Economic News

ROME (Reuters) – A project to build a bridge connecting the Italian mainland to the island of Sicily will cost as much as 14.6 billion euros ($16.14 billion), a Treasury document showed, a near-50% increase compared with previous government estimates.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Production at U.S. factories fell more than expected in March, but eked out a modest gain in the first quarter.

(Reuters) – A U.S. recession is certainly feasible as the Federal Reserve’s steep rate-hikes over the past year filters fully through the economy, Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said on Friday, as he again urged the central bank to be prudent on policy.

(Reuters) – Southwest Airlines expects an ongoing Boeing 737 MAX manufacturing problem to delay some plane deliveries this year, Southwest said Friday.

By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis confirmed on Friday that in September he plans to go to Mongolia, a country that has fewer than 1,500 Catholics but is strategically significant for the Roman Catholic Church because it borders China.

(Reuters) – Traders of futures tied to the Federal Reserve’s policy rate on Friday kept bets the U.S. central bank will increase its benchmark rate in May by another quarter-of-a-percentage point after a report showed retail sales were not as weak as expected last month.

PARIS (Reuters) – The Paris Club of creditor governments aims to start negotiations to restructure Sri Lanka’s debt, the group said on Friday after a creditor committee was set up this week.

By Valentine Hilaire MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican investment firm JLL Capital, whose Honduran operation has been blocked since 2018 in a local dispute, is seeking some $380 million from the Central American country in arbitration proceedings, claiming that it violated foreign investment protections, documents reviewed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. import prices fell more than expected in March, leading to the biggest year-on-year decline since mid-2020, further evidence that inflation pressures were subsiding.

By Leika Kihara WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Bank of Japan (BOJ) Assistant Governor Tokiko Shimizu said on Friday there had been “extremely high” uncertainty regarding Japan’s economy, as slowing global growth and recent financial market stress cloud its outlook.

By Howard Schneider (Reuters) – Despite a year of aggressive rate increases U.S. central bankers “haven’t made much progress” in returning inflation to their 2% target and need to move interest rates higher still, Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said on Friday.

By Balazs Koranyi WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A growing number of European Central Bank policymakers are calling for the bank to stop reinvesting cash into its largest bond buying scheme, to help trim its balance sheet as part of efforts to tackle inflation, sources with direct knowledge

MADRID (Reuters) – A 74-year-old Spanish man accused of sending a series of letter bombs in late 2022 will be bailed under supervision on Friday, after a high court judge concluded there was no risk that he would re-offend.

(Reuters) – Loblaw Companies Ltd on Friday said it would spend C$2 billion ($1.50 billion) to expand its business in 2023 and create more than 6,000 new jobs in retail, supply chain, technology and construction in Canada.

By Lewis Jackson and Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Australian man who had recently returned from China was arrested in Sydney on Friday and charged with a foreign interference offence, police, court officials and neighbours of the man said.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s security forces have seized an estimated 10 million captagon pills that were to be smuggled to Senegal and then on to Saudi Arabia, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in a tweet on Friday.

By Birsen Altayli and Can Sezer ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The deadliest earthquake in Turkey’s modern history has reawakened fears on the other side of the country that Istanbul is an even bigger disaster waiting to happen, sending hundreds of thousands scrambling to find safer homes.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China and Brazil should deepen practical cooperation, and tap potential to work together in sectors including agriculture, energy, and infrastructure construction, Chinese President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying by state media on Friday.

TUNIS (Reuters) – The Tunisian coastguard has recovered eight more bodies from a migrant boat that sank off the country’s shores this week, raising the death toll to 33, the coastguard said on Friday.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A private banking industry group in Singapore on Friday denied a media report that the city state had asked global banks to keep quiet on wealth inflows coming from China over the past year due to political sensitivity.