words. The Fed talked of having “more work to do” to defeat high inflation, the ECB spoke of “more ground to cover” while the BoE insisted it needed to be “forceful” in battling price rises.…  Seguir leyendo »

European economy: Lagarde wrestles with an ‘impossible situation’

EuropaUnión EuropeaEconomía

The last time the European Central Bank raised interest rates in 2011 it was forced to reverse the move within months as the eurozone was plunged into a wrenching debt crisis. The market panic that followed only subsided after Mario Draghi, then head of the ECB, declared it would do “whatever it takes” to save the euro.

Fears of a similar outcome are front of mind for many as current president Christine Lagarde prepares the ECB’s first rate rise in 11 years. The move, to be announced on Thursday, will come alongside a new bond-buying plan that the central bank hopes will prevent rising borrowing costs from sparking another eurozone debt meltdown.…  Seguir leyendo »

Time for strong medicine: How central banks got tough on inflation

InternacionalEconomía

The world’s most-watched central banks are finally stamping down on a surge in inflation. But this week it became clear that they know this comes at a cost.

From the UK, where the Bank of England raised interest rates for the fifth time in as many meetings, to Switzerland, which bumped up rates for the first time since 2007, policymakers in almost every major economy are turning off the stimulus taps, spooked by inflation that many initially dismissed as fleeting.

But for the big two in particular — the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank — the prospect of sharply higher rates brings awkward trade-offs.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘Worst crisis since the second world war’: Germany prepares for a Russian gas embargo

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Rosenthal, one of Germany’s oldest porcelain manufacturers, has seen plenty of disruption in its 140-year history. But nothing has prepared it for this: the threat of a cut-off of natural gas that would bring production of its bone china plates, bowls and vases to an abrupt halt.

“We can’t live without gas”, says Mads Ryder, Rosenthal’s chief executive. “We don’t have an alternative energy source”.

The war in Ukraine is reordering the global energy landscape. Shocked by the devastation visited on Ukrainian cities by Russian bombs, the EU has imposed swingeing sanctions on Russian hydrocarbons. Coal is banned; oil could be next.…  Seguir leyendo »