Agustín Carstens says world economy on course for ‘smooth landing’ after inflation but political turmoil poses risk

Rising government debt levels could disturb global financial markets, the head of the body that advises central banks said on Sunday before France’s high-stakes parliamentary elections.

Agustín Carstens, the general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), said the world economy was on course for a “smooth landing” from the inflation crisis, but he warned that policymakers, especially politicians, needed to be careful.

Some look beyond typical metrics like GDP and job data, but these alternatives shouldn’t be taken seriously

Is the country heading towards a recession? Ask 10 economists and you’ll likely get 10 different answers. Which is why some people have given up on the traditional data – GDP, jobs, etc – and have instead recently been tinkering with more unusual economic indicators to help them guide their companies. Here are a few that I’ve seen.

A Conservative campaign video mocks Angela Rayner for wanting a European model of employment. But it’s just what British workers need

To the stirring strains of the Marseillaise, a monochrome Angela Rayner reels off her plans for workers’ rights, as a red beret and a Gallic moustache jiggle around her head. “Angela Rayner’s Britain?” demands the title, alongside a tiny tricolour.

Tory messaging has become ever more bizarre as this gaffe-strewn campaign lurches towards a close, but Thursday’s example, warning that Labour may make the UK’s labour market un peu French, hit new heights of weirdness.

Tech firm’s bid to remove more CO₂ than it produces is being tested as AI spawns new energy-hungry datacentres

• Bill Gates: AI will help rather than hinder climate targets

If you want evidence of Microsoft’s progress towards its environmental “moonshot” goal, then look closer to earth: at a building site on a west London industrial estate.

The company’s Park Royal datacentre is part of its commitment to drive the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI), but that ambition is jarring with its target of being carbon negative by 2030.

The oil major’s net zero plans have made it a sector leader but have yet to win over investors while fossil fuels are booming

Grand corporate strategies are launched in weighty declarations by chief executives who fancy themselves as visionaries. That was how Bernard Looney, the then chief executive of BP, did it back in February 2020 when he said the company would get serious about cutting greenhouse gas emissions and investing in renewables. “The direction is set. We are heading to net zero. There is no turning back,” Looney told his City audience.

By contrast, the watering down of ambition tends to happen in increments. Thus, when Looney last year scrapped BP’s aim to reduce hydrocarbon output by 40% by 2030, versus 2019’s level, in favour of a 25% cut, he claimed the change was a case of “leaning in” to the same strategy, just in the new circumstance of a world that was worrying more about energy security after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Central bank raises concerns over newly elected governments as more than 80 countries go to polls this year

• Business live – latest updates

Uncertainty caused by a global wave of elections, starting this weekend in France, risks destabilising the UK’s financial system, the Bank of England has warned.

Officials are concerned about the kind of policies that newly elected governments may enforce in large economies, including the US, where Donald Trump is vying for another term as president in the run-up to the election in November.