Courtneidge
has been in the Payment Industry since 1990, when he started working at
Citibank. He qualified as a solicitor and moved inhouse to look after the UK
Consumer bank, Citibank Life and Diners Club. This is where he received his
first taste of payments which was to follow him the rest of h

Among the steps being considered is a requirement for people with only two vaccination shots to show proof of a negative test in order to enter a restaurant or a bar i.e. only those with a booster shot do not have to do so.
That said, rules on quarantine measures are likely to be relaxed so as to av

Economic confidence 115.3Prior 117.5; revised to 117.6Industrial confidence 14.9Prior 14.1; revised to 14.3Services confidence 11.2Prior 18.4; revised to 18.3Euro area economic sentiment fell towards the end of last year, as omicron risks weighed on the outlook. A positive takeaway though is that th

Prior +0.2%; revised to +0.3%
Retail sales +7.8% y/y
Prior +1.4%; revised to +1.7%

A surprise growth in euro area retail sales, indicating that consumer demand is still somewhat holding up going into year-end. That despite omicron risks, though we’ll see how the fresh restrictions may

This comes as the country reports over 4,000 new COVID-19 cases today – the first time since September last year. Japan prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has said that the government will now decide on quasi-state of emergency declarations for parts of the country tomorrow. I would expect said measures

January is typically the best month for gold as prices tend to rise in the lead up to the Lunar New Year. That has been the case in 7 of the last 8 years but gold is off to a rough start this time in 2022. I noted previously in December as to why this time around, things could be different for gold:

This just reaffirms that the national reading later will likely come in above 5.0% y/y, with the estimate likely to match the November reading of +5.2% y/y. That will just keep the pressure on ECB policymakers as inflation pressures are still elevated going into the turn of the year.

Prior +5.4%
PPI +23.7% y/y
Prior +21.9%

Another month, another surge in producer prices as cost pressures continue to tick higher. That will translate to higher consumer inflation so as long as this remains elevated, it is tough to see inflation pressures easing despite a bit of a lag

Composite PMI 53.6 vs 53.2 prelim

That’s the lowest reading since February for services activity as pandemic restrictions weighed heavily. That said, there are some positives as job creation remains robust and growth expectations are also still more positive. Roughly 55% of
the survey pan