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STORY: From two different takes on rates, to the birth of a mega-bank, this is the Week in Numbers.

Another quarter of a percentage point was the latest rate hike by the European Central Bank.

There was no choice, said bank chief Christine Lagarde:

“Inflation has been coming down, but is projected to remain too high, for too long”.

A day earlier, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its rates on hold, snapping a streak of 10 rises.

“We’ve covered a lot of ground”.

But Chair Jerome Powell also said it was too soon to relax on inflation.

$10.5 billion is how much Nasdaq is spending to buy software firm Adenza.

It’s the exchange’s largest ever acquisition.

Nasdaq is on a buying spree in a bid to become more of a tech firm.

$34 billion is the value of a new farm-goods titan.

Trading firms Bunge and Viterra are merging.

But competition watchdogs may look at a deal that creates a power player in corn, soybeans and other staples.

$5 trillion is total pile of assets at UBS after it took over scandal-plagued local rival Credit Suisse.

The tie-up creates a mega-bank that some think is dangerously big for Switzerland’s economy.

And almost $2.6 trillion was the record valuation for Microsoft this week.

The tech giant has been boosted by its big stake in OpenAI - the maker of the ChatGPT chatbot.

It’s been integrating the system into products including its Bing search engine.