The Commission is today proposing a new emergency regulation to address high gas prices in the EU and ensure security of supply this winter. This will be done through joint gas purchasing, price limiting mechanisms on the TTF gas exchange, new measures on transparent infrastructure use and solidarity between Member States, and continuous efforts to reduce gas demand. The regulation contains the following main elements: Aggregation of EU demand and joint gas purchasing to negotiate better prices and reduce...

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The ECB Blog investigates how change in the policy rate affects wages very differently depending on characteristics of employees and firms, such as firms’ size and their access to credit. Results show that the effects are symmetric during times of easing and tightening. The ECB uses its policy rates to achieve price stability. But its decisions also have side effects on labour markets. To better understand how interest rate cuts and hikes affect labour market outcomes we look at workers,...

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Some experts are sceptical whether monetary tightening and rapid raising of interest rates are an effective tool to tame inflation, which in the euro area is driven mainly by extremely high energy prices, by Russia's energy blackmail towards those European countries supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression. Are you confident that the European Central Bank (ECB) will manage to curb the record high inflation that reached 10% in September and to get it back to the ECB’s target of 2%...

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Ladies and gentlemen, It is truly an honour to be here in Harvard Law School. I am coming directly from Washington, where I represented the European Union at meetings of the IMF and World Bank. I had the chance to meet my American counterparts and ministers from around the world. At these global gatherings, and others I have attended recently, notably the G20 in Indonesia, there is a sense of upheaval in the air. The world is clearly changing. Today I want to share...

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By Friedrich Wenzel Bulst & Sophie De Vinck, Directorate-General for Competition (DG COMP) at the European Commission Over the last two decades, our lives have become increasingly built on and around digital technologies. As a result, digital markets have become a central focus of competition enforcement. Following a flurry of reporting on the metaverse as the next digital frontier, this piece explores what we may expect from the metaverse and what that could mean for EU competition law enforcement....

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Policy responses to currency depreciation pressures should focus on the drivers of the exchange-rate moves and signs of market disruptions The dollar is at its highest level since 2000, having appreciated 22 percent against the yen, 13 percent against the Euro and 6 percent against emerging market currencies since the start of this year. Such a sharp strengthening of the dollar in a matter of months has sizable macroeconomic implications for almost all countries, given the dominance of the dollar...

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The OECD delivered today a new global tax transparency framework to provide for the reporting and exchange of information with respect to crypto-assets. The Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) responds to a G20 request that the OECD develop a framework for the automatic exchange of information between countries on crypto-assets. The CARF will be presented to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors for discussion at their next meeting on 12-13 October in Washington D.C, as part of the latest OECD Secretary-General’s...

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Growth is projected to slow to 2.7% as the war in Ukraine, inflation, and Covid recovery weigh on the world economy. Global economic activity is experiencing a broad-based and sharper-than-expected slowdown, with inflation higher than seen in several decades. The cost-of-living crisis, tightening financial conditions in most regions, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the lingering COVID-19 pandemic all weigh heavily on the outlook. Global growth is forecast to slow from 6.0 percent in 2021 to 3.2 percent in 2022 and...

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The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the five biggest European national promotional banks met to discuss the progress of existing joint initiatives, such as the Joint Initiative on Circular Economy (JICE), Quick Response — Care for Ukrainian Refugees in Europe, and Fund Marguerite. KfW CEO Stefan Wintels hosted EIB President Werner Hoyer and the other CEOs at the German promotional bank’s Berlin building. The heads of the respective institutions also exchanged views on the various national and European initiatives for...

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Scaling up private capital is crucial to finance vital low-carbon infrastructure projects, particularly in less developed economies Private climate financing must play a pivotal role as emerging markets and developing economies seek to curb greenhouse gas emissions and contain climate change while coping with its effects. Estimates vary, but these economies must collectively invest at least $1 trillion in energy infrastructure by 2030 and $3 trillion to $6 trillion across all sectors per year by 2050 to mitigate climate change by...

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