UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is to confront EU leaders over threats to block AstraZeneca vaccine exports to Britain. Meanwhile the bloc’s two biggest economies face further Covid restrictions due to spiralling cases. Germany is set to extend the national lockdown for a fifth month and quarantine all arrivals into the country. The Turkish lira plunges to a record low against the greenback after President Erdogan fired the country’s central bank governor for raising interest rates. French lender Société Générale has withdrawn all long positions in the country as a result. In energy news, the world’s biggest oil exporter, Saudi Aramco, suffers a 44 per cent decline in earnings but maintains its dividend. And in a further blow to the struggling global semi-conductor industry, a major fire at Japan’s Renesas Group takes one its chip manufacturing facilities out of action.

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