By Richard Mably (Reuters) World oil prices are likely to fall further if the rush to cash across global financial markets continues but crude is unlikely to dip for long below the oil industry's $50-a-barrel average operating cost, analysts said. Benchmark U.S. crude has fallen 45 percent from July's record $147.27 a barrel to trade
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Iceland looked for help from new partners on Monday to dig it out of a crisis that has overwhelmed its once-flourishing financial sector. A central bank and finance ministry delegation left for Russia to begin talks on an emergency loan worth potentially billions of euros, a central bank staffer said. Ministers said the north Atlantic
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Most shopkeepers in Tehran's main bazaar re-opened for business on Monday after a protest against a new sales tax, but some defied calls from their trade union to go back to work. Protests by influential merchants broke out in several cities last week, posing an economic and political challenge to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before a
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The German cabinet approved a banking rescue package worth up to 500 billion euros ($679.3 billion) on Monday, coalition sources said, taking a sector-wide approach after less comprehensive steps failed to calm markets. The package comprised up to 400 billion euros in bank guarantees and as much as 100 billion euros in state funds, a
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Greece's fourth-largest lender Bank of Piraeus agreed to buy 26.62% of small Greek lender Proton Bank through a share swap of one share of Piraeus Bank for every 5.5 shares of Proton Bank. The own shares of Piraeus Bank shares will be used for the transaction. Proton Bank has deposits of EUR 1.3 bln, loans
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Fewer than half of Cyprus’s tourists stay in hotels, according to data released by the Statistical Service, while around one-sixth stay with relatives and friends. Between January and August 2008, on average 48.6% of tourists stayed in 1- to 5-star hotels, while 17.9% stayed in “hotel apartments or tourist villages”. According to the data, 5.6%
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Last week’s deepening financial and economic crisis has brought forward new policy measures in Europe over the weekend. Here is a recap prepared by Citigroup analysts. Euro Area: Is this the ‘Super Bazooka’? Yesterday, heads of euro-area member states and ECB President Trichet agreed on an action plan to stabilize financial markets. As we expected
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The dollar London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor at which banks lend to each other remained at high levels despite the injection of billions of money by Central Banks in the form of liquidity and the announcement of multiple bailout plans by various governments. Three-month dollar Libor was fixed at 4.7525% by the British Bankers
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Britain's economy is likely to shrink in the second half of this year and the chances of a severe downturn have increased, Bank of England policymaker Andrew Sentance said on Monday. The BoE will therefore need to be alert to the risk that activity and employment may weaken much more than is needed to bring
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More than a year after the start of the global credit crisis and a month since the financial hurricane blew into Europe, the European Union has finally got its act together with a common response. Whether the coordinated national measures agreed on Sunday by leaders of the 15-nation euro area and British Prime Minister Gordon
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