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29th Mar 2024

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Report: Syrian bank fiddling currency to evade EU sanctions

Syria is using currency manipulation to evade EU and UN sanctions, with the National Bank of Syria, a blacklisted entity, taking in $60m (€52m) in 2020 of the real value of aid money meant to soothe poverty in government-held areas, according to research by US think-tanks. UN contractors procured goods at the official SYP2,500/$ exchange-rate, but those dollars were worth SYP3,500/$ on the black market, in the complex scam.

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Opinion

EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania

Among the largest sources of financing for energy transition of central and eastern European countries, the €60bn Modernisation Fund remains far from the public eye. And perhaps that's one reason it is often used for financing fossil gas projects.

'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told

Italian central banker Piero Cipollone in his first monetary policy speech since joining the ECB's board in November, said that the bank should be ready to "swiftly dial back our restrictive monetary policy stance."

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