Category: Economy

FRANKFURT — Mario Draghi led his last monetary policy meeting as president of the European Central Bank on Thursday, his legacy as savior of the eurozone clouded by divisions among the bank’s policymakers that have burst into the open in the final months of his tenure. Christine Lagarde will be sworn in as Mr. Draghi’s successor on Tuesday, and will immediately confront a revolt by members of the bank’s Governing Council who believe the bank’s easy money policies have created asset bubbles and set the stage for a financial crisis.…

Boris Johnson is under pressure to ask the European Union to postpone Brexit after Parliament refused to approve the deal the prime minister negotiated. At a rare Saturday sitting, members of parliament voted to delay a decision on the agreement Johnson reached in Brussels this week until he has got the legislation that enacts it through parliament. That leaves Johnson obliged by law to send a letter to Brussels requesting that Britain’s departure be delayed until Jan. 31. Speaking after the vote, Johnson said that he will not negotiate a…

UK lenders expect the availability loans to the corporate sector to fall in the next three months to end-November, at the fastest rate since early 2008, survey data from the Bank of England showed on Thursday. Bank expect the availability of credit provided to the corporate sector to fall 13.5 percent in the next three months, which is the worst decline since the first quarter of 2008, when they forecast a 30.7 percent slump, data from the Credit Conditions Survey showed. Lenders expect the availability of secured credit for households…

■ 136,000 jobs were added last month, the government reported on Friday. Analysts surveyed by MarketWatch had expected a gain of about 147,000. ■ The unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, the lowest in a half century and down from 3.7 percent the month before. ■ Average hourly earnings were little changed after growing by 0.4 percent in August. The year-over-year gain was 2.9 percent. The Takeaway The cavalcade of payroll gains continued for the 108th month in September, pushing down the jobless rate to a 50-year low and countering anxieties…

There are some calculations with pension plans that require advanced math, and some that don’t. One that doesn’t is the simple fact that Canadians are rapidly aging. The average age of the population is moving up as life expectancy increases, birth rates decline and the baby boomer generation ages. By 2040, 25 per cent of the population will be at least 65 years old, up from 17 per cent today, according to Conference Board of Canada projections. The impact of having fewer Canada Pension Plan contributions from workers and more…