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The eurozone economy continued to grow throughout the summer as the region recovered from a double-dip recession, data released on Friday showed. But that recovery is hampered by supply chain bottlenecks and labor shortages that push prices up. In October, annual inflation rate It rose to 4.1 percent, according to a separate report.
According to data from the European statistical agency, this corresponds to the highest ever inflation rate in the eurozone, which was last reached in mid-2008.
In the previous month, inflation increased by 3.4 percent compared to the previous year. A increase in natural gas pricesLow inventories are one of the main drivers of inflation, caused by a variety of factors including disappointing supply from Russia and demand from China. Energy prices increased by about 24 percent in October compared to the previous year.
Gross domestic product In the euro area, it rose 2.2 percent in the third quarter, a 2.1 percent growth rate slightly faster than the previous quarter, the regional statistics agency said on Friday.
The economy is recovering from a recession at the end of 2020 and the first quarter of this year, when the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic led to tight social restrictions across the region. According to the European Central Bank, economic output is expected to exceed pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year as businesses reopen and consumers return to restaurants and travel.
“From now on, wait for moderation,” Bert Colijn, an economist at ING Bank, told clients in a note. “Initial recovery effects are waning, which will naturally lead to slower GDP growth. In addition, input scarcity and supply chain issues also contribute to production bottlenecks.”
President Christine Lagarde, European Central Bank, also said on Thursday that it expects the economic momentum to slow and the bank has decided not to change its loose monetary stance. He added that high inflation and supply chain bottlenecks will last longer than initially expected, but officials are confident they will ease over the next year.
“We did a lot of research to test the analysis,” Ms. Lagarde said on Thursday about the central bank’s inflation research. He is confident that the factors pushing up prices, including supply and demand mismatch, are temporary and that inflation will ease over the next year. “Right, it will take a little longer than we expected,” he added.
Troubled real estate giant China Evergrande made another debt payment before Friday, avoiding a second default in two weeks, according to one of the company’s bondholders.
Speaking to discuss the matter on condition of anonymity, this person said that the company made an interest payment due on September 29. Evergrande had a 30-day grace period on its bond payment; The extension would expire on Friday.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the payment.
The payment comes a week after the world’s most indebted real estate developer narrowly avoided defaulting on another bond. Evergrande paid $83.5 million in interest to bondholders last Friday, According to the official newspaper, the Securities Times. This payment also came just one day before the default. The interest payment due this Friday totaled $45.2 million.
Under the weight of more than $300 billion in debt, Evergrande is trying to sell parts of its vast empire to raise enough cash to pay off its creditors. Last week, one of these deals – largely seen as a last resort – fell through. Evergrande warned in its securities filings that it cannot “guarantee it will be able to meet its financial obligations” given the “difficulties, difficulties and uncertainties” it faces in selling its assets.
The company’s financial crisis is testing the determination of Chinese officials who stepped in immediately to save once struggling giants like Evergrande. They promised to clean up China Inc.’s mountain of debt and put an end to the real estate industry’s excessive borrowing habits.
But if authorities let Evergrande fail, they could hurt some of the estimated more than one million Chinese home buyers who have bought apartments from the company and are waiting for it to be built. A collapse could also affect construction workers and subcontractors waiting for payment.
Alexandra Stevenson contributing reporting.
Citigroup on Thursday told its employees it would require vaccination against Covid-19 as a condition of employment in the United States, making it the first major bank to grant such a mandate.
“It has become very clear that Covid-19 is not going away anytime soon,” said Sara Wechter, the company’s head of human resources. a LinkedIn post explains the new policy.
Ms. Wechter cited two catalysts for the decision. First, because the bank does business with the federal government, it has to comply with President Biden’s laws. executive order requiring vaccination for people working on government contracts. And mandatory vaccinations will also allow the bank to “ensure the health and safety of our colleagues when we return to the office.”
Ms. Wechter wrote that Citi will consider medical and religious exemption requests and will “do everything we can to help our colleagues comply with this new requirement.”
A Citi spokesperson declined to comment on the details of the authorization.
Other major banks, including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, introduced a vaccination requirement for employees entering their offices but they declined to say they would fire those who refuse to be vaccinated.
Starbucks employees seeking to unionize in New York scored a victory in their efforts Thursday, a day after the staff-strapped company said it would raise the salaries of US employees.
Workers at three Buffalo-area stores will vote on whether to form a union in a postal election that ends December 8, an official with the National Labor Relations Board said on Thursday.
If the union that wants to represent workers wins, the three stores will vote in separate elections, meaning workers only need a majority of the votes cast in one place to form a union. The company argued that employees at all 20 Buffalo-area stores should vote in a single election.
The campaign represents the most serious union effort at Starbucks in years. None of Starbucks’ approximately 9,000 company-owned stores in the country are unionized, although many of the stores owned by companies that have license agreements with Starbucks are unionized, and one company-owned store in Canada was recently unionized.
On Wednesday, the company new payment plan. All hourly workers will earn at least $15 an hour, and the company will increase its average wage to $17 by summer 2022. Employees with two or more years of service may receive a raise of up to 5 percent from January 2022. Workers can receive a raise of up to 10 percent with five years or more of service. Thursday, Starbucks reported Record revenue for fiscal fourth quarter.
In a statement, workers seeking unionization described the election decision as a “significant victory” and said the company’s fight over eligible vote pools was “a delaying tactic”.
The company denied that it intended to delay the election and argued that employees at all 20 stores should vote together as they can work in multiple locations and senior executives oversee decisions at various stores. The labor board official, acting regional director, denied these allegations.
Starbucks may still appeal the decision to the Washington work board, which didn’t rule out.
“Our narrative success has come from working together as direct partners with no third party between us,” Starbucks spokesperson Reggie Borges said in a statement. We have just taken the decision and are evaluating our options,” he said.
As workers at three stores filed for union elections in late August, Starbucks sent For Buffalo, a number of executives, more senior corporate executives, and even a senior corporate executive. While many workers say the presence of company officials is intimidating, the company says they are there to fix operational issues.
If the union vote was successful, the workers would become part of Workers United, an affiliate of the giant Service Workers International Union.
Employers in the United States are struggling to fill some jobs with workers still disabled due to the pandemic or rethinking their ambitions. Record 4.3 million people quit their jobs In August, the Department of Labor recently reported. That was more than four million in July and by far the highest number in the last two decades the government has followed.
“Obviously, like any other retailer, we’re navigating a very complex and unprecedented environment, and yes, we’ve seen some staffing challenges in certain parts of the country,” said John Culver, group president of Starbucks North America, on a conference call. Thursday. Mr. Culver noted that the company has adjusted store hours to “re-deploy staff to other stores as we need it.”
Starbucks said on Wednesday that its compensation plan “resulted in a total of approximately $1 billion in additional investments in annual fees and benefits over the past two years.”
Starbucks also said it’s investing in training by redesigning the “Barista Basics” guide and adding training time for all roles. Workers aiming for unionization pointed out that insufficient attention was paid to education, insufficient staffing or periods of high turnover.
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