House prices in Britain fell 0.6 percent in June, the third successive monthly fall, a survey from mortgage lender Halifax showed on Thursday, reinforcing the view that last year's housing market recovery is tailing off. Halifax said the decline was a continuation of a trend since the start of this year and was in line

Greek workers went on strike on Thursday ahead of a parliamentary vote on a sweeping pension reform, in a fresh test of the Socialist government's resolve to tackle its debt crisis through austerity measures. Flights to and from Greece were expected to be disrupted throughout the day, ferries kept in port, public transport frozen and

Europe named 91 banks taking part in a probe into the health of its banking system – including many regional banks where markets suspect most of the sore spots – as it seeks to restore confidence in the sector. The banks – ranging from Germany's Deutsche Bank AG to Malta's Bank of Valletta — comprise

The euro surged to a two-month high and Asian stocks were set for their best gains in over two weeks on Thursday after a bullish company forecast fuelled optimism about the coming U.S. earnings season and underpinned a slow return by investors to riskier assets. Further good news came with the release of Australian employment

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday upgraded its 2010 global growth forecast, on the back of robust growth in Asia and renewed U.S. private demand, but flagged big risks to the recovery from Europe's debt problems. The IMF raised its 2010 world output forecast to 4.6 percent from 4.2 percent previously, but said sovereign debt

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday the euro has stabilised and should be on a stronger foundation than before the Greek crisis thanks to debt-reduction measures being implemented in the euro-zone. "The euro has been stabilised," Merkel said in an interview with N24 television, according to a text released by the network. "It's an

Stress tests on European banks need to mark down the value of Greek government debt by about 16 percent, sources said, as regulators haggled over how much detail to reveal about the health checks. The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), which is overseeing the tests on behalf of the European Central Bank (ECB), was

Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis has expressed satisfaction over a series of recent reports by international rating organisations as Fitch and Moody's concerning the economy of Cyprus. He also said that the assessments of the International Monetary Fund about the Cypriot economy are aligned with the views of the Finance Ministry “that we are passing a