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Evening edition · Wednesday, 28 October 2026 · 17:30 CET

Before the statement, the invoices; the committees will speak tonight and tomorrow, the bills already have.

The Fed decides after this edition, so we read what it read: 3.7% on the shelf, 6.3% at the wholesale gate, and Ottawa hiking first. German power for Thursday cleared at €314.85, Israel's opposition says it can count to 61 while the tally gives its bloc 48, and South Africa is short of everyday pills. Eleven desks, every number sourced.

Morning 08:30 · Evening 17:30 · Sunday 10:00, Berlin time

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MONEY · LEAD Chart

Before the statement, the invoices: 3.7%, 6.3% and a hike in Ottawa

The Fed speaks at about 19:00 CET, after this edition. What sits on its desk is already public: shop prices, wholesale prices, a neighbour that moved this afternoon, and loan books in Frankfurt.

The Federal Reserve announces its decision at about 19:00 CET, an hour and a half after this edition goes out. So this is not a report of what it did. It is a list of what the committee had in front of it when it sat down, and almost all of that is public. You can read the same papers.

**The shop price.** US consumer prices rose 3.7% in the year to September, driven by energy, CNBC reports. Desk arithmetic from the Bureau of Labor Statistics index levels gives the same 3.7%, up from 2.4% in January and February. It is one of the longest runs of annual readings above 2% on record.

Money, FX & Committees · 3 min · Read the piece →

Desk notes

GEO-ECON · DESK NOTE

Seven days on paper, "not an offer" in Tehran

Qatar has handed Iran a draft that sets out daily steps for both sides over a week, with guarantors. A senior Iranian official says it contains only unacceptable ideas. A reply is still expected by the end of the week.

Geo-economics · 2 min · Read the piece →

End of edition · added

Before you close the tab

One thing you can do this week

This weekend, write down your electricity and gas meter readings and the price per kilowatt hour on your current contract, on one sheet of paper. Default suppliers in Germany have until 20 November to announce price changes for 1 January, and seven of 116 tracked tariffs have already done so, all upwards 3. If a letter arrives, you will have the numbers to compare in five minutes rather than fifty.

A habit, not advice.

What went right

The overall age-adjusted death rate in the United States fell to 689.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2025, the lowest ever reported, according to provisional CDC figures analysed in a new report from the US health department's planning office 1. Between March 2015 and March 2026, measured per head of population, opioid prescriptions dispensed fell to 45.3% of their March 2015 level, while patients filling prescriptions for the addiction treatments buprenorphine or naltrexone rose to 218% of it 1. Fewer pills handed out, more treatment taken up: two slow lines in a pharmacy ledger, moving the right way 1.

The day in one sentence

Germany's power for Thursday cleared at €314.85 a megawatt hour, gas touched €100, consumers think better of the country than of their own pay, and two central banks decide tonight and tomorrow: a day when the invoices spoke louder than the forecasts.

In euros at home

Heating oil cost €1.73 a litre on the German average on Wednesday morning, almost two cents less than the day before, HeizOel24 reports for orders of 3,000 litres 2. It was cheapest in Brandenburg at €1.70 and dearest in Hesse at €1.77 2. Desk arithmetic: a 3,000-litre fill at the national average costs about €5,190, nearly €60 less than a day earlier, and the gap between Brandenburg and Hesse on the same order is about €210.

Desk arithmetic on the cited averages. Prices differ by dealer, region, order size and time of day. Nothing here is advice.

Small words

Grundversorgung (default supply)

The tariff you are on if you never chose an electricity or gas supplier: you are supplied by the default supplier for your area on its standard terms. That supplier may change its prices at the start of any month, but must announce it publicly at least six weeks ahead, and when it does, you may cancel without notice to the day of the change 3. That is why 20 November matters this year: it is the last day to announce a price change for 1 January 3.

Sources for this section

  1. Trump Administration Drives Opioid Deaths to Lowest in Nearly a Decade (ASPE analysis of CDC provisional mortality data and pharmacy dispensing, March 2015 to March 2026) — US Department of Health and Human Services, 27 Oct 2026
  2. Heizöl wird zur Wochenmitte günstiger — HeizOel24, 28 Oct 2026, 10:25 CET
  3. Preisänderungen 2027 in der Grundversorgung: alle Ankündigungen — Grundversorgung Preise, checked 27–28 Oct 2026, retrieved 28 Oct 2026, 16:32 CET

Commentary for information only. Not investment, legal, tax, medical or political advice. "Desk arithmetic" is our own calculation from the cited figures.

Charts and data in this edition