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BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Members of the European Union, except Poland, tentatively agreed on Thursday to cap the price of Russian oil transported by sea at $60 a barrel, an official said. European diplomat.

This agreement would be accompanied by an adjustment mechanism to maintain the ceiling 5% below the market price, added the diplomat.

Poland, which had pushed for the lowest possible cap, has until 3:00 p.m. GMT to give its assent.

If Warsaw gives the green light, governments will have until Friday to ratify the agreement, the diplomat said.

(Report Jan Strupczewski; French version Kate Entringer, edited by Blandine Hénault)

ZURICH (Reuters) – Reinsurer Swiss Re has estimated the cost to insurers of disasters around the world since the start of the year at $122 billion (about 117 billion euros), an amount that makes year 2022 one of the most expensive for the sector.

According to the analysis published Thursday by Swiss Re, the annual cost of disasters for insurers – which shows an average annual increase of 5 to 7% over the past decade – thus exceeds the 100 billion dollar mark for the second consecutive year.

According to this analysis published Thursday, for natural disasters alone, the cost for insurers is estimated at 115 billion dollars at this stage of the year, an amount well above its average over ten years, which is established at 81 billion. of dollars.

Hurricane Ian, which swept across Florida at the end of September, alone caused an assured $50 billion to $65 billion in damage, putting it second only to Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans ( Louisiana) in 2005.

Behind this category 4 hurricane, the main disaster source of losses for insurers this year, floods and hailstorms have caused more than 50 billion dollars in insured losses this year, according to Swiss Re.

The reinsurer mentions in particular the unprecedented wave of hailstorms observed in France this year, with insured losses estimated at five billion euros (5.2 billion dollars) as well as the floods caused by the torrential rains of February and March in Australia (four billion dollars).

According to Swiss Re, natural and man-made disasters have killed more than 11,000 people since the start of the year, not counting the victims of summer heat waves in Europe.

Beyond the cost to insurers, natural and man-made disasters have generated damages for a total amount of 268 billion dollars this year worldwide.

Reinsurer Munich Re is due to publish its annual catastrophe report in January.

(Report Paul Arnold, written by Michael Shields; French version Myriam Rivet, edited by Blandine Hénault)

PARIS (Reuters) – The New York Stock Exchange ended sharply higher on Wednesday as markets welcomed comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who hinted that the pace of rate hikes could slow.

The US central bank could slow down the pace of its rate hikes as early as December, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Wednesday during a debate organized by the Brookings Institution in Washington.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.18%, or 737.24 points, to 34,589.77 points. The wider Standard & Poor’s 500 gained 122.48 points, or 3.09% to 4,080.11 points. The Nasdaq Composite advanced for its part by 484.22 points (4.41%) to 11,467.996.

“It would make sense to moderate the pace of our price increases as we approach the level that should be sufficient to bring inflation down,” Jerome Powell said. “The timing for rate hike moderation could come as early as the December meeting,” he added.

This should be its last public intervention before the monetary policy meeting on December 13-14, after which the Fed is expected to raise rates again.

According to the real-time barometer FedWatch, the hypothesis of a 50 basis point increase in the rate target of the “fed funds” remains largely favored, but no central bank official has really ruled out for the moment that a further increase of 75 points.

In values, 3M lost 0.13%, after saying it was having trouble in its retail business.

Biogen jumped 4.72% after reporting encouraging results for an experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

On the oil market, WTI stood at $80.54 (+3.01%) and Brent at $85.30 (+2.81%).

The dollar was down 0.73% against a basket of currencies a few minutes after the close of Wall Street, while the euro stood at 1.0403 dollars (+0.74%).

On the bond market, ten-year paper fell 12 basis points to settle at 3.6275%. Its five-year counterpart fell 14.9 basis points to 3.7729%.

(Nicolas Delame)

On Friday, November 25, the European Central Bank published a report arguing that wage growth will continue to fuel inflation in the euro zone, even after the fallout from the health crisis and the war in Ukraine.

A blog published on the website of the European Central Bank (ECB) mentions that inflation in the euro zone will continue to be fueled by wage growth, even after the shocks linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

“Even after the energy and pandemic factors fade” from inflationary dynamics, “rising wages will be the main driver of rising prices over the next few years,” ECB executive board member Philip Lane said in a statement. a blog published on the ECB website.

Inflation exceeded the 10% mark this autumn in the region, and the ECB fears that a wage-price spiral could set in, which could derail its scenario of a gradual return of inflation towards its 2% target.

For the moment, this phenomenon has not yet been observed. For good reason, the latest contract negotiations have generally resulted in a salary increase of around 3.8% for 2022 and 3.5% for 2023, noted Philip Lane.

The increase does not change the dynamics of normal wages, says the ECB

In Germany, nearly 4 million employees in the industrial sector, in electronics and metallurgy, obtained an 8.5% wage increase over two years on Friday.

According to the explanations of Philip Lane, these increases are perceived as higher than normal, but reflect “largely the process of catching up following the decline in real wages that has occurred since the middle of 2021”, when the prices of energy and raw materials had caused global inflation to soar and eroded purchasing power.

Going forward wages will continue to rise but this should not be interpreted as “a permanent change in nominal wage dynamics”, according to Mr Lane.

Once the wage catch-up phase is over, “nominal wages can be expected to grow at the rate corresponding to the sum of labor productivity growth and the 2% inflation target”, he said. he concluded.

Congestion problems force the builder to find a plan B, faced with saturated car parks and a factory running at full speed.

The Stellantis factory in Sochaux (Doubs), faced with major logistical problems in the shipment of its vehicles, is forced to store some of its cars at the disused Lure-Malbouhans aerodrome (Haute-Saône), in about forty km from the industrial site, we learned from management.

Vehicles have been “offloaded” for a few days at this aerodrome “to speed up their distribution in local markets”, indicated a spokesperson for the factory, while the site’s car parks are currently saturated due to major logistical problems. due to a shortage of drivers in Europe.

Manufacturers also face “port congestion and instability of rail transport”, indicated last week the management of Stellantis Sochaux.

A situation that is all the more visible in Sochaux as the site is a hub through which vehicles manufactured elsewhere by the group transit, particularly from Rennes and Trnava (Slovakia).

The automaker, born from the merger of PSA and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in January 2021, is also currently overhauling its vehicle shipping logistics, now calling on diversified players and not a single operator, which was Gefco.

The Lure-Malbouhans aerodrome, with an area of ​​242 hectares, is a former NATO standard military site, inactive since 1997 and sold to the Haute-Saône departmental council in 2005.

“Very good operational performance”

“Reinforced security” has been put in place on the site, said the management of the automotive group. “We are managing this situation on a day-to-day basis, as with semiconductors. The teams are mobilized seven days a week to find the best solutions and improve the distribution time”, she added.

Local dealers also pick up vehicles directly from the Sochaux site to ensure shipments.

At the same time, the factory’s production remains strong, with orders continuing “thanks to the success of our vehicles”, rejoices the management.

The Sochaux site, which acquired a new assembly line at the start of the year, produces 1,100 cars daily, and is very soon aiming for a cruising speed of 1,200 vehicles per day. We observe “a very good operational performance”, according to the spokesperson for the management, which however reinforces the congestion.