Author: Anton Kovačić

Over the last 20 years, we have witnessed a series of changes that have transformed the dynamics of our day-to-day lives. We live in a increasingly global world, where news travels with the wind. We are just a click away from the other side of the world. We receive more and more requests that, quickly, enter our home through a simple mobile phone. It is enough to go back 20 years to realize the speed of society’s evolution.the new economyThe technological “revolution” has an increasing impact on the way we interact with the world. The economy as we knew it…

Despite falling energy prices, rising food costs have brought governments and retailers face to face in Europe. The British Financial Times newspaper, which made the headlines about the rising food prices, wrote that Europe’s retailers and their governments are engaged in the most fierce struggle in 50 years over food costs. According to Eurostat, the EU statistics office, food prices in the European Union rose 16.6 percent through April, well above the headline inflation rate of 8.1 percent. Some of the biggest increases were in staple food prices, with the cost of eggs rising by 22.7 percent, whole milk by…

The EU has slapped tech giant Meta with a record $1.3 billion fine for breaching privacy rules. They have also demanded that the company stop transferring user data across the Atlantic by October. This marks the latest step in a long-running conflict, sparked by concerns over US cyber espionage. This is the largest fine since the EU’s strict data protection regime was introduced five years ago, surpassing Amazon’s €746m fine last year for data protection breaches. Meta, formerly Facebook, has previously warned that services for their users in Europe are at risk of being shut down. They have stated that…

What is the interest rate on your credit? What is your effort rate? What is the potential return on your investments? These are common questions that we are used to. But there is another question we should be able to answer: what is your anxiety rate? I would even say that the answer to this last question must be given before taking any decision, be it debt or investment. Also read: Interest rates are rising, what awaits us and what to do?But what is this anxiety rate anyway?It is nothing more, nothing less, than the our ability to deal with…

An intense economic agenda awaits the winner of the Presidential 2nd round election. While many problems, especially the exchange rate, interest, inflation, current account deficit, domestic and foreign debts, are waiting for a solution, the first job of the new government will be to issue an additional budget or make a new budget. It is calculated that the budget deficit will at least triple due to the heavy burden of election commitments, age-at-retirement (EYT), earthquake, increasing interest expenses and salary hikes, which will make a new budget of 1.5-2 trillion liras mandatory. Due to the budget marathon, the new Parliament…

Tech giant Google is characterized by a plethora of projects to secure its core business against growing competition from AI rivals. These projects include updates to the company’s existing search engine and plans for an entirely new AI-powered version. It emerged recently that the company’s employees were shocked when the news came that Samsung is considering replacing Google with Microsoft’s Bing as the default search engine on its devices, writes the New York Times. Bing, long a hidden player in search engines, has recently attracted interest through the implementation of new AI technology. Samsung’s considerations are seen as a potential…

“Welcome to Hollywood, newbie!” This is how they welcome us in the video game Lights, Camera, Budget!, a title that takes us back to the famous “Lights, Camera, Action”. However, instead of the sound of the clapper board giving the actors a cue to enter the scene, here we are greeted by a seemingly unexciting “Budget”. And, yes, we said “apparently”, because the game (in English and with versions adapted for third cycle or secondary school students), has no difficulty in hooking even the oldest – like us… to the role of cinematographic producer. Newcomers to Los Angeles, we have…

The Central Bank was on the agenda of the markets yesterday. In the survey of market participants published on the day when the bank’s net reserves fell to its lowest level in 21 years, while inflation expectations declined, Chairman Şahap Kavcıoğlu gave the message that the liraization strategy would continue. On the same day, the Central Bank, which took a new step to reduce the demand for foreign exchange in the market, reduced the daily foreign exchange purchase limit of banks by 25 percent. In the new implementation instruction sent by the Central Bank to the banks, a limit of…

There are thousands of Portuguese who are save hundreds of euros since the end of last year simply because they decided to risk switching to an indexed electricity tariff. I already told you about this extraordinary form of savings in the January column. Five months later, I’m telling you again that if it hasn’t changed, it probably already saved about 500 euros or more (depending on your consumption). The good news is that there is still time to take advantage of these savings, as long as you realize that, with each passing month, this savings will become smaller until it…

The European Economic Research Center (ZEW), headquartered in Mannheim, Germany, announced the May results of the ZEW Economic Confidence Index, which measures the expectations of institutional investors and analysts for the next 6 months. Accordingly, the index decreased by 14.8 points in May compared to the previous month. Thus, the index, which was 4.1 points in April, dropped to minus 10.7 points this month. The market expectation was for the index to decline to minus 5.3 points in April. Thus, the index fell below zero for the first time since December 2022. The index fell sharply in March, despite the…