International

• Friday, March 11th 2011 - 01:48 UTC

  In spite of inflation, Bank of England leaves interest rates at record low 0.5%

  

  UK interest rates have been held again at their record low of 0.5% by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee. There has now been no change to the Bank rate for two years, despite the fact that inflation is currently twice the Bank's target rate.

• Friday, March 11th 2011 - 01:23 UTC

  European Parliament casts uncertainty over EU/Mercosur trade talks

  

  This week’s strong statement from the European Parliament warning about concessions that ‘can adversely affect European farmers’, precisely a week before Mercosur and EU delegates meet in Brussels to advance trade discussions has caused a certain degree of uncertainty among the South American group delegates.

• Friday, March 11th 2011 - 00:53 UTC

  Decline of bees’ colonies threatens pollination, essential for growing more crops

  

  More than a dozen factors, ranging from declines in flowering plants and the use of memory-damaging insecticides to the world-wide spread of pests and air pollution, may be behind the emerging decline of bee colonies across many parts of the globe.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 22:26 UTC

  New Zealand cuts basic interest rate to help with earthquake recovery

  

  New Zealand's central bank has cut the cost of borrowing to try to reduce the economic impact of the earthquake in Christchurch, the country's second largest city. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut the key interest rate 0.5 points to 2.5%.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 21:20 UTC

  Rare trade deficit in China; conflicting opinions as to the reasons

  

  Chinese trade figures released Thursday show a surprising deficit for February, as export growth slowed and import numbers remained strong. Chinese statistics released Thursday show that the country registered a trade deficit in February of 7.3 billion US dollars.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 20:30 UTC

  China rules out multi-party democracy and western style political reforms

  

  A senior Chinese leader says his country will not become a multi-party democracy or adopt other Western-style political reforms. Wu Bangguo - officially number two in the leadership structure - warned that China could face civil disorder if it abandoned its current system.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 17:56 UTC

  Moody’s downgrades Spain’s sovereign debt rating

  

  Moody's Investors Service on Thursday slashed Spain's sovereign debt rating by a notch to Aa2 with a negative outlook, saying it was uncertain about the country's ability to improve its finances.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 17:43 UTC

  Qatar set to have this year the highest per capita income in the world

  

  Qatar is set to become the country with the world’s highest per capita income following on a breathless 16% growth in 2010 and a forecasted 20% this year according to the latest estimates from the IMF.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 06:51 UTC

  A Brazilian view of the current situation in Arab countries

  

  During Brazil's two decades of military dictatorship, it would have been unthinkable that a female former revolutionary would lead the country in the 21st century. That transition, from autocracy to democracy, might offer some lessons for rebels across the Arab world, Brazil’s longest serving foreign minister told a forum organised by the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies in Doha, Qatar.

• Thursday, March 10th 2011 - 06:47 UTC

  Inflation and production diversification, challenges for emerging economies

  

  Inflation and production diversification must be the top priorities of emerging economies such as Argentina warned Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz during an IMF sponsored forum on “Macro and growth policies at the wake of the crisis” which took place in Washington and convened top line economists and decision makers.