A survey by the Arab Institute of Business Leaders (IACE) found Tunisian companies lost 1,269.6 million dinars in added value during July and August, with 96% reporting outages and some losing 13 days of activity on average. Manufacturing took the biggest hit at 671.5 million dinars, and nearly two thirds of firms reported equipment damage, with 74% now planning to invest in backup power.
Economy Minister Samir Abdelhafidh said Tunisia's 2027 budget bill earmarks 32.63 billion dinars for investment, up 14.1% on this year, alongside a 3% growth target. He also listed controlling inflation, securing supplies of basic goods and cracking down on monopolistic practices among the government's priorities, as the budget separately projects 21.3 billion dinars in debt repayments next year.
Tunisia's oil ministry has made Exxoil the sole holder of the El Menzah concession near Grombalia, ending a quarter-century of limbo that began in 2001 when state firm ETAP judged the field's returns “very limited, even non-viable” and refused to invest while keeping a stake. Exxoil, which had covered all the costs alone and produced about 1.87 million barrels before the field stopped in 2007, filed for the regularisation in January 2024.
With almost 90% of ballots counted, Netanyahu's bloc holds 53 seats and Gadi Eisenkot's opposition alliance 48, short of the 61 needed for a majority in the 120-seat Knesset. Arab parties are projected to win a combined 19 seats, and Likud has accused them of “stealing” the election through alleged criminal offences. Final results are due Thursday evening, with over 500,000 special ballots still to count, and President Herzog is set to consult party leaders next week.
The Federal Reserve kept its benchmark rate at 3.75 to 4 percent on a 10-2 vote, as September inflation rose to 3.7 percent from 3.4 in August, driven largely by energy prices. Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, who had called for a “wait and see” approach earlier this month, said she felt “no urgency for taking further action at this point”. President Trump, who has pushed for lower rates since taking office, wrote after last month's hike that rates “should be 1 percent or less”.
The UN General Assembly voted 130 to 17, with 25 abstentions, to call for an end to the US embargo on Cuba, the lowest support in three decades after more than 160 countries backed the same measure a year earlier. Germany, Italy and Latvia abstained for the first time in 34 years, as Washington keeps up pressure that in January included tariff threats on countries supplying oil to Cuba, which sharply cut fuel deliveries and contributed to the island's recent power cuts. US Ambassador Mike Waltz said Cuba's troubles are “exclusively the fault of this corrupt communist regime”, while Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the world “has once again spoken out overwhelmingly against the blockade”.
A control centre in Madrid let an AVE train resume full speed minutes after a safety system failed, and it hit a stationary train at up to 200 kilometres an hour in Castilla-La Mancha. At least 68 people died and 58 were hospitalised, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declared three days of national mourning. Transport Minister Óscar Puente called the order “inexplicable” and said the drivers were not to blame, in Spain's second deadly high-speed rail crash this year after 46 died in January.
Dutch TTF gas, Europe's benchmark, traded above €100 per megawatt-hour on Wednesday, a level last seen in December 2022, as the Iran war disrupts LNG shipments from Qatar and other suppliers. EU storage stood at 75% on 21 October, short of the usual 90% target for November. Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said “Europe faces another energy crisis” and warned “this winter will be difficult for European citizens”.
The EU approved a €5.4 billion defence loan for Hungary under its SAFE rearmament programme, cut down from a €16.4 billion request after new Prime Minister Péter Magyar trimmed it over corruption concerns inherited from the Orbán government. Nineteen states asked for €129 billion in this first round out of €150 billion available, with Poland taking the largest loan at €43 billion and Denmark the smallest at €46.8 million.
The EU has dropped “associate membership” from its joint declaration with Canada, due to be adopted at Thursday and Friday's EU-Canada summit in Montreal, replacing it with “ever closer association” after Germany, France, Italy and Greece objected to the undefined term. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had floated associate membership in her State of the Union address, but Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the wording “was for the EU to settle” and that he preferred the phrase “alliance for the future”.