Foreign investment flows are strengthening Hungary's resistance to a new international aid deal and raise the chance of a disappointing 2011 budget that could prompt rating downgrades and a market sell-off. End-of-summer fears that a U.S. double-dip could trigger a flight from risk have given way to a surge in emerging market bets that have

Britain's banks will be subject to a wide-ranging probe that will examine the possible break-up of retail and investment banks and ways to boost competition, although no single option is favoured at present. The Independent Commission on Banking (ICB) was appointed three months ago by the British government to assess the structure of the industry

British financial information group Euromoney said it expected to make record pretax profit this financial year after advertising and delegate numbers to its events recovered in August and September. The first of the professional publishing and events groups to report this quarter, Euromoney said growth in subscription revenues had also picked up and it expected

The dollar jumped against the yen on Friday on talk Japanese authorities intervened in markets for the second time in just over a week to weaken a currency they fear is undermining the economic recovery. Japan unleashed waves of yen selling on Sept. 15 — its first intervention to sell yen in six years —

Minister of Communications and Works Erato Kozakou Markoullis said on Thursday that the Republic of Cyprus was making focused efforts on a level of EU Transport Ministers and European and international organisations dealing with flight safety, in order to solve the problem of illegal interventions by the control tower of the airport in the Turkish

Greek private sector workers will not strike against austerity measures anytime soon but the government must be aware rising unemployment may spark unrest, a union leader told Reuters on Thursday. Less affected by austerity measures than civil servants, who have seen salaries slashed by about 15 percent, private sector union GSEE has staged six general

The European Commission said on Thursday there were no plans to extend an emergency loan agreement with heavily indebted Greece. A spokesman for the European Union executive, in response to a question, told a daily briefing there have been no discussions on extending the agreement.

Greece's plan to sell 'diaspora' bonds to tap Greek money abroad will be ready by the end of this year, the head of the country's debt agency (PDMA) said on Thursday. "The programme will be ready towards the end of 2010," PDMA Chief Petros Christodoulou told Reuters. He did not provide further details. Greece is

Starbucks Corp said it plans to charge more for large-sized and labor-intensive drinks because of surging prices for coffee and other commodities. The world's biggest coffee chain, which expects to maintain or lower the price of certain espresso drinks and its "tall" 12-ounce brewed coffee, said it might raise the price of packaged coffee sold

An appreciation of 20 percent in China's currency would cause widespread bankruptcies in China's export sector, where firms operate on thin margins, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Wednesday. "The conditions for a major appreciation of the renminbi do not exist," Wen said in a speech to U.S. businessmen in New York. He said the