France’s Finance Minister Eric Lombard said the country is able to remain on track with debt-reduction plans. He predicted that financial-market stress will ease despite the possibility of the government collapsing early next month.
Speaking today, Lombard said he is confident of meeting this year’s budget-deficit target of 5.4% of economic output as tax receipts are coming in as expected and spending is under control.
Prime Minister Francois Bayrou is likely to be forced to resign in a confidence vote over fiscal plans on Sept. 8. However, Lombard said the government will still be able to deliver on its plan for a 2026 finance bill. “Whatever the vote, we will continue to build the 2026 budget,” he said at the Medef business lobby’s annual conference.
Financial markets have been rattled by Bayrou’s surprise decision to expose himself to a confidence vote. Investors are betting on more fiscal difficulties in the coming months in a country that already has the euro area’s widest deficit.
Bayrou said yesterday that he will host opposition parties for talks starting on Monday — giving him a week to convince them to at least abstain in the ballot on Sept. 8.— Jennifer Duggan
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The European Union said it’s following through on a demand by US President Donald Trump and is putting forward proposals to remove all tariffs on US industrial goods. It will also give preferential treatment to some US agricultural and seafood products and prolong the duty-free treatment of American lobster. This will pave the way for the US to lower its tariffs on European cars and auto parts to 15% from 27.5%, the European Commission said in a statement today.
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is suing President Donald Trump over his attempt to fire her for alleged mortgage fraud. Trump’s claim that Cook may have lied on mortgage applications to get better loan terms is not sufficient “cause” to fire her because the alleged conduct is unproven and took place before her Senate confirmation, Cook said in the lawsuit today. The case kicks off a historic fight over independence of the US central bank which has resisted Trump’s demands to lower interest rates.
Lisa Cook in Washington, DC, in June Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
Consumers in the US are to expect a shock when ordering goods from other countries from Friday. The US is ending a longtime exception that allowed parcels worth less than $800 to avoid tariffs. The so-called de minimis exemption for years allowed parcels carrying low-value goods to enter the US duty-free. The number of packages claiming the exemption has surged over the last decade, totaling nearly 1.4 billion in the government’s 2024 fiscal year, or roughly 3.7 million a day and helped fuel the growth of e-commerce businesses such as Amazon.com and Shein in recent years.
The EU will resume talks on how to respond to the humanitarian situation in Gaza after the bloc it previously failed to agree on measures to sanction Israel. The Netherlands and Sweden urged other member states to increase pressure on Israel in a joint letter addressed to the head of EU diplomacy Kaja Kallas. They are proposing the suspension of the trade chapter of the EU-Israel association agreement, as well as a proposal to freeze a funding program for startups that the bloc was unable to agree on earlier this summer.
Mercedes-Benz Group Chief Technology Officer Markus Schäfer is urging the US and EU to quickly follow through on their trade deal to lower auto tariffs. Schäfer, who also oversees purchasing at the automaker said manufacturers are being squeezed by ongoing duties. US car duties remain in place despite the broader trade accord reached recently between Washington and Brussels. European automakers still face a 27.5% tariff on vehicles shipped to America, with the rate set to fall to 15% once the EU cuts levies on US industrial goods.
Russia is struggling to meet even the most cautious central bank estimate for growth this year, according to data. It casts doubt on continued assurances from Governor Elvira Nabiullina that the economy isn’t cooling excessively under high interest rates. Gross domestic product expanded by just 1.1% over the first seven months of the year, according to data from the Economy Ministry.
Rwanda received its first group of migrantsdeported from the US, making good on a controversial deal it struck with the Trump administration. “The first group of seven vetted migrants arrived in Rwanda in mid-August,” Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for the Rwandan government, said in a written response to Bloomberg questions today. The East African nation announced earlier this month it would take as many as 250 deportees from the US, and that they would receive training, health care and accommodation after relocating.
