German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Sunday rejected pressure to beef up the euro zone's permanent rescue facility, saying Berlin would stick to the agreement made in December for a lending capacity of 500 billion euros ($646 billion). "We are sticking to what was agreed in December," Schaeuble told public broadcaster ARD. "In March we
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Yields on Portuguese bonds have spiked to a euro-era high and could rise further on fears it will follow Greece in seeking to restructure its debt, and with some investors forced to dump the paper after Standard & Poor's cut Portugal's rating to "junk". Greece and its private sector creditors are edging towards a deal
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Cyprus-based Marfin Popular Bank said on Friday it had submitted a "capital enhancement" plan to regulators designed to raise its benchmark core Tier 1 capital to 9% by the end of June. The island’s second biggest lender did not specify the steps it proposed to take, but the European Banking Authority had in December said
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Greece and its private bondholders resume debt swap talks on Friday amid signs they are inching closer to a long-awaited deal needed to prevent a chaotic default by Athens. Cash-strapped Greece is fast running out of time as it pushes to wrap up an agreement by Monday paving the way for a fresh injection of
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Michel Barnier, the official in charge of regulating finance in the European Union, meets George Osborne on Monday in what are likely to be tough talks over rules the British finance minister believes will hurt the City of London. Relations between Brussels, where the European Commission sets the direction of regulation for banking and finance,
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Asian shares rose to fresh two-month highs on Friday as solid euro zone sovereign debt sales and signs that Greece may be nearing a vital debt-swap deal eased concerns over Europe's refinancing capability, boosting appetite for riskier assets. Upbeat earnings from more U.S. banks and further data confirming the U.S. economy is on a recovery
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The prospect of finding crude oil on the island or off our coast has lured prospectors from as far back as the late 1930s, but the cost of exploration and the depth required to dig made this a prohibitive investment. Just as the abandoned copper mines are now seen as lucrative opportunities, with the growing
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The Central Bank of Cyprus announced that it had traced and withdrawn 475 forged euro notes in the second half of last year and a total of 768 throughout 2011, up nearly 19% on the previous year. It said that the most popular denominations are the 20 and 50-euro notes which accounted for 79% of
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. EUROZONE DIVIDE At German car parts maker ixetic GmbH, Dragan Knezevic is struggling to keep up: his job as foreman is to make sure there are no hold ups in assembly of the parts needed to keep Audis, VWs, Toyotas and the like on the road. "We are going full speed over all three
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. By Shavasb Bohdjalian Standard and Poor’s decision to downgrade Cyprus’ credit rating by two notches, to BB+ rating, or junk level is due to fears about a Greek default and eurozone issues, rather than the government’s recent fiscal measures. Finance Minister Kikis Kazamias accused the rating agency of having a hidden agenda but in
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