The European Commission announced today that it will be increasingly buying more liquified natural gas from the United States, with the projections going up to 8 billion cubic meters by the year 2023. This number is a further clarification regarding an agreement reached between Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Trump last summer when the chief of the European Commission visited the American President to discuss ways to improve economic cooperation and avoid a trade war between the US and the EU.
At present it is very important for the European Union to remain in Trump’s good graces because the American President has been threatening new tariffs against the EU, especially regarding the car manufacturing industry, one of the strongest pillars of the European economy.
In other news, the European stock markets are not doing very well today. Most everything was closed down yesterday for the Labour Day holiday but today the markets opened up with losses. The drop was caused by news from the United States, where despite a good GDP report, the Federal Reserve remains firm in their refusal to touch interest rates.
Today we also expect a decision on interest rates from the Bank of England, but it is expected that the rate will remain at its current level.