Italian protests over soaring fuel prices and food shortages
There were also protests in Italy over the weekend over the rising cost of living, with clashes between police and protesters in Milan and roads blocked by lorry drivers in southern Italy.
Italian police clashed with protesters who threw stones and looted shops in Milan on Sunday during demonstrations over the rising cost of living, as lorry drivers blocked roads across southern Italy in protest at soaring fuel prices linked to the war in Iran, Lorenzo Tondo is reporting from Palermo.
Footage showed police in riot gear firing teargas and using water cannon after several hundred hooded protesters smashed shop windows and set bins alight in the area around Piazza del Duomo in central Milan.
The clashes echoed scenes of violence in neighbouring France, where hundreds of thousands of people angered by rising living costs and declining public services took to the streets on Saturday in some of the country’s most violent protests in years.
Meanwhile, lorry drivers have caused widespread disruption across southern Italy, blocking major roads and creating huge traffic jams in Sicily, Puglia and Calabria in protest at the mounting financial pressure on the haulage industry.
Hundreds of petrol stations have run out of fuel, while supermarkets are beginning to report shortages of several products, particularly fresh food. Pharmacies have also been affected, raising concerns about disruption to essential supplies.
Pasquale Russo, president of Conftrasporto, an association representing Italian haulage companies, said:
In several parts of southern Italy, petrol stations have run out of both petrol and diesel, with motorists facing long queues at the few filling stations still operating. The road blockades have also caused extensive traffic disruption, with fears growing that prolonged protests could further disrupt supplies of food, fuel and other essential goods.
39th anniversary of Black Monday
Today is the 39th anniversary of Black Monday. The 1987 financial crash began in Hong Kong and quickly spread west to Europe, before hitting Wall Street, where the Dow Jones slumped by an unprecedented 23% to take the index 34% below its level earlier that October.
In London the FTSE 100 fell by 11% on the Monday, a further 12% on the Tuesday and another 6% on the Thursday; those who worked through the slide reported how the shock of share price slumps caused some traders to become paralysed, staring blankly at their screens, with “sweat running down their faces”.
It was not just the traders, either. Lord (Nigel) Lawson, then chancellor of the exchequer, recalled later:
Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid says today:
Here’s our full story:
France was hit by a fresh wave of selling in its bond and stock markets on Monday after violent protests over the weekend left public buildings burned, hundreds of shops looted and thousands of arrests across the country.
French and Italian stocks tumble as French bond sell-off deepens
The French and Italian stock markets have both tumbled more than 1%, while the sell-off in French government bonds deepened.
This has pushed the yield, or interest rate, on the benchmark 10-year bond up by 7.5 basis points to 4.855%.
The Stoxx 600 index of Europe’s leading shares is down 0.4%. The UK’s FTSE 100 lost 0.6% or 66 points to 10,815, while the German market slid 0.7%.
Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid said:
Duncan Wrigley, chief China+ economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, has looked at the Chinese GDP figures.
Introduction: Roaring exports lift China’s economic growth; violent French protests put pressure on euro and bonds
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
Roaring exports lifted China’s economic growth in the third quarter despite lacklustre consumer spending, which lagged far behind factory output.
The country’s GDP grew by 4.5% year on year between June and September, better than economists had expected and up from the second quarter’s 4.3%. The economy grew by 4.6% in the first nine months of the year, putting it on track to hit the government’s 2026 target of 4.5% to 5% growth without extra stimulus measures.
Industrial production rose 5.5% in September, up from 5.2% in August, while retail sales increased 1.1%, up from 0.4%.
However, fixed-asset investment fell 7.2% over the first nine months, property investment tumbled by 20.6%, and infrastructure spending remained weak.
Analyst Stephen Innes said:
In Asian stock markets, Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.6% while China’s CSI 300 rose 0.2%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 0.5% and South Korea’s Kospi added 1.5%.
Increasingly violent street protests in France have put pressure on the euro, while French bonds sold off, pushing yields higher, ahead of a bond auction later in the day.
The yield, or interest rate, on the 10-year French government bond rose more than 6 basis points to 4.842%. The European single currency dipped 0.2% to $1.1218 versus the dollar.
The spread between 10-year German and French government bonds has widened by 6.5 basis points, indicating the premium investors pay for French debt over what is considered ultra-safe German debt.
The Agenda
1.30pm BST: Canada inflation for September
2pm BST: French bond auction
