South Korea elects a president as EU rules on Bulgarian euro entry

Whats up and welcome to the working week.

It’s determination time on quite a lot of fronts through the subsequent seven days. I’ll begin with South Korea, which is able to on Tuesday elect a brand new president at a vital time for Asia’s fourth-largest economic system.

South Korea is wrestling with slowing development whereas being battered by international commerce tensions. The clear frontrunner, in line with the polls, is the 61-year-old leftwinger Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Occasion of Korea. In the meantime, the ruling proper of centre Individuals Energy occasion has fallen into disarray, largely attributable to its reluctance to interrupt with disgraced former PPP president Yoon Suk Yeol, a hardline former prosecutor who was impeached midway by his five-year time period and subsequently removed following his ill-fated martial legislation declaration final 12 months.

Whoever triumphs on Tuesday should grapple with a slowing economic system beneath strain from the results of US President Donald Trump’s aggressive commerce insurance policies, in addition to a North Korea emboldened by its rising nuclear arsenal and its blossoming relationship with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. For extra on that, read this.

The Eurozone will likely be making each financial and political selections this week. On Wednesday, the European Fee is anticipated to publish its long-awaited view on whether or not Bulgaria is able to undertake the euro. Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov is confident of getting the inexperienced gentle and making the foreign money authorized tender as quickly as January 1 2026.

The opposite little bit of euro information this week will likely be from Frankfurt, the place the European Central Financial institution’s rate-setting committee has a choice to make. The hawks have been lining as much as urge caution, however a 25 foundation factors reduce is taken as a given, priced in at near 100 per cent chance, in line with Reuters. Wish to maintain updated with rates of interest (and inflation) globally? The FT has a tracker for that.

In UK politics, the selection is extra between weapons and butter as we await the publication of the federal government’s strategic defence overview on Monday, which is able to define new threats, the capabilities wanted to sort out them, the state of the British armed forces and the sources obtainable. The reply to that final query is more likely to be not a lot. The general resolution, like the reply to so a lot of life’s fashionable questions it appears, is to go digital.

Some choices are already made, however want backing. With this in thoughts Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Saskatoon on Monday, hoping to nurture a love-in among the many first ministers of the Canadian provinces and push his “strongest economic system within the G7” ambition.

A key purpose on this effort (led by Canada’s minister for transport and inside commerce, and former FT deputy editor, Chrystia Freeland) is to exorcise federal commerce obstacles, estimated to value the economic system $200bn a 12 months, by July 1 (Canada Day). Carney can also be anticipated to stipulate “One Canadian Economic system” laws to quick monitor tasks corresponding to ports, essential mineral mines and commerce corridors.

The company outcomes trickle by once more, bulging in the midst of the week. It’s an identical story for the financial studies, probably the most notable being US employment figures, the OECD financial outlook and the buying managers’ index (PMI) comparisons between the bigger economies. Extra particulars under.

Yet one more factor . . . 

A few of us had been turned on to laptop gaming by Sinclair’s ZX Spectrum. For my Gen Z youngsters, it was the Nintendo Swap. This will likely be a momentous week for them (and one through which I really feel the era hole yawning ever wider) as Nintendo launches its a lot anticipated next-generation Swap 2 video games console with forecasts of 15mn unit sales within the firm’s present monetary 12 months. The brand new machine guarantees a bigger display screen, upgraded magnetic controllers, known as Pleasure-Cons, and a brand new chat perform. The one function I want for them to maintain is the app that permits me to see how a lot time my offspring spend on the machine after they might need been finding out.

Are you excited a few new video games console? Can Nintendo high the communal shout fest that’s Tremendous Smash Bros? Electronic mail me at jonathan.moules@ft.com or, in case you are studying this out of your inbox, hit reply.

Key financial and firm studies

Here’s a extra full checklist of what to anticipate when it comes to firm studies and financial knowledge this week.

Monday

• US Federal Reserve board member Christopher Waller speaks on the financial outlook on the 2025 Financial institution of Korea Worldwide Convention: Structural Shifts and Financial Coverage, in Seoul

• Catherine Mann, a Financial Coverage Committee member on the Financial institution of England, joins a hearth chat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors IF seventy fifth anniversary convention in Washington

• Canada, Eurozone, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, UK, US: S&P World/HCOB/HSBC Might manufacturing buying managers’ index (PMI) knowledge

• China: Dragon Boat Competition vacation (Tuen Ng). Monetary markets closed.

• UK: British Retail Consortium Might Financial Monitor report and Nationwide Might Home Value Index

• Outcomes: The Campbell’s Firm Q3, Sirius Actual Property FY

Tuesday

• Financial institution of Japan governor Kazuo Ueda provides a speech on the Naigai Josei Chosa Kai assembly in Japan.

• Sarah Hunter, assistant governor (financial) on the Reserve Financial institution of Australia provides a keynote speech on the Financial Society of Australia Queensland Enterprise Lunch in Brisbane

• De La Rue shareholders to vote on the proposed takeover of the corporate by Atlas at a common assembly. If authorized, the deal will grow to be efficient on July 2

• OECD Financial Outlook

• China: Caixin Might manufacturing PMI knowledge

• EU: flash Might inflation estimate and April unemployment knowledge

• US: April Job Openings and Labor Turnover (Jolts) knowledge

• Outcomes: British American Tobacco HY buying and selling assertion, Chemring HY, CrowdStrike Q1, Greenback Normal Q1, FD Applied sciences FY, Ferguson Q3, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Q2, Pennon FY

Wednesday

• Australia: Q1 GDP estimate

• Canada: rate of interest announcement

• Canada, Eurozone, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, UK, US: S&P World/HCOB/HSBC Might companies PMI knowledge

• UK: Worldwide Reserves knowledge

• US: Beige Ebook revealed

• Outcomes: B&M European Worth Retail FY, Descartes Methods Q1, DiscoverIE FY, Greenback Tree Q1, Empiric Scholar Property AGM and Q1 buying and selling assertion, Ninety One FY, Paragon Banking Group HY, Seraphim Area Funding Belief Q3, WHSmith buying and selling assertion

Thursday

• Nintendo releases its new Swap 2 video games console, that includes an even bigger display screen and higher graphics than its extremely widespread predecessor. The corporate is forecasting sales of 15mn within the new product’s first 12 months, regardless of US tariffs

• Econdat’s two-day spring assembly at King’s Faculty London, the place central bankers and researchers will collect to debate the economics concerned in non-traditional knowledge and analytical instruments.

• The CBI Nationwide Enterprise Dinner is held in London, historically addressed by a senior member of the federal government

• China: Caixin Might companies PMI knowledge

• Eurozone, France, Germany, Italy, UK: S&P World/HCOB building PMI knowledge

• EU: European Central Financial institution rate of interest announcement

• Germany: April manufacturing orders knowledge

• UK: Might Resolution Maker Panel analysis

• US: April worldwide commerce in items and companies

• Outcomes: Broadcom Q2, Brown-Forman This autumn, Ciena Q2, CMC Markets FY, Dr Martens FY, Lululemon Athletica Q1, Mitie FY, PVH Q1, Samsara Q1, Victoria’s Secret Q1, Clever FY, Wizz Air FY, Workspace FY

Friday

• EU: Q1 GDP estimate

• Japan: Consumption Exercise Index

• South Korea: Memorial Day. Monetary markets closed

• UK: Halifax Home Value Index

• US: Might employment report

• Outcomes: ABM Q2

World occasions

Lastly, here’s a rundown of different occasions and milestones this week.

Monday

• Canada: Prime Minister Mark Carney joins the elected heads of the north American nation’s provinces on the Assembly of First Ministers in Saskatoon

• Poland: two-day EU-US Justice and House Affairs ministerial assembly begins in Warsaw

• UK: authorities publishes its strategic defence overview

Tuesday

• Austria: Vienna hosts the Austrian World Summit. The occasion, now in its ninth 12 months, is organised by the Schwarzenegger Local weather Initiative, a physique created by the Austrian-American actor Arnold Schwarzenegger

• South Korea: presidential election

Wednesday

Thursday

• fiftieth anniversary of the UK voting to affix the Widespread Market, which later turned the EU, in a nationwide referendum. It voted to go away the EU in 2016

• Naksa Day noticed by Palestinians to recognise the “Day of the Setback” in 1967 when Israel received the six-day conflict, taking management of the West Financial institution and Gaza Strip leading to 1000’s of Palestinians being displaced

• Belgium: Nato defence ministers assembly in Brussels

• Burundi: parliamentary and native elections

• UK: begin of the fifth London Design Biennial, showcasing the function of design in fixing challenges. This 12 months’s theme is Floor Reflections

Friday

• Eid al-Adha, the second of the 2 major festivals in Islam, begins this night. Celebrations and observances are usually carried ahead to the three following days, often called the Tashreeq days.

Saturday

• France: Roland-Garros French Open 2025 tennis girls’s singles last day in Paris. The lads’s last will happen on Sunday

• UK: thirteenth Liverpool Biennial, Britain’s largest free modern visible arts pageant, begins. Occasions will happen throughout the town’s public areas, galleries and museums till September 14 beneath the theme Bedrock

Sunday

• Germany: Uefa Nations League last, concluding the fourth version of the worldwide males’s soccer event

• US: 78th Tony Awards for the American theatre trade, offered in New York’s Radio Metropolis Music Corridor