Amid fears of escalating global trade wars, the European Union’s statistics agency Eurostat has registered a tangible slowdown in the first half of the year, with the quarterly GDP inching up a mere 0.4 percent in both the first and the second quarter–a clear drop from the bullish 0.6 to 0.7 percent quarterly growth seen last year.

Meanwhile, the Brexit-bound UK registered the slowest pace in its economy in more than five years…. CLICK for complete article

The FT reports that the Saudi central bank and state pension funds have instructed their overseas asset managers to dispose of their Canadian equities, bonds and cash holdings “no matter the cost.”

Third-party managers are estimated to be mandated to invest more than $100bn of Saudi funds in global markets, executives say. While the proportion of that figure invested in Canadian holdings would be “fairly small in absolute terms,” the asset sale sent a strong message, one of the people said…. CLICK for complete article