Economy

• Tuesday, February 16th 2010 - 02:04 UTC

  Euro zone ministers insist Greece must consolidate public finances

  

  Greece could unveil more cost-cutting proposals if its current efforts do not work fast enough, the head of the 16-nation Euro-zone has said. Jean-Claude Juncker said Greece had agreed to outline additional measures in March if necessary.
  His comments came following a meeting of Euro-zone finance ministers.

• Monday, February 15th 2010 - 20:21 UTC

  Mrs. Kirchner willing to discuss with opposition about central bank reserves

  

  The administration of Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said it is willing to discuss with the opposition the Bicentennial Fund project which aims to service public debt with reserves from the Central Bank and which triggered a three branches confrontation that ended in the resignation of the bank’s president Martin Perez Redrado.

• Monday, February 15th 2010 - 06:33 UTC

  Chilean mint house chops heads for circulating 50-pesos “collection” coins

  

  Heads are rolling at the Chilean mint after a coin went into circulation which mangled the country's name. The 50-peso coins - worth about 6p - were issued in 2008, but no-one noticed they read “Chiie” rather than “Chile” until late last year.

• Monday, February 15th 2010 - 06:19 UTC

  Argentine government lacks Senate support to tap Central bank reserves

  

  Argentina’s government lacks the support needed in the Senate to approve President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s plan to tap 6.6 billion US dollars in Central Bank reserves to pay sovereign debt due this year, ruling party Senator Miguel Pichetto admitted on Sunday.

• Monday, February 15th 2010 - 06:02 UTC

  Wall Street helped Greece to hide mounting debts, claims The New York Times

  

  Wall Street tactics have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the Euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts, The New York Times reported Sunday.

• Monday, February 15th 2010 - 05:56 UTC

  Japan retains position as world’ second largest economy

  

  Japan's economy grew by 4.6% last quarter on an annualized basis, beating expectations and helping the nation keep the mantle as the world's second-largest economy. China's economy is widely expected to overtake Japan sometime this year.

• Saturday, February 13th 2010 - 07:20 UTC

  Argentine Jan inflation: 1% for the government, double for consultants

  

  Consumer prices in Argentina recorded a 1% increase in January, according to the Indec national statistics bureau. In comparison to the same month last year, inflation reached 8.2%, a figure which is highly criticized by researchers and specialists.

• Saturday, February 13th 2010 - 07:12 UTC

  China/Peru free trade agreement becomes effective March first

  

  The free trade agreement between Peru and China will become effective next March first, following the green light from Beijing’s all powerful Council of State, said the Peruvian Foreign Trade and Tourism ministry in an official release.

• Saturday, February 13th 2010 - 07:08 UTC

  Germany falters and France expands modestly in fourth quarter

  

  Germany's recovery from recession faltered in the final quarter of 2009, according to preliminary figures released on Friday. The German economy failed to grow at all in the last three months of the year, with GDP unchanged compared with the previous quarter.

• Saturday, February 13th 2010 - 03:09 UTC

  China tightens liquidity, tells commercial banks to hike reserve levels

  

  China has ordered banks to increase their reserves for a second time this year, as lending is curbed in a bid to stop the country's economy overheating. Analysts had expected the central bank to increase reserve levels again, but were surprised it ordered a second increase so soon after January's move.