Economy

• Monday, January 16th 2012 - 02:39 UTC

  Cruise industry and insurers fear consequences of the Costa Concordia grounding

  

  The timing of Carnival Corp.’s Costa Concordia cruise ship’s grounding off the coast of Italy, at the start of the northern hemisphere peak booking season, may exacerbate the company’s losses.

• Sunday, January 15th 2012 - 01:10 UTC

  Merkel insists EU must seal a pact to tighten fiscal rules

  

  Ratings downgrades in the Euro zone by S&P underline why Europe must seal a pact to tighten fiscal rules quickly and get its permanent bailout fund up and running as soon as possible, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday.

• Saturday, January 14th 2012 - 06:25 UTC

  Argentine ‘official’ annual inflation, 9.5%; wholesale prices up 12.7%

  

  Argentina’s official inflation in 2011 reached 9.5%, following on December’s Consumer Prices Index (IPC) of 0.8%. Both percentages from the National Stats bureau, Indec are disputed by the Congressional index and private sector estimates which stand at a floor of 22.8% and 1.9%.

• Saturday, January 14th 2012 - 06:22 UTC

  EU Commissioner says S&P is “inconsistent” and lauds Euro rescue package

  

  The European Union Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Olli Rehn defended Euro-zone governments' crisis plans Friday, after Standard & Poor's downgraded nine out of 17 of the economic bloc's member states, a decision which he described as “inconsistent”.

• Saturday, January 14th 2012 - 06:20 UTC

  S&P Friday the 13th for Euro zone; nine countries suffer the rating scimitar

  

  The worst-kept secret on Wall Street was officially confirmed after the close Friday, when Standard & Poor’s downgraded its sovereign debt rating on France to AA+ from AAA. Spain and Italy saw their ratings cut two notches, while Germany’s AAA rating was left unchanged.

• Saturday, January 14th 2012 - 06:03 UTC

  Brazil warns it is ready to respond to Argentina’s new trade restrictions

  

  Brazil's government is ready to respond to Argentine trade restrictions introduced this week but will evaluate the impact of the measures before making any retaliatory moves, trade officials said Friday.

• Friday, January 13th 2012 - 21:48 UTC

  UK producer prices drop in December; further emergency stimulus anticipated

  

  The prices of goods leaving Britain's factories surprisingly fell in December compared with November, confirming expectations that inflation is set to ease further this year, official data showed Friday.

• Friday, January 13th 2012 - 21:18 UTC

  S&P downgrades France’s rating; Greek swap talks on hold; Euro hits new low

  

  Stock markets and the Euro traded lower Friday as Greek debt swap talks were put on hold and France’s Finance minister confirmed that Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the country’s credit rating.

• Friday, January 13th 2012 - 21:13 UTC

  Several groups interested in taking over bankrupt American Airlines

  

  US Airways Group, Delta Airlines and private equity firm TPG Capital are among several parties interested in potential bids for AMR Corp, the bankrupt parent of American Airlines according to US financial media reports.

• Friday, January 13th 2012 - 20:15 UTC

  Non-official Argentine inflation hits 1.9% in December and 22.81% in 2011

  

  Argentine opposition lawmakers presented December’s consumer inflation index based in the analysis of nine private agencies, which showed a 1.9% increase over the previous month and totalling 22.81% for the twelve months of 2011, roughly double the official index.