The Bank of England's unprecedented quantitative easing programme has helped Britain stave off a Japanese-style depression though the balance of risks to growth and inflation remains to the downside, policymaker Adam Posen said. The central bank launched a 200 billion pound asset purchase scheme in March to haul Britain out of its deepest downturn in
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The U.S. economy grew at a much slower pace than initially thought in the third quarter, restrained by weak business investment and a slightly more aggressive liquidation of inventories, according to data on Tuesday. The Commerce Department's final estimate showed gross domestic product grew at a 2.2 percent annual rate instead of the 2.8 percent
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Oil slipped to around $73 per barrel on Tuesday after OPEC agreed to roll over its production targets and ahead of data expected to show a fall in crude and distillate inventories in the United States. OPEC oil ministers, content with oil prices, agreed to leave output unchanged and meet again on March 17. The
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Stock index futures were higher on Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session, as investors awaited a final reading on third-quarter economic growth and existing home sales data. Existing home sales are expected to post their third straight monthly increase in November, a sign that the troubled housing market could be stabilizing. Gross domestic product
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China has issued new Internet regulations, including what appears to be an effort to create a "whitelist" of approved websites that could potentially place much of the Internet off-limits to Chinese readers. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ordered domain management institutions and internet service providers to tighten control over domain name registration, in
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U.S. Senate Democrats cleared the second of three 60-vote hurdles on President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul on Tuesday, moving the landmark legislation one step closer to passage by Christmas. For the second consecutive day, Democrats mustered 60 party-line votes to cut off debate on the healthcare reform bill and move toward final passage over unanimous
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Revenue from tourism continued to decline in November, falling by 15.7% over the same month of the previous year to EUR 61.0 mln in November, from EUR 72.4 mln in November 2008. Tourism arrivals in the same month fell by 8.4%. For the period January – November 2009 revenue from tourism is estimated at EUR
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Moody's cut Greece's debt to A2 from A1 on Tuesday over soaring deficits, becoming the third major rating agency to downgrade the highly-indebted country's rating this month. Greece has been in turmoil since then Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis called early elections in September, 2009 seeking a new mandate to deal with Greece's economic slowdown. He
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Britain's economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the third quarter of this year, a smaller upward revision than expected after stronger construction ouput was offset by a weakening in the services and industrial sectors. The previous estimate of third quarter GDP had showed a 0.3 percent decline. Britain remains officially in recession unlike most of
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OPEC oil producers agreed on Tuesday to keep output restrictions unchanged, an OPEC delegate told Reuters. Supply curbs by the 12-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have helped recession-hit oil prices recover from $40 a barrel at the start of the year to just short of $74 a barrel on Tuesday. The delegate was
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