ECB’s Lane says eurozone wages won’t trigger inflation alarms

The Geneva-based WTO raised its 2026 goods-trade growth forecast to 3.9% from 1.9% and lifted its 2027 projection to 4.1% from 2.6%. Following 4.2% growth in 2025, the upgraded forecasts, if realized, would leave global goods trade volumes more than 12% higher in 2027 than in 2024.

The organization said the AI investment boom was serving as the primary driver behind a multiyear surge in global goods trade, pushing trade-to-GDP growth ratios toward levels last seen just before the 2008 financial crisis. The expansion is being driven by a small number of economies, with significant parts of the world missing out, and trade in services is set to grow more slowly than previously expected as a result of the war between the U.S. and Iran, the WTO said.

“Since the financial crisis, it has not been very common to grow like this over a three-year period,” Robert Staiger, the WTO’s chief economist, said. “AI is very trade intensive, and the AI investment boom is bringing us back to a ratio of trade growth to GDP growth that is closer to what we used to have.”

European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane said Thursday that eurozone wages are not rising at a rate that would trigger inflation alarms, even as the annual eurozone inflation rate rose to a three-year high in September, The Wall Street Journal reported. Investors expect the central bank to add to two rate rises it has announced since June.

For policymakers, the key question is whether the rise in energy prices since the start of the U.S.-Iran war in late February will lead workers to secure larger pay rises, prompting businesses to raise their prices and extending the period in which inflation is above target, the Journal’s Paul Hannon reported.

Separately, produce supplier Taylor Farms will halt iceberg lettuce sales from central Mexico between May 1 and Aug. 31 beginning next year, the Journal’s Jesse Newman reported Thursday in an exclusive, after a widespread cyclospora outbreak sickened 12,000 people in the U.S. and was linked to two deaths.

In response to the outbreak, Taylor Farms closed its regional processing facility, cut ties with a local grower and said it is indefinitely suspending lettuce sales to the U.S. and Canada during the four-month period. The vast majority of Taylor Farms’ lettuce is grown in the United States and Canada, so the suspension during peak cyclospora season is manageable, according to a company spokeswoman.

The FDA unveiled a 10-part plan to mitigate and prevent future cyclospora outbreaks. The plan includes working with Mexico to expand food safety education and training in that country’s produce industry and expanding lab capacity in Mexico to collect, analyze, and process cyclospora samples.

The Congressional Budget Office reported that the U.S. budget deficit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 reached $1.993 trillion, 12% above the 2025 level in nominal dollars and the highest since 2021.

Separately, Spotify renewed a multiyear deal with podcaster Joe Rogan, securing licensing rights and ad-sales rights for his show on terms similar to his previous agreement with the streaming service, the Journal’s Anne Steele reported. The prior deal allowed “The Joe Rogan Experience” to be distributed broadly and carried an estimated earnout of $250 million, according to people familiar with the matter.

“The partnership with Spotify has been an amazing fit, and they’re incredible to work with,” Rogan said. “I’m extremely happy and excited to continue with them for years to come.”

The University of Michigan is scheduled to release its Consumer Sentiment index for October on Friday.