The euro zone economy appears to have built greater resilience to economic shocks, allowing the European Central Bank to raise interest rates more easily without fearing it would set off financial stress, ECB President Christine Lagarde said.

This resilience may come in handy as the 21-nation currency bloc is likely to face a growing number of inflation shocks in the coming years, with policymakers likely to face a dilemma of simply looking past the price volatility or acting forcefully, Lagarde said in a speech on Monday.

The ECB became the world's first major central bank this month to raise interest rates on the Iran-war induced energy shock and ⁠policymakers are now debating whether a follow up move is needed to contain price pressures. (RTRS – Continue Reading)

We have been reporting on the congressional briefings by the Trump administration on the MoU with Iran. According to the Politico, a US media outlet, Secretary of State Rubio and Trump’s envoy Witkoff held a briefing over the phone for lawmakers in the House of Representatives following their briefing for the Senate.

The outlet described the calls as the “first broad congressional briefings” on Trump’s Iran deal.

Citing two anonymous sources, Politico reported that lawmakers pressed Rubio and Witkoff on Iran’s nuclear stockpile and the lifting of sanctions on its oil exports. The officials told lawmakers that their goal was to negotiate a final deal that would prohibit Iran from keeping its highly enriched uranium. They said the MoU would launch those negotiations, while Witkoff added that technical teams involved in the nuclear talks will travel to Qatar for those discussions. (AJ – Continue Reading)