- New claims for unemployment benefits last week are expected to total about 5 million, bringing the number of Americans filing to more than 15 million.
- The claims initially were expected to have come from millions who lost their jobs in restaurants and travel-related fields, but now they are likely to include hundreds of thousands of retail workers.
- Economists say there could be more longer-term and permanent layoffs included in more recent claims, as companies look to trim costs. Source CNBC
The Bank of Italy said Italy’s public debt hit a new high of 2,560.5 billion euros in July, up 29.9 billion with respect to June. Source Ansa
Austria has said it still supports the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, despite growing reservations about the project in parts of Europe following the poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksei Navalny. Source Radio Free Europe
The U.S. budget deficit hit an all-time high of $3 trillion for the first 11 months of this budget year, the Treasury Department said Friday.
The deficit from October through August is more than double the previous 11-month record of $1.37 billion set in 2009. At that time the government was spending large sums to get out of the Great Recession triggered by the 2008 financial crisis. Source CBS
