UK businesses face ‘bleak’ outlook after poor end to 2022: BCC

By David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) – British businesses are gloomy about prospects for 2023 as they face the likelihood of a surge energy bills and ongoing post-Brexit trade difficulties, the British Chambers of Commerce said late on Wednesday. The BCC’s quarterly economic survey – the largest private-sector survey of business sentiment – showed that 36% …

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Green bonds are set to drive corporate ESG debt out of slump in 2023 -Barclays

By Isla Binnie NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global sales of corporate bonds with environmental, social and governance (ESG) targets will rebound this year and top $460 billion, Barclays said, after the asset class had its first setback in 2022 as higher interest rates weighed on credit markets. ESG bond volumes swelled over the past few …

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Fed wants ‘flexibility’ on rates as inflation remains key focus, minutes show

By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) -All officials at the Federal Reserve’s Dec. 13-14 policy meeting agreed the U.S. central bank should slow the pace of its aggressive interest rate increases, allowing them to continue increasing the cost of credit to control inflation but in a gradual way meant to limit the risks to economic growth. …

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Factbox-If not McCarthy then who? Other possible candidates for U.S. House speaker

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Here are six potential candidates to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives if Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy fails to win the post due to a rebellion by hardliners in his party. REPRESENTATIVE STEVE SCALISE The no. 2 House Republican is a supporter of McCarthy who could get support from moderates …

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India tribunal declines Google’s request to block Android antitrust ruling

By Arpan Chaturvedi NEW DELHI (Reuters) -An Indian tribunal on Wednesday declined a request by Google to block an antitrust ruling that ordered the tech giant to change its approach to its Android platform, dealing the U.S. firm a setback in a key growth market. In October, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) fined Alphabet …

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U.N. Security Council to meet on Taliban ban on female aid workers

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations Security Council is due to meet privately next week to discuss a decision by Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration to ban female humanitarian aid workers, diplomats said Wednesday. The closed-door meeting was requested by the United Arab Emirates and Japan for Jan. 13. The UAE announced the request in a …

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China COVID data shows no new variant but under-reports deaths, WHO says

By Alessandro Diviggiano and Bernard Orr BEIJING (Reuters) -Data from China shows that no new coronavirus variant has been found there, but also that the country under-represents how many people have died in a rapidly spreading COVID-19 outbreak, World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Wednesday. Global unease has grown about the accuracy of China’s …

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