Economy

• Friday, June 18th 2010 - 20:29 UTC

  IMF chief Strauss-Khan strongly supports Spain’s reforms

  

  IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn praised Spain’s management of the current economic situation and said the budget deficit will shrink “rapidly” as the government’s overhaul of labor rules boosts economic growth.

• Friday, June 18th 2010 - 19:28 UTC

  World Bank calls for stronger Yuan to reduce inflation and spur domestic demand

  

  World Bank has reiterated its view that the Chinese government should allow the Yuan to strengthen against other international currencies. The bank also forecasted the Chinese economy would grow 9.5% in 2010 and 8.5% in 2011.

• Friday, June 18th 2010 - 05:46 UTC

  What went wrong with the Euro? It was like some kind of sleeping pill

  

  EU president Herman Van Rompuy blamed the past strength of the European single currency for making the Euro zone unaware of its fiscal problems, in an interview with the Financial Times.

• Friday, June 18th 2010 - 05:43 UTC

  Venezuela’s CITGO offering to pay 12% for a 7 year bond

  

  US based CITGO Petroleum Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), is coming to market with a 7 year bond and offering to pay 11.75% to 12% on the debt.

• Friday, June 18th 2010 - 04:29 UTC

  China wants higher pay for workers; spate of strikes in foreign owned companies

  

  One of China's most influential newspapers, the official People's Daily, has called for workers' incomes to be raised. The paper says wages need to rise to protect stability and transform society.

• Friday, June 18th 2010 - 00:37 UTC

  Salmon farming in Chile greater environmental threat than estimated

  

  Salmon farms in Chile are a worse threat to the environment than originally thought following on unexpected results from a German scientific research team studying communications among whales in the southern Pacific along Chilean Patagonia.

• Friday, June 18th 2010 - 00:08 UTC

  Spain’s leading bank “one of the best” in the EU, says Rodriguez Zapatero

  

  Spanish banking giant Banco Santander SA (STD) had “one of the best” results from the stress tests conducted by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors, a spokesman for Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Thursday.

• Thursday, June 17th 2010 - 22:45 UTC

  Jump in US claims for jobless benefits; May consumer prices drop 0.2%

  

  The number of US workers filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped last week after three straight declines, the Labour Department said on Thursday. First-time claims rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 472,000, the highest level in a month.

• Thursday, June 17th 2010 - 22:38 UTC

  Swiss parliament agrees to tax treaty with US, which saves leading bank

  

  Swiss lawmakers approved Thursday a UBS tax treaty with the US, ending a two-year legal battle that threatened the American business of Switzerland’s largest bank. The vote removed the threat of further civil litigation against UBS and additional fallout under US criminal law.

• Thursday, June 17th 2010 - 22:25 UTC

  IMF praises Spain’s efforts to reform economy and publish banks ‘stress tests’

  

  The International Monetary Fund welcomed the results of a Spanish bond auction and said decisions by Spain and Germany to publish results of stress tests on banks will boost financial market confidence.