Switzerland’s Supreme Court on Friday ruled against a compensation claim by two former shareholders of Credit Suisse who bought stock in the bank shortly before it failed in March 2023, saddling them with hefty losses. The two plaintiffs, a couple, bought shares in the bank just days before Credit Suisse collapsed, the court said. The […]
Oil prices traded around flat on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump extended a deadline for trade talks with the European Union, easing concerns about U.S. tariffs on the bloc that could hit fuel demand. Brent crude futures were unchanged at $64.78 a barrel by 1234 GMT while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 4 cents to $61.49 a […]
Since 1989, most central banks around the world have adopted an inflation targeting regime. This column argues that credit for how much inflation targeting (IT) contributed to the pre-2021 decades of low inflation has run ahead of the evidence. Forces such as globalisation and simple ‘regression to the mean’ should be taken seriously, alongside inflation […]
Sudden stops in international capital flows pose significant challenges for policymakers, especially in emerging markets. These abrupt halts in cross-border flows disrupt firms’ access to external financing, leading to liquidity shortages that can severely undermine economic activity and growth. This column examines how credit support policies in the form of credit guarantees and central bank […]
The blackout on 28 April 2025 that left all of Spain and Portugal in the dark was a stark reminder of the fragility of our energy systems and also the risk of renewables being turned into a scapegoat. This column argues that public trust is foundational to Europe’s energy transition and shows that support for […]
Competition in critical technologies is attracting increasing attention not only because of the foundational nature of these technologies for other types of innovation, but also because of their role in the United States national security strategy. In this paper, we look into which entities in China, the European Union and the US innovate at the […]
Recent events, such as tariff announcements, illustrate that even global shocks may feature important country-specific components. This column finds that a monetary union shapes the impact of economic uncertainty on its member countries by substantially mitigating the adverse effects of country-specific shocks. It does so by providing a nominal anchor that effectively eliminates price level […]
Reductions in women’s labour supply after childbirth remain a persistent driver of gender earnings inequality. Using data from West Germany from the 1960s to 2013, this column explores the evolution of the ‘child penalty’ – post-birth earnings reductions for mothers – in Germany. The child penalty increased over time because women are earning more, so […]
This blog post is part of a special series based on the April 2025 Commodity Markets Outlook, a flagship report published by the World Bank. This series features concise summaries of commodity-specific sections extracted from the report. The World Bank’s food commodity price index edged down in April, extending the 2 percent decline in 2025Q1. Over […]
In the fast-paced world of finance, ongoing digitization is disrupting the traditional rules of banking with profound consequences. Our lives have also become more digital through shopping, social interactions, news, and information gathering, to name just a few. A burgeoning amount of personal data is now being produced daily. The total amount of data created, captured, […]
