Economy

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 15:38 UTC

  Exports help UK economy expand but tight budget contracts domestic demand

  

  United Kingdom’s export growth helped the economy extend its recovery in the third quarter as growth in consumer, government and investment spending slowed by more than half. GDP rose 0.8% from the previous three months, when it increased 1.2%, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday in London.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 15:36 UTC

  IMF insists Europe needs “far-reaching” reforms to safeguard the “social model”

  

  Europe needs collaborative and far-reaching reforms to restore strong and balanced growth across the region and safeguard the European social model, the head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn told bankers and officials in Frankfurt.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 05:19 UTC

  EU and IMF are demanding more austerity and reforms from Greece

  

  EU and IMF auditors cleared a new slice of rescue funding for Greece on Tuesday but demanded more austerity action while acknowledging that the country faced potential strains in repaying on time.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 05:17 UTC

  Emergency loans to Ireland total 85 b Euros, conditioned to draconian budget cuts

  

  EU and IMF have extended 85bn Euros of emergency loans to the Republic of Ireland, according to reports on Irish state television. The widely anticipated bail-out package comes after a day of sharp falls in global share prices and the Euro.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 00:57 UTC

  Spain feeling Irish contagion: extra yield on bonds hits Euro-area high

  

  Spain said it doesn’t need to adopt further austerity measures to stem a surge in borrowing costs as the central government’s budget gap narrowed by almost half.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 00:54 UTC

  The Fed cuts US economy growth estimate for 2011 and ups unemployment

  

  The Federal Reserve has cut its 2011 growth forecast for the US economy, newly released minutes of its last policy committee meeting reveal. The Fed expects growth of 3-3.6% next year, down from its previous 3.5-4.2% estimate. It also forecasts higher unemployment and lower inflation than before.

• Wednesday, November 24th 2010 - 00:51 UTC

  Currency appreciation pressures inevitable until US controls budget deficit

  

  Fast-growing emerging markets would be facing currency appreciation pressures even without the US quantitative easing policy, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in an interview on Tuesday.

• Tuesday, November 23rd 2010 - 23:02 UTC

  FDI in Brazil soars in October; reaches 30 billion USD in ten months, the year’s target

  

  Foreign direct investment in Brazil soared to 6.8 billion US dollars in October, the highest for the month since records were started. This was higher than last month with 5 billion and four times October a year ago with 1.6 billion, according to the latest release from the central bank.

• Tuesday, November 23rd 2010 - 19:23 UTC

  US economy grows faster than estimated in the third quarter: 2.5%

  

  US economy grew faster than previously estimated in the third quarter, government data showed, but still not enough to address stubbornly high unemployment. GDP growth was revised up to an annualized rate of 2.5% from 2% as exports together with consumer and government spending were stronger than initially thought.

• Tuesday, November 23rd 2010 - 19:16 UTC

  Argentina requests IMF technical aid to help with a new prices index

  

  Argentina’s Economy minister Amado Boudou announced Tuesday that the President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner's administration is to request aid from the International Monetary Fund to help with a new price index.