China must create more channels for investors and companies to use the Yuan if it wants to internationalize the currency and put it on a par with the Yen and the Euro, central bank officials and economists told a forum in Shanghai.
This weekend and after five months at sea the eight tall vessels that participated in the Latinamerican Bicentennial Regatta docked in Veracruz, Mexico, the last leg of the long itinerary which was launched last February in Brazil and called at major ports in South America.
Leaders at the G20 summit in Canada have agreed to cut national budget deficits without stunting economic growth. Summit host Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the group's richest members should halve their deficits within three years.
Failure to agree a common way forward at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meeting is unfortunate, says Japan's minister attending. In an interview with BBC News, Ms Yasue Funayama said Japan had had to sweat and bleed to bring agreement closer.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is scheduled to arrive Monday with a delegation of sixty businesspeople in Brazil where he will consider with President Lula da Silva investment projects involving at least 10 billion US dollars.
Germany's Chancellor has insisted that Europe's leaders are making good progress in talks with the US about how to bolster fragile economic growth. Angela Merkel told journalists at the G8 summit in Canada there was mutual understanding with President Obama over deficit reduction plans. Leaders are attending summits of the G8 and G20 groups of leading states.
Nobel laureate Paul Krugman said China’s pledge to make the Yuan more flexible was an “exercise in bad faith” intended to fend off international pressure for a stronger currency at this week’s Group of 20 leaders’ summit.
Top Chinese financial officials defended the country’s current economic policy and stated there was no need for a major appreciation of the currency or an increase in interest rates since inflation was declining.
The European Union (EU) has urged the G20 club of nations to agree when to scrap their economic support packages. The EU said a coordinated exit from stimulus measures would help restore confidence and reduce the risk that some countries would be disadvantaged.
The United Nations Secretary-General said Wednesday that despite the international food, fuel and financial crises, there has been progress toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, of cutting extreme poverty in half by 2015.