Cyprus must cut back on its spending to save 175 million euros this year in a bid to contain its public deficit at 6.0 percent, the island's finance minister, Charilaos Stavrakis said on Friday. The European Commission decided to take disciplinary action against Cyprus for exceeding public deficit limits above the EU ceiling of 3
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The condemned man has been given a reprieve, allowing him to focus again on the prison walls around him — or at least that is how it must feel to many investors. Heading into a new week, they have had the fears of an imminent meltdown in sovereign debt calmed by a massive European Union
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Gold hit record highs near $1,250 an ounce in Europe on Friday as investors bought the metal to protect against sovereign risk in the euro zone and instability in the foreign exchange markets. Gold priced in euros, sterling and Swiss francs extended the record highs they have already set this month as investors concerned about
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Beijing could have another window of opportunity over the next few days to make its long-awaited move on the yuan, in the wake of strong Chinese data and ahead of a Sino-U.S. summit. However, leading economists in China were divided about whether any move was indeed imminent and past predictions of "windows" have come to
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Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.2 to 0.3 percent at 4:54 a.m. ET, pointing to a weaker start on Wall Street on Friday. At 8:30 a.m. ET, Commerce Dept releases April retail sales. Economists in a Reuters survey expect a 0.2 percent rise compared with
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President Nicolas Sarkozy slammed his fist on the table and threatened to pull France out of the euro at a meeting of European leaders deciding Greece's aid package last Friday, according to Spain's El Pais newspaper. The newspaper cited comments by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to members of his party on Wednesday
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Britain's top shares fell sharply on Friday as investors turned to safe havens such as the dollar and gold and out of banks, miners and commodity-linked stocks, fearing euro-zone debt problems will curb growth. By 1035 GMT the FTSE 100 was down 89.76 points, or 1.7 percent, at 5,343.97, having risen 0.9 percent to 5,433.73
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Greece's tourism revenues are likely to fall 7-9 percent this year, making it even harder for the debt-choked country to pull itself out of a crisis that has rocked markets worldwide, a senior industry official said. Tourism accounts for nearly a fifth of Greece's output and is a main driver of its 240 billion euro
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The budget deficit in Cyprus almost halved to EUR 76.5 mln in the first quarter of 2010, from EUR 137.7 mln in the first quarter of 2009, according to preliminary data on the general government accounts. The budget deficit reached 6.44% of GDP in 2009, according to the latest government figures. The main reason was
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The trade deficit expanded in January-February according to the monthly report “Intra-Extra EU Trade Statistics (Summarised Data)” published by the Statistical Service. The main developments in Cyprus foreign trade were as follows. Total imports/arrivals (covering total imports from third countries and arrivals from other Member States) in January-February 2010 amounted to EUR 917.0 mln compared
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