Britain's goods trade deficit with the rest of the world widened unexpectedly in October to its biggest since January as imports rose more than exports despite the weakness of the pound, official data showed on Wednesday. The Office for National Statistics said that Britain's goods trade gap widened to 7.108 billion pounds in October from
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Low interest rates will prevail through most of next year as the U.S. economy expands modestly and the unemployment rate remains stuck in double digits, the UCLA Anderson Forecast group said on Wednesday. "Specifically, we forecast that after growing at 2.8 percent in the most recent and current quarters, real GDP growth will settle into
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The Obama administration plans to announce on Wednesday that it intends to extend the life of the $700 billion financial bailout fund until next October, administration officials said on Tuesday. One official said the administration was expected to pledge to use no more than $560 billion from the fund. Another said the plan would be
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China remains a top investment destination for U.S. companies in 2010 amid the global economic slowdown as they expect to see continuous growth in sales and profit, an American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) study showed. More than 90 percent of respondents had an optimistic business outlook on China based on an AmCham survey of 369
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The U.S. government's $700 billion bailout program helped stabilize the financial system, but has done little to boost lending or stave off millions of home foreclosures, a government watchdog group said on Wednesday. In its new monthly report on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Congressional Oversight Panel declined to take a stand on
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Concern over debts at Dubai's utility provider and losses at Nakheel, builder of the emirate's palm-shaped islands, hit markets on Wednesday, drowning out assurances by top officials that Gulf economies were sound. The Dubai debt saga has shaken global investors since the emirate's shock Nov. 25 announcement that it sought a standstill on Dubai World
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Japan led a slide in Asian stock markets on Wednesday as worries about the strength of a global recovery prompted investors to trim some bets ahead of the year end, while the euro picked up from a one-month low on bargain hunting. Major European stocks were expected to open roughly steady, according to financial bookmakers,
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Chinese club Henan are cancelling the lunar New Year holiday in a bid to make a big impression in their first Asian Champions League (ACL) campaign, according to manager Yang Nan. The spring festival, which falls in mid-February next year, is the most important family holiday in China — the equivalent of Christmas in the
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Emails from a top eBay Inc executive showed the Internet giant was aware that a competing online classifieds site it launched while sitting on the board of Craigslist was a sensitive issue to be handled delicately, according to court testimony on Tuesday. EBay executives were told to feign surprise if Craigslist executives were to react
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Iceland must wait until March to formally launch negotiations to join the European Union because recommendations on its application have not yet been finalised, diplomats said on Tuesday. Reykjavik had hoped to get approval from EU leaders at a summit on Thursday to formally launch accession talks with the 27-nation bloc, but a delay in
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