The European Central Bank (ECB) decided on Thursday to raise interest rates to 1.5% from 1.25% in an attempt to cool inflation in the 17-nation Euro zone. ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet said that inflation, now 2.7%, was likely to remain clearly above the ECB 2% target over the coming months.
The 'oligopolistic structure' of international credit rating agencies is probably undesirable, the head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet said on Thursday.
A hedge fund owner of defaulted Argentine debt can try to seize government assets held in Britain as it seeks to recover the full face value of the bonds, Britain's Supreme Court said in a ruling on Wednesday.
Bad debts held by local governments in China are a far bigger problem than first estimated, credit ratings agency Moody’s warned on Wednesday.
In what is seen as an escalation of events between European Union policy makers and credit rating agencies, Moody’s said on Wednesday that nearly a third of EU banks undergoing public stress tests may need some outside support.
A commercial scale plant supplying Virgin Australia with aviation fuel derived from eucalypt trees could be up and running by 2014, announced on Wednesday the airline. In conjunction with three partners a demonstration plant in Western Australia is planned for 2012 and fully operational facility within three years
New IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde pledged to push ahead with reforms to give fast-growing emerging markets greater sway at the global lender and said the world economy was on the rebound.
Brazil's government may intervene in futures markets to weaken the Real, Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters in London on the sidelines of a conference on Tuesday.
China has increased its main interest rates for the third time this year to try to curb inflation. Chinese central bank, the People's Bank of China, said its one-year lending rate would rise to 6.56% from 6.31% and its one-year deposit rate to 3.5% from 3.25%.
European Commission strongly criticised international credit ratings agencies following the downgrade of Portugal by Moody's. The Commission said the timing of the downgrade was questionable and raised the issue of the appropriateness of behaviour of the agencies in general.