US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner held talks Thursday in Beijing with Vice-Premier Wang Qishan. Neither the US nor Chinese officials would comment in detail on the meeting. But it is understood to be part of a long-running dispute over the value of the Chinese Yuan, which the US says has been kept artificially low.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s bid for a fourth Labour term received a boost this week with a forecast that the UK would pull out of recession faster than many major international rivals.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has kept the Euro zone interest rate at its record-low level of 1% for the 11th month in a row. The decision was expected and comes as the ECB is scaling back its lending to banks aimed at stimulating the economy.
The Bank of England kept on Thursday the interest rate on hold and announced no change to current monetary policy. The cost of borrowing has now stayed at 0.5% for more than a year as the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee attempts to keep a fragile recovery on track.
British Airways and Spanish carrier Iberia have taken a further step towards creating Europe's second-largest airline group after signing their long-awaited merger deal. The merger, which they expect to complete in late 2010, will yield an airline with 408 aircraft and carrying more than 58 million passengers a year.
German auto major Daimler-Benz and Franco-Japanese alliance Renault-Nissan on Wednesday announced a three-way tie-up, including equity swaps, for co-operation in development of small cars and light commercial vehicles.
An Argentina-China agreement to unlock the soybean oil conflict seems to move forward as a government official, who preferred to remain anonymous, told a news agency that China has agreed to allow all cargo ships on their way to China to unload soybean oil at Chinese ports.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced last week the creation of a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). The move doubles the total officially protected area of the world's oceans.
Fonterra, the world's biggest dairy exporter, has said that a seasonal squeeze on Australasian milk supplies is behind a 21% jump in prices to their highest in nearly two years.
China’s soybean oil traders may “gradually” delay or cancel imports from Argentina after the country toughened inspections, the China National Grain and Oils Information Center said early Wednesday from Beijing.