When former European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet called last June for the creation of a European finance ministry with power over national budgets the idea seemed fanciful, a distant dream that would take years or even decades to realize, if it ever came to be.
American International Group Inc (AIG) has assigned staff from Argentina to advise their counterparts in Athens as the bailed-out insurer prepares for a possible Greek exit from the Euro.
Euro zone unemployment has hit a record high, and job losses are likely to keep climbing as the bloc's devastating debt crisis eats away at businesses' ability to hire workers while indebted governments continue to cut staff.
Former German central banker Thilo Sarrazin, whose musings on Muslim immigrants sparked outrage in 2010 has triggered fresh controversy with a book that paints Germany as the Euro zone's hostage, forced to pay out vast sums to atone for the Holocaust.
An exit of Greece from the Euro zone could cost the French taxpayer up to 66.4 billion Euros and saddle the country's banking system with 20 billion Euros in lost loans, according to a study published on Tuesday.
France's economy stalled in the first quarter as household consumption flat lined, businesses pared back investment and exports slowed, underlining the challenge facing Socialist President Francois Hollande who took office on Tuesday.
The slow economic recovery is in sight across Europe, the European Commission said on Saturday, with the UK in line for 1.7% growth next year compared with an EU average of 1.3%.
Spain’s plan to rid banks of toxic real estate assets is reviving the politically heated debate over how creditors and taxpayers should share the vast losses still being incurred by the Euro zone debt crisis. Nowhere is the issue in sharper relief than in Ireland.
Spain took over Bankia, the country's fourth biggest lender, on Wednesday, trying to dispel concerns over the government's ability to clean up the financial sector four years after the banks were hit by a property market crash.
The European Central Bank, meeting in Spain on Thursday, held interest rates at historic lows but insisted it was up to governments to find ways of boosting growth without busting fiscal rules.