Category: 3. Business

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Government borrowing costs paid by Italy and Spain have fallen to their lowest level relative to Germany in 16 years, as investors reward Rome and Madrid for belt-tightening and grow more worried about surging debt elsewhere in the Eurozone.

The extra yield on 10-year Italian debt compared with German Bunds — a closely watched measure of the risk associated with lending to Italy — narrowed to within 0.7 percentage points this month, the lowest since late 2009.

Strong economic growth in Spain has helped to cut its 10-year spread with Germany to less than 0.5 percentage points. That is also the lowest since before the Eurozone crisis, when high debt loads drove up both countries’ borrowing costs and stoked worries about the currency bloc breaking up.

“We are having a melting together of the periphery with countries previously considered safer investments, such as France, Belgium and Austria,” said Ales Koutny, head of international rates at asset management company Vanguard. “Markets have long memories but also at the right incentive, they are willing to turn the page.”

Fund managers have warmed to Italian and Spanish debt amid a broad upswing in southern Europe’s economic fortunes, arguing that it no longer makes sense to categorise such borrowers as the Eurozone’s riskier “periphery”.

Meanwhile, a yawning budget deficit and political turmoil in France — traditionally seen as one of the bloc’s safer economies — has pushed its borrowing costs above Spain’s. Even Germany, the Euro area’s de facto safe haven, has undergone a reassessment by markets after launching a €1tn spending push.

Vanguard’s Koutny expects spreads to tighten even further next year, taking Italy’s to 0.5 to 0.6 percentage points over Germany, and Spain to 0.3 to 0.4 percentage points.

Investors point to Spain’s improving economic trajectory and Italy’s prudent fiscal policies under a politically stable government, as part of a broad reduction in fiscal risks for these countries as well as for other previous debt hotspots such as Greece.

Ken Egan, director of European sovereign credit at rating agency KBRA, said the better economic fortunes of southern European countries meant there was a “tale of two Europes, a tale of the north and the south”. 

He contrasted southern European economies’ “decisive swing” away from chronic deficits with sovereigns such as France where “ageing costs, weaker growth and heavier spending [have] eroded their fiscal positions”. Credit agencies, including S&P, predict France’s debt to GDP will reach 120 per cent in the next few years.

Spain is set to be the world’s fastest-growing large advanced economy for the second year running in 2025. Thanks to a combination of immigration, tourism, low energy costs and EU funds, the IMF is forecasting GDP expansion of 2.9 per cent for the country this year.

Allied with a rising tax take, that growth is set to reduce Spain’s deficit from 3.2 per cent of GDP in 2024 to 2.5 per cent this year, according to Bank of Spain forecasts.

Italy’s economy is far more sluggish, with its growth forecast to remain below 1 per cent of GDP until at least 2027. However, investors have warmed to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whose right-wing government has displayed a strong commitment to deficit reduction, despite pressures from workers wrestling with a cost-of-living squeeze.

Economists say Rome is also finally reaping the benefits of previous efforts to curb tax evasion, which is boosting revenue collection.

Italy believes its fiscal deficit, which was 7.2 per cent in 2023, will come in at 3 per cent for 2025, allowing Rome to exit the EU’s excessive deficit procedure faster than anticipated, at a time when Paris is overstepping borrowing targets agreed in Brussels.

In absolute terms, Italian and Spanish borrowing costs remain elevated compared with the era of very low or negative interest rates on either side of the Covid pandemic. Overall, Italy’s borrowing costs have gone broadly sideways this year at about 3.5 per cent, and Spain’s have ticked up close to 3.3 per cent.

But trading much closer to counterparts long deemed to be safer bets for investors means these bonds are “entering into a very different regime”, said James McAlevey, head of global aggregate and absolute return at BNP Paribas Asset Management. 

“[This is] beginning to open up the potential global demand for those markets to [a broader group of] investors,” added McAlevey, saying that ultra-cautious managers of central bank reserve assets may begin to look at the debt of Italy or Spain when investing their foreign reserves.

Mengni Fu checks in to her hotel room using her mobile phone from the backseat of a taxi. When she arrives at the hotel, she drops her luggage to one of the porter robots who delivers it to her room. She unlocks her room with a digital key on her mobile phone. Then she sits on the bed and asks the AI assistant to turn on the light, close the curtains and recommend a restaurant nearby.

So far, Fu hasn’t interacted with a single human in the hotel. This is not the script from a sci-fi film; this is travel in China in 2025. Fu, a PhD candidate at Griffith University, is describing a recent trip to Shanghai. 

And according to consulting firm McKinsey and Co it’s the future of travel: where technology erases “typical travel pain points such as queues, misunderstandings, or misinformation” and the human interactions that do occur are “authentic and meaningful”.

Robotics, AI and service automation are disrupting the hospitality and tourism industry — as they are many aspects of our lives. More people are turning to AI chatbots built on large language models, like ChatGPT or Trip Advisor’s “my trips”, to plan their holidays.

Popular destinations are using “smart tourism” to manage the flow of tourists, and companies selling earbuds offering simultaneous translation are heralding the end of the language barrier.

The question is, will new technology simply lead to streamlined service and stress-free travel, or will it fundamentally change tourism and tourist destinations?

‘Killing our business’

The Instagram account of Guide to Lofoten is usually filled with breathtaking photographs of colourful fishing villages framed by rugged mountains. The Norwegian tour company posts spectacular, but rarely viral, content. In October, a different type of post hit a nerve: “This is how ChatGPT is killing our small local business.”

The owners claim they’re losing income and visibility as fewer people visit their website, instead getting their information from ChatGPT which doesn’t recommend local companies like theirs. “We know we’ll have to adapt — but it still hurts to watch something you’ve been building for years collapse like a house of cards in less than a year,” the owners said on Instagram.

Dr Marianna Sigala says there’s no question people are turning to generative AI to plan their holidays — everything from choosing a destination, comparing prices, to planning a daily itinerary. “The impact is huge. It affects consumers and when consumers are affected immediately you realise companies will have to readapt because they cannot continue doing and selling what they used to,” says the professor of marketing and director of the International Hotel School at the University of Newcastle.

Sigala likens it to the disruptive power of the steam engine or the impact Booking.com had on online travel in the early 2000s — where average consumers gained access to the Internet and began to book their own travel.

Travel planning using generative AI is being described as the “hyper-personalisation” of travel. Sigala says the creation of highly individualised itineraries will change how tourists travel — but its impact will depend how the tool is used. “The power of AI depends first of all on the quality and the quantity of the data that it has been trained on, and it’s being trained continuously … and secondly it depends on what you ask it,” she says. “If we ask stupid questions we get stupid answers.”

The road less travelled

From 19^th century railway expansion to cheap air travel to colour TV, professor Adrien Palmer argues in The Conversation that technology has long fuelled over-tourism. Palmer believes it’s too early to tell what the impact of AI will be on travel. But he says generative AI-planned itineraries could potentially nudge tourists away from over-tourism hotspots or AI-enhanced virtual reality could vanquish the need to travel in the first place.

Like the “digital twin” of St Peter’s Basilica – one of the most visited places in Europe – that the Vatican unveiled last year. Created with the help of AI technology which analysed and pieced together vast amounts of photographs and video, the digital twin gives anyone with internet access the chance to “visit”.

As Sigala suggests, the ability to find a road less travelled in the future may depend on your ability to prompt an AI assistant.

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Marketing researcher Joseph Mellors says his analysis of ChatGPT “found that it gravitates towards the most visited destinations by default”. 

“By asking sharper questions, shifting their timing, checking footprints and seeking local voices, travellers can use AI as a tool for discovery rather than congestion,” Mellors writes in The Conversation. “Every prompt is a signal to the system about what matters.”

AI-inspired travellers will need to be wary of hallucinations — where generative-AI chatbots produce misleading content because they create plausible statements based on patterns, which aren’t necessarily correct or real. The BBC recently reported the case of two tourists who were about to hike into the Peruvian mountains in search of a non-existent canyon served to them by AI before they were stopped by a local guide.

‘Something is lost, something is won’

At popular tourist destinations, AI technology is also changing how tourist flows are managed.

“Smart cities” use big data collected from “traffic control systems, public transport ticketing, mobile phone signals, museum ticket sales, overnight stays in hotels, even credit card companies” to understand people flow, Sigala says. “AI helps them to analyse mass amounts of data faster and in real time,” she says. “Smart cities” are turning to “smart tourism” by using destination apps to communicate back to tourists suggesting different routes, attractions and visit times to help manage hordes of visitors.

How these and other technological advances — like live translation earbuds — change the tourist experience remains to be seen. By removing the misunderstandings, the queues, the chance to get lost, will we inadvertently remove the surprises that make tourism unique? Sigala is optimistic.

“When I was first travelling Google Maps didn’t exist … if I reflect back, I say, ‘Bloody hell, how did I find my way with this paper map?’” she says. These days she’s not afraid of getting lost, she doesn’t lose time because she took a wrong turn, and she sees things she might once have missed. “Something is lost, but something is won.”

Mengni Fu says despite the rapid integration of AI, robotics and automation in hospitality and tourism, service with a (human) smile will still be important.

Her PhD is exploring how gen Z consumers and workers in China and Australia feel about the rapid technological innovation transforming the sector. Fu surveyed more than 1,000 people and says overwhelmingly people would prefer that new technologies replace certain tasks in the industry, not workers. But respondents, especially in Australia, feared for their job security.

And while Chinese respondents were more likely to embrace new technologies — given they’re more accustomed to them — they still opted for places and services where humans collaborated with technology. “Sometimes we still need that human warmness, we still need to talk with humans,” Fu says.

The FCA has issued near final rules on its new targeted support regime to address the UK “advice gap” and help advance its new “regulation for growth” agenda.

This cheat sheet provides a summary as to what firms need to do to apply for permission to conduct the new regulated activity of providing targeted support, including next steps, information about pre-application engagement with the FCA, and key points for firms to focus on when developing their application and a regulatory business plan.

Author: DA Press Office | 26 December 2025

The Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that investigation conducted on reports in Region I of “insoluble and floating” fertilizer was caused by improper product application, not product defect, easing concern over the integrity of government-supplied inputs.

The issue surfaced after a farmer in Marcos, Ilocos Norte, posted a video on social media showing fertilizer granules that appeared to float and were blown by strong winds toward a rice field embankment. The footage quickly fueled speculation over the quality of fertilizers distributed under government programs.

In response, the DA’s Regional Field Office I immediately launched a validation and monitoring activity on December 21–22, through its Agricultural Program Coordinating Office in Ilocos Norte. The team coordinated with provincial and municipal rice program coordinators and the municipal agriculturist, all with extensive experience in rice and corn production, to verify the claims on the ground.

The farmer involved, Esting Dela Cruz, did not initially identify the fertilizer brand in his post, although commenters pointed to “SWIRE.” Field validation later confirmed that the product used was DANAT Complete Fertilizer (14-14-14) procured through the local government unit.

Investigators found that the fertilizer was applied as a side-dress, despite being designed for basal application. According to the DA, this improper method—combined with windy conditions—caused the granules to remain on the soil surface and be displaced, creating the impression that the fertilizer was insoluble or defective. The team conducted an on-site briefing to explain the correct application process and prevent a repeat of the issue.

The DA has emphasized that all fertilizers distributed under its programs undergo mandatory quality testing before delivery, with additional re-testing and quality control carried out through DA laboratories or Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority-accredited facilities.

Following the investigation, Dela Cruz thanked the DA for its swift response and confirmed the fertilizer’s authenticity. He later used his vlog to share proper application practices. The DA said it will continue monitoring fertilizer use across the Ilocos Region and step up farmer briefings to ensure proper utilization and protect the credibility of government farm inputs. ### (By DA – OSEC Comms)

When did I last use a paper planner?

In the past, The Asahi Shimbun distributed “shain techo” (employee notebook/planner) pocket diaries to all employees at the end of the year.

I remember opening my new techo to a blank page and vowing to use it regularly—at least for a while, anyway. I would mark the dates of upcoming interviews, appointments and other plans, being mindful of keeping my handwriting neat and legible.

“Techorui Toshoshitsu” in Tokyo’s Yoyogi district is a small, library-like institution that keeps a collection of pocket planners and diaries with handwritten entries.

It is run by Masafumi Shirado, 45, a game programmer who became fascinated by people’s “personal records that were not intended to be shown to anyone.” Over time, Shirado purchased or received donations of about 2,000 such items.

I viewed a diary of a male company worker in his 50s. By coincidence, one entry, dated Dec. 26, 2003, was a Friday, just like this year.

“Received my salary today,” it went. “Repaid my loan of 50,000 yen, but on my way home I lost 25,000 yen playing pachinko. I’ll be in serious trouble unless I lie really low during the New Year’s holiday.”

And he scribbled in the margin over and over: “Got to be frugal, thrifty.”

But on Jan. 2, he confessed to what made me giggle: “Am I weak-willed? Had my annual gambling kickoff.”

Another man in his 60s asked himself on the last page of his planner, “Did this year go without incident, again?” This was written in red ink and straddled several days’ worth of space.

People make their resolutions, break them and then promise again to do better. This is all so human.

For many people, Dec. 26 must have been their last day of work this year. I wonder if they have successfully achieved what they wished for at the start of the year.

Alas, my wish was to be able to write a more worthwhile column. 

For now, I think I’ll start by buying a new paper diary or planner for the first time in quite a while and write down the same wish in super-big letters.

–The Asahi Shimbun, Dec. 27

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

Friday on Alaska News Nightly

A Bethel cold case murder spotlights faults in the Alaska justice system. Plus, Juneau residents should expect a lot of snow in the coming days. And, an Utqiaġvik artist is designing a workbook to help young children learn Iñupiaq.

Reports tonight from:

Clarise Larson and Jamie Diep in Juneau,
Evan Erickson in Bethel,
Katherine Rose in Sitka,
Alena Naiden in Anchorage.

This episode of Alaska News Nightly is hosted by Wesley Early with audio engineering from Crystal Hyde and producing by Madilyn Rose.