Category: Economy

Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission visited Serbia on 15 October 2025, as part of her tour to the states of the Western Balkan. In Serbia, she held a press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. She stated that EU sees Serbia as her future partner and that more is needed to be done to help countries I major economic growth. The EU offered major economic benefits (like the €6 billion Growth Plan and Single Market access) while only threatening consequences for a lack of democratic progress. Critics argue this approach is too gentle with a government that has been slow-walking reforms for years. While Von Der Leyen welcomed "recent progress" on issues like the Unified Voter Register, she immediately stressed that "Implementation is now key."…

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is calling for a unified European stock exchange for simple economic and strategic objectives, all pertaining to increasing European competitiveness and re-booting the German economy. The push for a single stock market and broader Capital Markets Union (CMU) comes ultimately from a desire for economic outcomes for the EU comparable to those of the US, but does not suggest the EU will become a political replica of the US. A number of reports cite German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as having called for a "European stock exchange" in a speech to the Bundestag on a Thursday, just ahead of an EU summit. His quoted arguments for preventing successful companies such as biotech firm BioNTech from being listed in New York due to the disunited European market are…

Central banks globally have been accumulating gold at record levels in recent years. Central bank gold buying is driven by one of the key reasons, which is hedging against geopolitical risk, global uncertainty, and the risk of sanctions or asset freezes. Gold is viewed as crisis-proof, a safe-haven asset that will never be frozen or blocked like foreign exchange reserves (e.g., US dollars or Treasuries) can. This provides monetary sovereignty and a financial firewall in an uncertain world. A number of countries, particularly developing market economies, are diversifying reserves off dependence on the US dollar through gold, reducing systemic risk as well as vulnerability to American fiscal crises. This is part of a broader "de-dollarisation" policy. Gold is perceived as a secure long-term store of value and an anti-inflation hedge…

Instant Euro Payments rules mandate commercial banks and euro-area payment service providers to extend the facility of immediate sending and receiving of regular euro funds (the money in your account in your current bank) instantly (within seconds) and at no extra cost compared to a standard transfer. It is a new regulation on existing money in banks. The new regulations convert the old bank transfer from a slow, business-hours-only service to an immediate, always-on utility that is safer and cheaper to use. The main distinctions of the new Instant Euro Payments system from the previous standard payment system are: speed, availability, cost, and security. Instant Transfers 24/7: Euro payments are now received by the beneficiary in seconds, day or night, and including weekends and weekdays. Mandatory Service: Payment service providers…

The record bank earnings despite overall economic uncertainty is due to a combination of factors related to the specific structure of their business. The biggest banks are highly diversified, so their profits aren't solely from lending. For the quarterly earnings of major banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Wells Fargo in (Q3 2025), their huge profit jump—with JPMorgan's net income rising to $14.39 billion and Goldman Sachs' profit soaring 37%—was catalyzed by a strong bounce back in their capital markets businesses. The biggest banks get to enjoy large corporate business and market volatility (Wall Street), which can thrive even when Main Street falters. The banks mostly surpassed expectations and attributed their profitability increase to a "resilient" U.S. economy despite geopolitical conditions, tariffs, and trade uncertainty. The main…

The digital euro, as an electronic form of risk-free central bank money, creates an easily accessible, instantaneous, and highly attractive safe haven for retail depositors during a financial crisis or panic. This direct competition for deposits, especially under stress, is why commercial banks and some lawmakers fear the digital euro could significantly reduce the banks' primary source of funding (retail deposits), which would then threaten their liquidity and profitability. The holding limit is a key design feature intended to prevent a larger, more destabilizing outflow, even in the worst-case scenario. The risk is that in times of financial stress or a loss of confidence in commercial banks, depositors could rapidly and massively transfer their funds out of commercial bank accounts and into a CBDC, which is a direct liability of…

Zambia's copper production is on track for a record year in 2025, potentially exceeding 1 million tonnes’ for the first time giving a significant boost to its economy. The rally is driven by confidence in Zambia's copper industry recovery following a drought, leading to a strong outlook for medium-term gains. The Kwacha advanced to 22.76 per dollar, the highest since February 2024, and had risen 23% so far this year. Current exchange rate data (as of October 2025) shows the Kwacha trading at approximately K22.5 to K23.0 per dollar (since 0.044344561​≈22.55). A rate of 22.76 ZMW/USD is in line with or very close to recent figures. The overall strong performance of the Kwacha in 2025 is broadly supported by news of its rally earlier in the year, which drove inflation…

Canadian government and regulators (specifically the Department of Finance and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, OSFI) exercise tight control over private banks. This regulatory grip is precisely why the system is considered one of the most stable in the world. However, the Bank of Canada (BoC) and others argue that this stability comes at a significant cost: low productivity and high costs for consumers and businesses. Canada's banking system navigated the 2008 global financial crisis without any bank failures or taxpayer-funded bailouts, a feat unmatched by many other developed nations. Why? The handful of dominant banks (the "Big Six") are well-capitalized and face very strict oversight. Regulators ensure they hold massive buffers, making them highly resilient to shocks. The stability of the financial system is prioritized above…

Several reports affirm the Argentine government was in large-scale dollar selling to prop up the peso, with the estimated sales as much as over $1.3 billion to as high as $2 billion in recent sessions. The policy of employing Treasury cash (as opposed to Central Bank reserves, which are limited by the IMF) and the resultant speedy draining of those deposits were concerns reported extensively. The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) is prevented from using its dollar reserves freely due to the terms of its loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It is one of the core elements of Argentina's IMF program, which is to stabilize the economy and rebuild foreign currency buffers. The IMF agreement prohibits the Central Bank from entering the official foreign exchange…

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched a pilot for deposit tokenization on Wednesday, October 8, 2025. The pilot finds its initial application in tokenization of Certificates of Deposit (CDs), which are bank-issued money market instruments of short tenure that are negotiable. The aim is to digitally represent these financial products on a blockchain. The pilot focuses on institutional/wholesale business (bank-to-bank transactions) and not on retail consumers. The RBI has also shown it is testing tokenization with other money market products, such as commercial papers (CPs). This program is derived from India's Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) wholesale segment, referred to as e₹-W. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is using a permissioned, in-house-developed Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform for its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilots, including the wholesale…