- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
- Israel-Hamas war causes 86-percent dive in Gaza GDP: IMF
- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Oil rallies, stocks mostly retreat on Middle East tensions
- Phasing out teen smoking could save 1.2 mn lives: study
- 'Welcome relief': Asia producers hail EU deforestation law delay
- Japan PM slated to announce plans for 'happiness index'
- Turkish inflation falls less than expected in September at 49.4%
- Easing inflation lifts profit at UK supermarket Tesco
- Skiing calls on UN climate science to combat melting future
- China wine industry looks to breed climate resilience
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong drops after surge
- Dutch airline KLM unveils 'firm' cost-cutting measures
- Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion
- Senegal looks to aquaculture as fish stocks dwindle
- Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?
- Climate change, economics muddy West's drive to curb Chinese EVs
Eurozone contracts further as Germany heads for recession
Germany, the EU's top economy and Europe's export powerhouse, looks headed for imminent recession, according to a closely watched survey Monday that pointed to a deepening eurozone contraction.
There are "growing signs of an impending recession in the eurozone's largest economy," S&P Global Market Intelligence said as it released its eurozone purchasing managers' index for October.
The PMI for the 19-nation area fell to 47.1, down from 48.1 a month earlier -- its fourth consecutive drop and that fastest decline in nearly two years -- as soaring inflation and high energy prices bit deeper.
In Germany, the PMI dropped to 44.1, from 45.7 in September.
A reading below 50 signals an economic contraction.
The downward pressure on eurozone economic activity underlined the woes thrown up by Russia's war in Ukraine, which has crimped energy supplies.
Germany's reading was the lowest since initial business shutdowns in Germany when the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
Both manufacturing and services in Germany were showing accelerated rates of shrinkage, though that had yet to feed through into jobs-shedding, the survey showed.
German businesses were "deeply pessimistic" about the year-ahead outlook.
In France, the second-biggest economy in the EU, the economy was stagnating, with a PMI of 50 compared with 51.2 in September.
Although France is suffering less than other countries in Europe from inflation, rising prices are still putting pressure on consumers, leading to a severe fall in factory orders.
Across the eurozone, the PMI indicated that factory output had dropped for the fifth consecutive month, at a rate unseen since the worst of the pandemic.
Supply congestion and shortages had eased a bit, against a backdrop of flagging demand. While input demand had slumped, rising energy bills and wage pressure kept costs high.
A eurozone-wide recession "is looking increasingly inevitable," S&P Global Market Intelligence chief business economist Chris Williamson said.
"The region's energy crisis remains a major concern and a drag on activity, especially in energy intensive sectors."
- ECB rate decision -
The PMI data came ahead of a Thursday meeting of the European Central Bank's governing board that is expected to deliver a big interest rate cut in a bid to cool inflation.
Inflation in the 19-nation eurozone stood at nearly 10 percent in September, five times the ECB's target of two percent.
The German economy, whose energy-hungry industries relied heavily on Russian gas before the war, is now forecast to shrink by 0.4 percent in 2023.
Higher interest rates typically mean putting a dampener on business activity, as credit becomes more expensive and consumer spending decreases.
The EU is struggling to find ways to mitigate energy prices.
A summit last week agreed on a number of measures, but a key one, of capping wholesale gas prices, was kicked into future deliberations by Germany, which fears gas supplies being diverted to more lucrative markets in Asia.
Berlin has unholstered a massive 200-billion-euro ($197-billion) plan to shield German consumers from high energy prices, triggering unease among EU partners at its go-it-alone approach that risks distorting the single market.
At the summit German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reluctantly agreed to have the bloc look further at the price cap measure but only after an impact analysis.
The International Monetary Fund on Sunday said that downturns in parts of Europe could turn into "deeper recessions" across the continent.
Government support to tackle energy costs and inflation would "only partly" offset those strains, it said.
The IMF already predicted that Germany and Italy would slip into recession next year.
J.Bondarev--CPN