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At Aquinore. UK. Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, March 21st, and this is

your FT news briefing. The EU debates defense spending and nuclear energy is making a comeback in the US.

Plus we ask the F.T.'s Chris Giles whether inflation has stopped falling.

The figures were getting better and better now they are

seemingly getting worse. It's something that's going to make everyone a little bit

more cautious. I'm Sonia Hudson and here's the news you need to boost defense spending.

He'll propose issuing joint European bonds at a summit in Brussels.

The European Union is trying to figure out how to step up its support for Ukraine, but also reinforce its own defenses.

The idea is that the block would issue bonds as a collective, and that would help finance the

development of Europe's defense industry.

The EU did something similar during the pandemic, but Germany and several other so-called

frugal countries say that joint debt is not a viable option.

Going into this year it looked like inflation in the US was heading in the right

direction markets were even confident that the Federal Reserve would start

cutting interest rates in March.

But then inflation came in hotter than expected in January,

and it actually ticked up in February.

Yesterday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell hedged on exactly when they'd start to cut rates.

We believe that our policy rate is likely at its peak for this tightening cycle.

The economic outlook is uncertain, however, and we remain highly attentive to inflation risks.

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