Weekly report
Euro area inflation jumps to 3.3 percent, with energy at 14.3 percent · Euro area unemployment steady at 6.4 percent, 13.5 million out of work across the EU · EPSO publishes the first application figures of the 2026 cycle — the graphs add up to 15,019 candidates · Audit (EPSO/AD/428/26): 7,025 applicants, and two countries supply a third of them
Eurostat flash estimate, 1 September: annual inflation rose to 3.3 percent in August from 2.9 percent in July. Energy alone ran at 14.3 percent, up from 10.3 percent, while services eased to 3.0 percent. Cyprus had the highest rate at 5.2 percent and Estonia the lowest at 1.3 percent.
EurostatEurostat, 1 September: the euro area rate was unchanged from June at 6.4 percent and the EU rate at 6.1 percent, both up a tenth on a year earlier. Youth unemployment fell to 14.9 percent in the euro area. In total 11.264 million people were unemployed in the euro area and 13.516 million in the EU.
EurostatEurostat, 3 September: euro area producer prices rose 1.6 percent in July on the month and 5.8 percent on the year. Energy did all the work, up 5.6 percent on the month and 12.9 percent on the year; excluding energy the monthly change was zero.
EurostatEurostat, 4 September: euro area retail volumes dropped 0.6 percent on the month and the EU 0.4 percent, though both remain above July 2025. Non-food sales fell 1.4 percent while food rose 0.4 percent. Germany posted the steepest fall at −3.4 percent and Latvia the strongest rise at +2.5 percent.
EurostatIn force since 3 September. The Commission acted on a May vote by national experts on compliance with EU rules banning antimicrobials for growth promotion. Brazil gave written guarantees for poultry and honey, allowing audits to proceed, but none for beef. The measure lands in the middle of the contested EU–Mercosur agreement signed in January.
Euronews2 September, after Germany attributed the Leipzig airport drone to Russia. The Commission President called it a new escalation on EU soil and said Europe is in a new era of security. Rapid response teams are already operating and roughly 1,600 individuals and entities have been proposed for new sanctions.
EuronewsReported 3 September, in the Inter Rao Lietuva case. The Court of Justice held that the autocratic and oligarchic nature of Russia's political system does not on its own establish control over a firm — authorities need objective and sufficiently solid evidence. It raises the evidential bar for freezing the assets of companies only indirectly linked to sanctioned individuals.
Euronews2 September: the Trade Commissioner said the trade imbalance with Beijing is 'super political' and that without concrete results by October there will be a strong push for defensive instruments. A new diversification instrument is being designed with China in mind. A call with Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao is planned for mid-September.
Euronews1 September: the referendum leaves the government without a mandate to return to the table. Iceland had opened 27 of 35 negotiating chapters and provisionally closed 11 before the process stalled. The result is a test of whether the EU can still attract prosperous states already inside the EEA and Schengen.
Euronews1 September: €45 billion is budgeted for 2026 and €45 billion for 2027, of which €3.2 billion in budget support and €8.35 billion in military aid have been disbursed. Kyiv puts its defence gap at €23 billion and wants next year's money front-loaded. Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland have revived the push to use the €210 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets.
EuronewsOn 1 September EPSO posted five 'Application breakdown' graphs, one for EPSO/AD/428/26 (Audit) and one for each field of EPSO/AD/429/26 (IT). Each shows applications per nationality and nothing else — no totals are stated. Summing the published bars gives 7,025 for Audit and 7,994 across the four IT fields: 15,019 applications for the two AD 7 competitions of this cycle.
EPSO / EU CareersItaly leads with 1,275 and Greece follows with 1,268 — together 36 percent of the field. Then Spain 885, Romania 603, France 597 and Belgium 538. At the other end Denmark filed 13 applications, Malta 26 and Slovenia 31. Figures read from the graph EPSO published on 1 September.
EPSO / EU CareersEPSO/AD/429/26 ran four fields and they are nothing like each other in size: ICT project management drew 4,436 applications, data science 1,925, ICT infrastructure 1,085 and clouds and networks 548. Same competition, same grade, same reserve-list mechanics — eight times the competition in one field versus another.
EPSO / EU CareersDenmark and Estonia filed none at all; Malta, Latvia, Sweden and Cyprus one each; the Netherlands two. Greece supplied 100, Romania 97 and Belgium 75 — those three alone are half the field. For a candidate reading this a year out, the lesson is that field choice is a strategic decision, not an administrative one.
EPSO / EU CareersAcross the four fields of EPSO/AD/429/26, Greece filed 1,364 applications (17 percent) and Romania 1,219 (15 percent), with Belgium 977 and Italy 903 behind them. Germany managed 292 — 3.7 percent, for the EU's largest population — the Netherlands 39 and Denmark 12. The same pattern, less extreme, shows in the Audit competition.
EPSO / EU CareersThe ICT experts competition at grade AD 8, covering artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, is four days away and is the only entry on the 2026 planner whose dates are not marked 'to be confirmed'. Next after it: data management experts (EPSO/AST/158/26) on 6 October, then the two lawyer-linguist competitions in October and November.
EPSO / EU Careers (planner)As of 4 September the EPSO portal states plainly that there are no open competitions, unchanged from last week. EPSO/AD/430/26 on 8 September ends a gap that has run all summer. A state-of-play note rather than an announcement.
EPSO / EU CareersReported 4 September, nine days after a partial glacier collapse sent debris down Himalayan valleys on 26 August. More than 5,000 people are missing across Nepal and Tibet, 557 of them from the Trishuli 3A project alone; China reports 21 dead and 541 missing. The two rescued men are the first survivors recovered from any of the hydropower sites.
Al JazeeraReported 4 September: the currency has lost about 6 percent since January, with the Iran conflict raising the dollar cost of crude for an energy-importing economy and higher US Treasury yields pulling money out of emerging markets. Inflation is running at 6.1 percent, double the central bank's target.
Al JazeeraReported 2 September: a joint venture with the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital holding 35 percent gives Washington rights over more than 65 billion barrels of reserves and 20 percent of output at cost. Brent was near $95.68 and WTI $90.83, against roughly $66 before the war. Venezuela's heavy crude needs years of investment before it moves the market.
Al JazeeraPublished 4 September: current and former presidents of the Assembly of States Parties, led by Paivi Kaukoranta, wrote that diplomatic efforts to isolate the court target confidence in the legal order, not just one institution. The statement responds to US sanctions on ICC judges and officials and pressure on member states to distance themselves.
Al JazeeraReported 4 September: the court ruled unanimously that a referendum petition signed by nearly 300,000 residents was legal, sufficient and timely, so the 2025 map cannot be used until voters approve it. State Republicans will appeal to the US Supreme Court; ballots are about to be printed.
Al JazeeraReported 4 September: legislation passed in late August creates a Chief of Defence Forces with operational command of the armed forces, abolishing the 50-year-old Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. It is the biggest restructuring since 1976, and critics say it is army-centric and weakens civilian oversight, including over nuclear command.
Al JazeeraReported 4 September: since 1 September self-financing aggregators must refine semi-refined gold domestically, on pain of suspended export approvals or licence revocation. Ghana produced about 185 tonnes of gold in 2025 and earned $20 billion from gold exports, double 2024, out of $31.1 billion in total merchandise exports.
Al JazeeraReported 4 September: missiles, drones and ground assaults hit the Maqbanah, Mawzaa and Jabal Habashi districts, apparently aimed at cutting the road from Taiz city to the Red Sea coast. Families already sheltering in camps, including some 300 at al-Rahabah, have been displaced again.
Al JazeeraReported 3 September: the Court of Cassation rejected the final appeals in the conspiracy case, ending three years of proceedings. Ennahda founder Rached Ghannouchi received 14 years and Najib Chebbi 12; four others got 20 years each. Half the defendants had left the country and were sentenced in absentia.
Al JazeeraAnnounced 4 September: the State Department listed Banco Exterior de Cuba, companies in nickel mining and energy, and 31-year-old Fidel Ernesto Castro. Secretary of State Marco Rubio framed the move as pressure on a failed state; critics say the measures compound an existing fuel blockade already straining healthcare and the power grid.
Al JazeeraPublished 3 September: the institute lifted 2026 growth by 0.6 percentage points to 1.4 percent and 2027 by 0.4 points to 1.2 percent, with 0.8 percent pencilled in for 2028. It credits revised historical data, a reassessment of underlying momentum, and infrastructure, climate and defence spending for preventing a sharper slowdown.
ifo InstituteDestatis, 4 September: orders were up 2.5 percent on the month and 13.1 percent on the year, yet excluding large-scale orders they FELL 1.4 percent. Other transport equipment more than doubled (+126.4 percent) while the automotive industry dropped 12.5 percent and orders from outside the euro area fell 10.1 percent.
DestatisDestatis flash estimate, 31 August: consumer prices up 2.9 percent year on year and 0.2 percent on the month. Energy accelerated to +10.5 percent from +8.3 percent in July, while food was almost flat at +0.1 percent. Core inflation, excluding food and energy, stood at 2.4 percent. Final figures follow on 10 September.
DestatisDestatis, 28 August: 45.48 million people were in work in July, 0.5 percent fewer than a year earlier and essentially unchanged on the month (−13,000, seasonally adjusted). Unemployment stood at 1.84 million, a rate of 4.2 percent against 3.9 percent in July 2025.
DestatisDestatis, 28 August: energy imports cost 26.4 percent more than in July 2025, with mineral oil products up 47.5 percent and crude oil up 22.3 percent, which Destatis links to the Middle East conflict. Strip energy out and the increase halves to 4.8 percent.
Destatisifo, 1 September: the price expectations indicator eased to 21.2 points in August from 21.6 in July. Energy-intensive firms fell to 18.7 from 21.3 and trade to 30.0 from 31.4, while service providers rose to 20.9. ifo still expects inflation of 2.8 percent in 2026 and 3.0 percent in 2027.
ifo Instituteifo Dresden, 31 August: the index rose to 89.8 from 89.1 in July. Firms rated their current situation slightly worse but were considerably more optimistic about the months ahead. Manufacturing improved markedly and construction brightened considerably; services and retail were gloomier.
ifo Instituteifo, 28 August: the sector's business climate jumped to −2.4 points from −26.3 in July, with the current-situation reading turning positive at +11.6. ifo attributes the turnaround to supply failures in Asia caused by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Firms still expect to keep cutting staff.
ifo Instituteifo Dresden, 2 September, from a survey of about 5,200 people. Saxony-Anhalt, the Leipzig and Chemnitz areas and Berlin report the most anxiety; Schleswig-Holstein and parts of Lower Saxony the least. Fear falls with age and rises as education falls, and the gap with recorded crime rates is wide.
ifo InstituteReported 1 September: an explosive-laden drone was defused near a Ukrainian cargo aircraft at Leipzig/Halle on the night of 4–5 August, and a second was found weeks later. Interior Minister Dobrindt said it fits the pattern of Russian hybrid operations; Germany is closing Russia's Bonn consulate by 18 September and its Berlin cultural centre.
EuronewsDivulgado a 1 de setembro pelo IBGE: a economia brasileira cresceu 0,5% face ao primeiro trimestre e 2% na comparação anual, com 1,9% acumulados em doze meses. A agropecuária puxou o resultado (+2,8% no trimestre), a indústria ficou quase parada (+0,1%) e o consumo das famílias recuou 0,4%.
IBGE / Agência BrasilPublicado a 1 de setembro: com 0,5%, o Brasil ficou atrás apenas da Irlanda (1%), Indonésia (0,9%), Angola (0,7%) e Malásia (0,6%). Eslovénia, Lituânia, Suécia, Estados Unidos e Sérvia vêm logo a seguir, todos com 0,4%.
IBGE / Agência BrasilDivulgado a 2 de setembro: a Pesquisa Industrial Mensal do IBGE registou alta de 0,2% face a junho, depois de −1,0% em maio e −1,6% em junho. Na comparação com julho de 2025 a indústria ainda está 0,5% abaixo; no ano acumula +1,1%.
IBGE / Agência BrasilEm vigor desde 3 de setembro. A União Europeia considera insuficientes os controlos brasileiros sobre o uso de antimicrobianos na produção animal — não houve deteção de contaminação. Estão em causa até US$ 2 mil milhões por ano em exportações, dos quais cerca de US$ 1,7 mil milhões só em carne bovina.
Agência BrasilEnviado ao Congresso a 1 de setembro: o projeto prevê R$ 133,8 mil milhões de investimento, acima dos R$ 110,8 mil milhões de 2026 e R$ 45,1 mil milhões acima do mínimo do arcabouço fiscal. O Novo PAC leva R$ 61,5 mil milhões e o Minha Casa, Minha Vida R$ 8,25 mil milhões.
Ministério do Planeamento / Agência BrasilPublicado a 31 de agosto: o Orçamento de 2027 conta com R$ 636 mil milhões da CBS e R$ 41,9 mil milhões do Imposto Seletivo — R$ 677,9 mil milhões dos dois tributos da reforma. O Senado tem de fixar a alíquota da CBS até 15 de dezembro para que valha a partir de 1 de janeiro.
Ministério da Fazenda / Agência BrasilAnunciado a 3 de setembro: comprovantes de Pix deixam de poder conter publicidade, ofertas comerciais, links externos ou qualquer conteúdo alheio à transação. A medida entra em vigor a 1 de março de 2027 e visa impedir que o comprovante seja usado para encaminhar o utilizador a páginas fraudulentas.
Banco Central / Agência BrasilEm vigor desde 1 de setembro (Instrução Normativa BCB 766): quem sofre uma devolução pelo Mecanismo Especial de Devolução passa a ter 80 dias, e não 30, para contestá-la. O prazo de quem enviou o Pix e foi vítima de golpe continua em 80 dias. A mudança protege sobretudo comerciantes e pequenos negócios.
Banco Central / Agência BrasilSessão de 2 de setembro: foi a maior valorização diária do Ibovespa desde março e a 11.ª alta consecutiva. O dólar caiu 0,91%, para R$ 5,106. O movimento é atribuído ao regresso do investidor estrangeiro depois das saídas de agosto e ao cenário eleitoral.
B3 / Agência BrasilEm vigor desde 1 de setembro: mais R$ 0,68 por litro, com o combustível a variar entre R$ 5,44 e R$ 5,70 nas refinarias. A empresa atribui o reajuste à guerra no Médio Oriente e à instabilidade no Estreito de Ormuz. As distribuidoras podem dividir o aumento em três prestações mensais.
Petrobras / Agência BrasilPractise with a full EPSO-format set — verbal, numerical, abstract reasoning and EU knowledge.
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