By Richa Naidu LONDON (Reuters) – In a quarter that saw Nestle’s overall sales volumes dip, the KitKat maker’s candy business was a sweet spot as consumers celebrated Valentine’s Day and an early Easter with largely reduced concerns over the spread of COVID-19. Confectionary sales volumes – which Nestle calls real internal growth – grew…
LONDON (Reuters) – First-quarter job opportunities in London’s financial sector plunged by almost a third year-on-year, recruiter Morgan McKinley said on Tuesday, as firms struggle with economic and geopolitical headwinds. The collapse of U.S. lender Silicon Valley Bank and the rescue takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS last month has put thousands of UK-based finance…
By James Davey LONDON (Reuters) – British grocery inflation edged lower in April but remained near record highs, industry data showed on Tuesday, providing little relief for consumers being hammered by a cost-of-living crisis. Market researcher Kantar said grocery inflation was 17.3% in the four weeks to April 16, down from the record 17.5% in…
PARIS (Reuters) – Food price inflation will start easing in the second half of this year, French ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Tuesday, saying this is when a decrease in crop prices will bear fruit. Villeroy told RTL radio the ECB will manage to bring down overall inflation to around 2% by…
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish central bank total gross reserves are expected to have fallen more than $5 billion to about $116 billion last week due to rising foreign currency demand as May elections approach, bankers said on Tuesday. According to the calculations of five bankers, based on data from the central bank and the sector,…
By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) – An initiative to offer an instant payments service in Europe from the end of 2023 said on Tuesday it has acquired two payment firms and obtained the backing of more banks after scaling back ambitions to take on U.S. payments giants Visa and Mastercard. The European Payments Initiative (EPI)…
PARIS (Reuters) – The European Central Bank will need to raise interest rates again at its forthcoming meeting next week but the size of the move is still open to debate, its chief economist told French paper Le Monde in an interview published on Tuesday. “For our next Governing Council meeting on 4 May, the…
A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Vidya Ranganathan. ChatGPT vs Bard. Earnings from U.S. tech giants Microsoft Corp, which backs ChatGPT, and Google parent Alphabet Inc, top the watchlist on Tuesday. Profits at these two, Facebook-owner Meta and Amazon Inc are due this week, and estimates show their cloud…
By Prerana Bhat BENGALURU (Reuters) – The European Central Bank will almost certainly add 25 basis points to its deposit rate on May 4 and then take it to 3.50% or higher in June as core inflation remains persistently high, according to economists polled by Reuters. Euro zone headline inflation moderated further last month but…
By Elizabeth Howcroft LONDON (Reuters) -Top cryptocurrency bitcoin could reach $100,000 by the end of 2024, Standard Chartered said on Monday, saying that the so-called “crypto winter” is over. Bitcoin could gain from factors including recent turmoil in the banking sector, a stabilisation of risk assets as the U.S. Federal Reserve ends its interest rate-hiking…
