Financial Literature Europe (Page 2)

What is the difference between retail sales value and volume?

Value is money through the till; volume is what it bought once prices are taken out. In August, Britons spent more on fuel and bought less of it.

A navy fuel pump with a low teal level beside a tall stack of gold coins

🌍 3.75% held by 6–3, and Britons paid 4.3% more for 1.3% less fuel

The Bank of England split the same way as in July. This morning's shop figures show why prices and quantities have to be read side by side.

Two identical staircases, one navy and one gold, rising and falling in step a fixed distance apart

🌍 4.50% — the Fed raised rates, and Saudi Arabia followed within hours

Saudi Arabia raised its rate to 4.50% within hours of the Fed's first rise since 2023. The Bank of England decides at noon London time today.

A row of navy bars on a salmon ground: one bar tips away at the left while a taller gold bar joins at the right.

🌍 3.1% — British inflation rose on petrol; core and services did not move

UK inflation rose to 3.1% in August from 2.9%, and core held at 2.6%. The whole move was one month's arithmetic. The Bank of England decides on Thursday.

What does “seasonally adjusted” mean, and why can one month fall and rise at once?

German motorway freight fell sharply from July to August and rose at the same time. Both are true. A plain-words guide to adjusted economic numbers.

Three gold blocks of shrinking height standing above a dashed navy line

🌍 2.50% — the ECB raised again, and still sees 2.1% inflation in 2028

Thursday's rate rise, Friday's closes and a red week for every European board, plus a projection that narrows the gap to 2% without closing it.

A tilted balance: one tall narrow block on the raised pan, three short wide blocks weighing down the other

🌍 49.6% — German heating oil got dearer, household energy got cheaper

German inflation was confirmed at 2.9% for August. Heating oil rose 49.6% in a year, and the group of prices it belongs to still got cheaper.

A navy motorway band with lane markings, a red gap where the markings stop, and a gold bar bridging the gap above it

🌍 German lorry mileage fell in August; adjusted for the holidays, it rose

German industrial figures run a month behind. The motorway toll index does not. Raw, August's mileage fell; adjusted, it rose. The gap is the lesson.

Two bars on a salmon ground: a tall navy bar beside a shorter brick bar, with the gap above the shorter one outlined in gold.

🌍 €21.3bn — Germany's surplus widened because imports fell 5.7%

July's trade surplus was the widest since August 2024. Exports fell 0.8%, imports fell 5.7%. A balance can widen for two very different reasons.

A stack of green order slips beside a dark factory roof crossed by a red bar

🌍 −1.1% — Germany's factories made less in the month their order book grew

July production fell 1.1%, the steepest in nearly a year, three days after orders rose 2.5%. A car-plant shutdown did most of it.

Why does Germany report factory orders twice, with and without large orders?

One contract for ships or aircraft can carry a national statistic. Why Destatis publishes two order figures, and which one answers which question.

A tipped balance beam: one large gold block outweighs three small red blocks

🌍 +2.5% — Germany's orders rose on ships and planes; without them, −1.4%

July factory orders beat forecasts by two points. Strip out the large contracts and the order book shrank, in the month and across the quarter.

A navy pipeline stepping down in three segments; the red flow fills the first, half the second, and only a small green dot re

🌍 5.8% — Europe's factory-gate prices jumped; energy did all of the month's rise

Euro-area producer prices rose 1.6% in July alone and 5.8% on the year; energy +5.6% on the month, the rest flat. Bond yields paused. Today: the pipeline.

Six columns rising left to right; the tallest, in gold, breaks through a dashed line the others stay under

🌍 5.28% — Britain's ten-year borrowing cost, the highest since 2008

Gilts at a 2008 high, Bunds at a 2011 high, Treasuries at a 3-year high after new US strikes on Iran. Tuesday's closes, and how to read a 10-year yield.

A red oil drop beside five rising navy bars and a dashed gold target line on salmon: energy pushed euro-area inflation up

🌍 3.3% — energy pushed euro-area inflation up; core slipped to 2.4%

Euro-area inflation rose to 3.3% in August from 2.9%. Energy did it, up 14.3%; core slipped to 2.4%. Today: how to read headline against core.

Six red columns of rising heights beside one empty navy outline column with a gold clock above it: Germany's state inflation

🌍 2.9% — Germany's states reported first; the national number lands at 2 pm

Six German states published August inflation this morning, all higher than July, three at 2.9%; the national flash follows at 2 pm. Today: the parts first.

Explainers

Why does France have two inflation rates? CPI and HICP, explained

France prints 2.4% and 2.7% on the same morning. What the harmonised index is, why it differs from the national CPI, and which one the ECB reads.

Two brick columns of different heights measured against one navy ruler with gold ticks: one country, two inflation rates

🌍 2.7% — France's inflation rose; Spain's rose more

France's harmonised inflation hit 2.7% in August (2.4% in July) and Spain's 4.5%, both on energy. Today: why every euro country has two inflation rates.

A navy disc with a small gold slice lifted out of it and green chevrons rising above the slice, over a level bar

🌍 $96.2bn — Nvidia's quarter reached Europe's chips, not its board

Nvidia's record $96.2bn quarter lifted Europe's chipmakers on Thursday morning while the STOXX 600 sat flat at 656.41. Today: how index weight works.

A navy oil drop falling past a gold yield line that bends downward, with red chevrons beneath

🌍 3.20% — falling oil reached the Bund

Brent settled at $87 and the 10-year Bund yield closed at 3.20%, its lowest since mid-August. Today: how an oil price travels into a bond yield.

Flat-vector scene: a V of blocks, two brick steps down then four teal steps up, the last towering above a gold forecast line

🌍 88.8 — Germany's mood beat every forecast

The Ifo business climate hit 88.8 in August against 87.2 expected — a fourth rise in a row and a year's high. Today: reading a survey against its forecast.

Seven small red blocks and one tall green block, framed twice in rival navy and gold frames

🌍 +0.59% — the streak ended, and the wires disagree why

Friday's +0.59% ended the STOXX 600's seven-day slide — and the wires can't agree why. One credits the PMI beat, one short-covering. Both can be right.

Seven shallow brick steps descending beside a tall gold measuring rule with a small teal bracket

🌍 Seven red days in a row — and the index barely moved

The STOXX 600 fell for a seventh straight session, its longest run since 2023 — and lost about 1.5% doing it. Why a streak and a slide differ.

A falling yield line pressed down by a gold coin, beside a sinking bank facade

🌍 Washington bought the bonds — Europe's banks fell anyway

The US Treasury doubled long-bond buybacks to $4bn an operation; yields and the dollar fell — yet BNP and ING dropped 2.4%. A flat index hid a split market.

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