G20 policymakers are agreed that it is too early to pull the plug on economic life-support packages as the global recovery is still fragile, British finance minister Alistair Darling told Reuters in an interview. Darling is hosting the third meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers this year in St Andrews, Scotland
More
Royal Bank of Scotland more than halved its operating losses to 1.5 billion pounds ($2.5 billion) in the third quarter as impairments fell, but less favourable trading battered investment banking profits. Part-nationalised RBS said impairment losses totalled 3.3 billion pounds, down 30 percent from 4.7 billion in the second quarter and were showing signs of
More
Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 0.7 percent on Friday as exporters climbed after good news on U.S. jobs renewed hopes about the pace of economic recovery and as tech shares rose after gains by their U.S. peers, but profit-taking weighed on gains. Pioneer Corp advanced nearly 9 percent after UBS upgraded the consumer electronics company
More
Asian stocks rose ahead of the latest U.S. payrolls report on Friday, expected to show the fewest job losses since August 2008, while oil prices recovered to $80 a barrel after a sharp drop on high U.S. fuel inventories. Stock indexes in Britain and France were expected to open slightly higher, while Germany's DAX was
More
Pavle Radonic has worked as assistant manager for Hotel Belvedere, overlooking the medieval city of Dubrovnik, for 18 years. Except for the first few months on the job, he has never welcomed a guest. How a five-star cliffside resort on the Adriatic has remained shuttered for so long — or how other prime seaside hotels
More
Greece's new government pledged in its 2010 draft budget on Thursday to save the country from bankruptcy by cutting the deficit while keeping electoral promises to weather the impact of the crisis and help the poor. Greece forecast on Thursday a 0.3 percent contraction of its GDP in 2010 whereas the EU sees most other
More
U.S. business productivity in the third quarter grew at the fastest pace in six years and new claims for jobless aid fell to a 10-month low last week, indicating the decline in labor market may be hitting bottom. The Labor Department said on Thursday productivity surged at a 9.5 percent annual rate, the quickest pace
More
The European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold at 1.0 percent on Thursday and investors are now braced for signs that it will soon start weaning banks off cheap and abundant liquidity. All 78 economists polled by Reuters last week had expected the ECB to leave interest rates at a record low this month,
More
European stocks were down 0.3 percent by early afternoon on Thursday, with banks and miners among the biggest losers. Yet shares trimmed their losses after both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank kept rates unchanged. The BoE kept rates on hold and said it would expand its quantitative easing programme by 25
More
Until a few years ago, most Brazilians able to hoard cash would rush to buy U.S. dollars to prevent runaway inflation or another economic meltdown from wiping out their hard-earned savings. These days, with the greenback getting trounced around the globe and the Brazilian real soaring, the once almighty dollar is losing its luster in
More