The British Pound recovered from six-week drop against US dollar ahead of a government report as economists expect it will confirm that UK's budget deficit lessened in October. On Tuesday during London morning trading session the pound advanced 0.3% reaching $1.5684 after hitting the lowest level at $1.5613 yesterday. The pair is currently trading at 1.5633 US Dollars per Pound.
Nigerian central bank left its key interest rate level unchanged first time in 2011 and devalued national currency Naira to stimulate growth in Africa's largest oil producing country. Central bank kept interest rate at record high 12% while devalued exchange rate from 150 Naira per US dollar to 155 Naira per US dollar. In 3rd quarter country's economic growth decelerated to 7.4% from 7.7% as
Edinburgh's biggest real estate managers Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and Standard Life Investments are boosting their investments in commercial buildings in south-east England and London on predictions that rents will surge quicker than in other regions of the UK. Scottish Widows' Gerry Ferguson thinks that return on property in respective areas is going to provide annual return of at least 7% in next five years.
Russia has approved lending package worth $9 bn to finance the building of nation's first nuclear power station as both countries strengthen their economic connections. According to Phan Minh Tuan, Vietnam Electricity's development department manager, the value of a loan can vary between $8 bn and $9 bn depending on construction costs. The lending period is said to be 28 years, however, interest rate wasn't
Antonis Samaras, the leader of Greek New Democracy party, was advised by the European Commission president to stop so-called political games and cancel his refusal to sign written agreement for Greek budget reduction as a requirement for the next package of overseas aid. Jose Barroso told Samaras that EU and IMF have to be certain that Greek commitment is sustainable.
Today Moody's Investors Service announced it downgraded Norwegian export credit institution Eksportfinans from Aa3 to Ba1 also known as junk. The downgrading is imposed after Norwegian government took over the support of country's export industry by granting its loans. Rating agency claimed Eksportfinans's excessive focusing on sole exposures was as an additional reason for downgrading.
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services announced Spain AA-minus credit rating was not impacted by the outcome of general election on Sunday where centre-right Popular Party has won. The credit rating agency admits that new government can facilitate implementation of reforms but the overall situation in the country remains pessimistic taken high debt and increase in unemployment. Spain's cost of borrowing decreased by 2 basis points to
China and Hong Kong agreed on providing more access to Chinese currency. The shift indicates China's readiness to stimulate global use of yuan. New agreement stipulates that Hong Kong can access 400bn yuan from the central bank of China. Some experts claim the yuan might become a reserve currency as USD.
There is a balance on the crude oil markets and the current price level is comfortable, reports OPEC. The OPEC group members are planning to meet on the 14th of December in Vienna to discuss future prospects. The meeting will be in a positive atmosphere as the situation in the global market improved, said Abdalla Salem, OPEC secretary. However, OPEC is likely to decrease
US supercommittee, created to decrease the deficit by $1.2 trln, announced the cease of its activities as it was not possible to reach a consensus in bipartisan system. The result implies automatic reductions of the deficit starting from 2013. The US national debt has already achieved a mark of $15 trln recently. Nevertheless, the government believes it will be able to resolve the
Kraft Foods Inc., the second-largest food producer, announced India the strategically important market for further expansion of the company. Kraft's takeover of Cadbury PLC in 2010 permitted the company to access promising Latin American and Asian markets. Indian sales grow by 40% a year. Kraft Foods is going to invest essentially in Indian markets.
India's currency rupee declined to all-time low against USD forcing the local companies to buy dollar despite worries about global crisis. The rupee decreased to 52.50 to the USD on Tuesday, raising fears about new inflation. At the moment inflation in India has fallen by 14% since the beginning of 2011. Recent decline in the rupee value adds to market uncertainty in the country.
South Korea ratified a free-trade agreement with US. The vote on the agreement was organized promptly to escape debates with opposition parties. The trade agreement was accepted by US lawmakers and signed by Barack Obama last month and is expected to come into force in the beginning of the next year.
Brazilian government announced it fins Chevron, US oil company for the oil spill near Rio de Janeiro coast. The amount of fine is $28m. Chevron fully accepted responsibly explaining that it underestimated water pressure while drilling. Chevron may face more fines as investigation into the matter continues, said Izabella Teixeira, Brazilian Environment Minister.
Austria's government is discussing a law on limitation of the foreign investors' ability to take over Australian companies that are of strategic importance. The new regulation will come in force in December, said Christoph Matznetter, spokesman of Social Democratic Party. New regulation will oblige foreign buyers to obtain the government's approval to take over more than 25% of strategic Austrian businesses. EU, the European Economic
Last week ECB purchased sovereign bonds worth €7.986 bn as Italian bonds hit record level and borrowing cost also surged elsewhere in the European region. The ECB did not disclose distribution of debt-purchase amounts by maturity or country. Market pressure forced ECB to renew bond buying in August. On Tuesday ECB claimed to withdraw €194.5 bn from market with a maximum acceptable bid rate at
On Monday Republicans and Democrats announced they did not manage to approve the proposal of budget cuts in order to reduce national deficit by $1.2 trillion in next 10 years. The failure reflects US inability to put his financial system in order. US gridlock come in inappropriate time amid Europe's struggle to end debt crisis. Additionally deadlock implies uncertainty whether officials will support payroll tax reductions or
On Monday the Hungarian national currency fell again versus 17 nation currency and is moving towards record low (317.72 forint per euro) on growing anxiety that the country also will call for a bailout from International Monetary Fund. Euro appreciated against forint extra 0.7% on Monday reaching a 10% increase on a yearly basis.
On Monday commodity value replicated trend of other markets and declined as investors are competing for gaining safe asset in form of cash on increased worries about debt distress across Europe and US. According to Carlos Sanchez, CPM Group's precious metals analyst commodity markets in Europe and US is 3% and 2% off respectively while Asia has lost more than 2%. Oil prices also have diminished
LDK Solar Co., the Xinyu City, China, producer of solar energy products reports about loss in Q3 caused by decline in sales by 30%.The loss is estimated as $114.5 million compared to net profit of $93.4 million in the same period in 2010. The demand was lower than anticipated, said Xiaofeng Peng, Chief Executive. The total sales for the year projected by the company
US, UK and Canada imposed sanctions on Iran as there are growing worries about Iran's nuclear program. UK's banks were forced to discontinue all financial transactions with Iran's credit institutions while Canada plans to ban some exports from Iran like oil and gas. UN report states Iran develops a nuclear weapons; however, Iran claims the nuclear program is only for civil purposes. China and Russia
China's banks reported weaker yuan position for the first time in four years. The outflow indicates that investors' sentiment was impacted by projected slowdown of the China's economy. FDI decreased by 25% in Q3 to $35.9 billion and trade surplus narrowed accounting less than 1.6% of GDP in 2011. Experts project depreciation of the yuan in the following two years.
Despite recent announcement of the supercommittee's failure to implement deficit reduction measures and high volatility of the stock markets many experts claim the US economy shows signs of recovery. Retail sales increased more than expected by 1.1%. In case the trend continues the GDP growth might be more than 3% in last quarter this year. Moreover, the number of unemployment claims decreased from 400,000 to
Xstrata PLC., the world largest coal exporting company, expressed concerns regarding some new details included in a draft of the mining tax law in Australia. The law was discussed earlier by the Australian government and the largest coal miners. However, small companies complained the tax gives advantages to large producers and decreases the tax revenue for the government.