Britain on Wednesday will launch measures to ease the flow of credit to small and medium-sized businesses in the economic downturn, the business ministry said on Tuesday. The package could guarantee loans worth of up to 20 billion pounds ($29 billion), an industry source said. It is expected to be targeted at companies with up
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U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday fiscal stimulus alone would not be enough to promote a lasting U.S. economic recovery and that further steps to backstop banks may be needed. "Fiscal actions are unlikely to promote a lasting recovery unless they are accompanied by strong measures to further stabilize and strengthen the
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The U.S. trade deficit shrank 28.7 percent in November, the biggest contraction in 12 years, as weak consumer demand and plummeting oil prices caused a record drop in imports, a U.S. Commerce Department report showed on Tuesday. The $40.4 billion trade gap in November was the lowest in five years and much lower than expected.
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Hermes Airports Ltd announced a new record for passenger traffic at both Cyprus International Airports. According to the latest findings, throughout 2008 over 7,238,000 passengers passed through the country’s International Airports, which translates to an increase of 3.26% and overturns the previous record last year of 7.009.803 passengers. Approximately 5.5 million passengers passed through Larnaka
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Fears of steep losses at U.S. bank Citigroup and Asian industry giants such as Sony pummelled shares on Tuesday and bolstered government debt. The euro slid to a one-month low against the dollar and the yen as the European Central Bank looked set to cut interest rates again this week, while oil continued to drop
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Britain's goods trade deficit with the rest of the world widened to a record level in November, official data showed on Tuesday, suggesting weaker sterling failed to boost exports as policymakers had hoped. The Office for National Statistics said that Britain's goods trade gap grew to 8.330 billion pounds in November from October's downwardly revised
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Germany's second stimulus package, which the government says is worth 50 billion euros ($67.02 billion), includes a mixture of investments, tax relief and support for companies, the agreement shows. Eight months before an election, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD), who share power in a coalition, agreed on steps to help Europe's
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Japan's Sony Corp will likely suffer an annual operating loss of about $1.1 billion, its first such loss in 14 years, due to sluggish sales and a stronger yen, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Shares of Sony tumbled 9 percent, slicing $2 billion off its market value to $22 billion, while rival
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Microsoft Corp launched downloads of the public test version of its new version of Windows on Saturday, after a one-day delay due to overwhelming demand. The "beta" launch of the highly anticipated update to Microsoft's Windows franchise was to began on Friday, but the company had to halt downloads to add more servers. A Microsoft
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Britain's economy went into steep decline at the end of last year when consumers tightened their belts, businesses slashed jobs and the housing market ground to a virtual standstill, a trio of surveys showed on Tuesday. The figures suggest the economy has entered its deepest recession since at least the 1980s and will add urgency
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