Aurelia Butler

PARIS (Reuters) – The French government plans to temporarily lift a ban on retailers selling road fuel below cost as part of efforts to stem inflationary pressures on households, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told newspaper Le Parisien.A renewed surge in pump prices this summer has complicated the government’s attempts to curb consumer inflation, with ministers calling on fuel and food industries to cut their margins.TotalEnergies (EPA:TTEF) has extended a cap on fuel prices past the end of the year while some supermarket chains have held promotions to sell petrol at cost.But a ban on below-cost selling of fuel, dating back to 1963, was preventing distributors from cutting prices further, Borne said, announcing that the ban would be lifted for “several months”.”With this unprecedented measure, we will obtain tangible results for the French people, without subsidising fuel,” she said in an interview published on Saturday.She rejected the idea of the government reducing fuel taxes, citing the need to reduce the public deficit and debt while saying that large companies should play their part.Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday that high petrol refining profit margins were a source for concern and may need to be addressed by government action.Regarding food prices, Borne told Le Parisien that companies from November would be required to indicate on labels when they modify the size of a product.So-called “shrinkflation”, whereby products are sold in a smaller quantity without any price reduction, has become a source of controversy in food retailing during a price spike in the past year. French supermarket chain Carrefour (EPA:CARR) announced this month it would place signs in its stores next to products that it found to use such practices. More

The UAW contracts at General Motors (NYSE:GM), Ford Motor (NYSE:F) and Chrysler parent Stellantis (NYSE:STLA) expired at 11:59 p.m. EDT on Thursday.Detroit automakers, like their global counterparts, have been focused on cost reductions, which in some cases include job cuts, to help accelerate a shift to electric vehicles (EVs) from gasoline-powered vehicles.WHO IS THE UNION NEGOTIATING WITH?The UAW, which represents 46,000 GM workers, 57,000 Ford employees and 43,000 Stellantis workers, kicked off negotiations with the companies in July.The union historically has picked one of the Detroit Three to negotiate with first as the so-called target that sets the pattern on which subsequent deals are based. This time, UAW President Shawn Fain targeted all three companies simultaneously.Contract talks between the UAW and the Detroit automakers in past years had gone on until the strike deadline and beyond.WHAT ARE THE CURRENT OFFERS FROM THE DETROIT THREE? Stellantis said on Saturday it has hiked its wage offer, proposing raises of 20% over a four-and-a-half-year contract term, including an immediate 10% hike. That matches proposals from GM and Ford.The automakers say the proposals work out to a cumulative 21% hike over the period.WHAT DOES THE UAW HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE OFFERS?The union previously has rejected the companies’ offers. It has demanded a 40% wage hike, including a 20% immediate increase, and improvements in benefits.”We’ll organize one day longer than they can and go the distance to win economic and social justice at the Big Three,” UAW President Shawn Fain said on Saturday.WHAT ARE THE UNION’S DEMANDS?The UAW is pushing automakers to eliminate the two-tier wage system under which new hires earn as much as 25% less than veterans.Fain has said repeatedly that the union will push to restore pay improvements tied to the cost of living and retiree benefits cut during the 2008-2009 economic crisis.The UAW also wants strong salary increases, given the financial success of the automakers, citing generous executive payouts and large U.S. federal subsidies for EV sales. The union also wants defined benefit pensions for all workers restored, 32-hour work weeks and additional cost-of-living hikes, job security guarantees and an end to the use of temporary workers.Fain also is aiming to get agreements that would allow the UAW to represent hourly workers at joint-venture EV battery plants opened or planned by the Detroit Three.The UAW has been wary of the industry shift to EVs and called on the Biden administration to soften its proposed vehicle emission cuts that would require 67% of new vehicles to be electric by 2032. EVs require fewer parts to build, and industry officials have said that will result in a need for fewer workers. Fain has said there should be no jobs lost because of the EV shift.WHAT DO AUTOMAKERS WANT?The Detroit Three want to close the cost gap they have with foreign automakers with non-unionized U.S. factories.Ford sources estimate that their U.S. labor costs are $64 an hour, compared with an estimated $55 for foreign automakers and $45 to $50 for EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA).The companies also want greater flexibility in how they use their U.S. workforces to increase efficiency and cut costs as the industry shifts to EVs.WHAT IS AT STAKE?The industrial action hit the Detroit Three automakers as they ramp up efforts to maximize gasoline and EV vehicle production to capitalize on demand for new vehicles.A full strike would hit earnings at each affected automaker by about $400 million to $500 million per week assuming all production was lost, Deutsche Bank previously estimated. Some losses could be recouped by boosting production schedules later, but that possibility fades if a strike extends to weeks or months.In fiscal 2019, GM’s fourth-quarter profit took a $3.6 billion hit from a 40-day UAW strike.A broad strike could also trickle down and squeeze quarterly profits for auto part suppliers such as Aptiv (NYSE:APTV), Lear (NYSE:LEA) Corp and Magna.A 10-day strike by the UAW could cost manufacturers, workers, suppliers and dealers more than $5 billion, according to an analysis by the Anderson Economic Group, a consulting firm. HOW WIDESPREAD IS THE STRIKE?The walkout on Friday was smaller than some analysts expected, with only three auto plants in Michigan, Ohio and Missouri targeted. Those plants produce the Ford Bronco, Jeep Wrangler and Chevrolet Colorado, along with other popular models. More

FRANKFURT/SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA (Reuters) – European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde seized the mobile phones of her fellow policymakers at this week’s meeting and rebuked them for leaking crucial information ahead of a policy decision, two sources told Reuters.The unprecedented move is the boldest step that Lagarde has taken to stop information leaking out from the Governing Council, an issue that has plagued her presidency as well that of her predecessor, Mario Draghi.The 26 members of the Governing Council were told to hand over their mobile phones on Wednesday, the first day of the meeting, as policymakers were about to pick Claudia Buch as the ECB’s top banking supervisor, the sources familiar with the matter said.The handsets were returned after Buch’s nomination as chair of the Single Supervisory Board, which oversees more than a hundred of the euro zone’s biggest lenders, had been announced, the sources added.The decision was taken because the choice in 2018 of the current chair, Andrea Enria, appeared in the media before the official release, the sources said.An ECB spokesperson declined to comment.Lagarde’s move came a day after Reuters exclusively revealed the ECB would raise a key inflation forecast this week, which paved the way for an interest rate hike on Thursday.Most economists and traders had expected the ECB to keep rates on hold, but many changed their view after the Reuters report was published late on Tuesday. Lagarde stigmatised the leak at the start of the two-day meeting, a criticism that was echoed by several colleagues.DIVIDED Lagarde inherited a divided Governing Council from Draghi, who had alienated so called hawks in the euro zone’s north with his ultra-easy monetary policy and abrasive management style.She has steadily tried to create a more harmonious atmosphere and several sources agree she has largely succeeded. Ironically, her efforts were helped by painfully high inflation over the past two years, which reduced the room for dissent and effectively forced the ECB to embark on a streak of interest rate hikes.But as borrowing costs were pushed higher, more policymakers expressed reservations about further hikes, the sources said.Lagarde said on Thursday the latest increase was backed by “a solid majority of the governors”, compared to all of them for the previous rise in July and a “very, very broad consensus” a month earlier.Lagarde has spared no effort in trying to woo her colleagues.Weeks into her term in 2019, they gathered at a German mountain castle where she pledged to spend more time listening, and not to front-run decisions before policymakers had weighed in, as Draghi was often accused of doing. In return, she asked for governors to stop trashing policy decisions once taken, keep internal disputes out of the media and put their phones away while colleagues were speaking.She also set informal guidelines last year instructing colleagues to present the majority view to the public after the ECB’s policy decisions, which are published on Thursdays, and hold back “personal” views until the following Monday. (Writing By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Mike Harrison) More

“GDP growth is expected to continue at a rate of 2.0% annually during the period 2025-2026,” the budget proposal showed, adding that 2024 growth would be driven by a “rebound in the agricultural sector, mainly due to the expected recovery in the soybean and corn harvest.”The government also expects the country to have an annual inflation rate of 135.7% in 2023 and 69.5% in 2024. The budget proposal also shows the government expects the country’s currency to weaken sharply next year to 607 pesos per dollar from the 365.9 pesos per dollar expected for 2023. The South American nation is grappling with triple-digit annual inflation that is forcing hard-hit consumers to run a daily gauntlet to find deals and cheaper options as price hikes roil the market.Monthly inflation hit 12.4% in August, the highest figure since 1991. The surge in price pressures has pushed poverty levels past 40% and stoked anger at the traditional political elite ahead of national elections in October.The country is also battling to salvage a $44 billion deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) amid a steady depreciation of the peso, negative central bank reserves and a flagging economy due to the impact of drought on the farming sector. More