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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission plans to borrow around 150 billion euros annually until 2026 to finance the bloc’s unprecedented plan to make its economy greener and more digitalised, making it the biggest debt issuer in euros, the Commission said on Wednesday.
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The amount of the EU economic plan was agreed at 750 billion euros in 2018 prices, but now totals around 807 billion euros in current prices.
The money is split into 338 billion euros in grants and 386 billion in loans for the 27 EU countries and the rest is for joint EU programmes. It will be distributed over the next five years with a third to be spent on reducing CO2 emissions in the EU’s 27 economies.
By Reuters Staff
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MILAN (Reuters) - The EU Commission has decided not to renew COVID-19 vaccine contracts next year with companies such as Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Italian daily La Stampa reported on Wednesday citing a source from the Italian Health Ministry.
“The European Commission, in agreement with the leaders of many (EU) countries, has decided that the contracts with the companies that produce (viral vector) vaccines that are valid for the current year will not be renewed at their expiry,” the newspaper reported.
It added that Brussels would rather focus on COVID-19 vaccines using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, such as Pfizer’s and Moderna’s.
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April 14 (Reuters) - Foreigners continued to purchase Asian bonds in March, but the inflows were mainly focussed on South Korean bonds, as investors searched for safety among emerging-market bonds.
Overseas investors bought a net $7.4 billion worth of Asian bonds in March, the 10th consecutive inflow, data from regulatory authorities and bond market associations in South Korea, Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Thailand showed.
South Korean bonds saw a record inflow of $8.1 billion last month, the data showed.
“South Korean bonds tend to see outsized inflows during times of market volatility, due to foreign investors rebalancing from higher-beta Asian bonds into the safer Korean bonds,” said Duncan Tan, a strategist at DBS Bank.
The dollar slipped on Monday and a gauge of global equity markets slid from record highs last week as investors wait to see whether an expected jump in U.S. earnings will justify stock prices already trading at very high premiums.
By Reuters Staff
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OSLO, April 14 (Reuters) - Norwegian Air now aims to raise up to 6 billion crowns ($711 million) in fresh capital before emerging from bankruptcy protection next month, more than the 4.5 billion originally planned, the company said on Wednesday.
“We want to take a conservative approach at a time when the pandemic and travel restrictions continue to create unpredictability in the travel sector,” Chief Executive Jacob Schram said in a statement.
$1 = 8.4380 Norwegian crowns Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche