Amid sharply rising global energy and food prices, inflation has threatened to spiral out of control worldwide, and this is prompting concerted action from major central banks. With inflation hitting multi-decade highs in most economies, central banks are responding by hiking...
In a survey conducted in November 2020, McKinsey & Co. found that roughly 80% of European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) viewed their economy as “somewhat to extremely weak”. While the sentiment varied across national economies, SMEs in Italy and Spain were the...
With the rise of robo advisors, automated portfolios, and intelligent algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) is making an effective (and intimidating) incursion into the financial sector. Tasks that would have previously fallen to hordes of analysts are increasingly being...
After a minor COVID-induced drop, global energy investments rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 ($1.9 trillion) – an increase of 10% over 2020 – reports the International Energy Association (IEA). And in what will be music to the ears of policymakers and green energy...
Data privacy and security are a key focus for CFOs, says a 2019 survey by management consulting firm Protiviti. The survey, which polled 817 CFOs and finance leaders worldwide, reported that 84% of respondents rated data privacy/security as their top priority overall and...
Climate change is an increasingly costly, and deadly, event in countries around the world. As the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports, the past 50 years have seen some of the deadliest and most expensive disasters ever recorded. The period from...
After a brief COVID-induced slump, employment rates in the EU have trended upwards once more, according to Eurostat. While the EU employment rate fell to 71.7% in 2020, a drop of one percentage point compared to 2019, job markets in the region rebounded to 73.1% in...