BRE Bank is setting new trends both in terms of customer service and product offering

Global trade will face lingering protectionism for up to two years, as the job market reels from the global financial crisis, World Trade Organisation Director-General Pascal Lamy said recently. “We are not out of the woods in coping with this protectionist tensions,” Lamy told reporters in the Chilean capital Santiago during a visit. “We on […]

The Bank of Japan could say this month that consumer prices will stop falling next fiscal year, sources say, but analysts said it would keep its easing bias as a full-fledged escape from deflation is still a distant goal. That would mark an upgrade to the BOJ’s current price forecast for the year to March […]

The return of investors to Gulf Arab markets will help bridge a gap with emerging economies which appeared last year amid the debt crisis in Dubai, the chief executive of London-based Silk Invest said

Africa’s contribution to the global body of scientific research is very small and does little to benefit its own populations, according to a report from Thomson Reuters. Like India and China, Africa suffers from a “haemorrhage of talent”, the report said, with many of its best brains leaving to study abroad and failing to return. […]

The emergency aid deal for Greece dramatically cuts the risk of troubles spreading to other strained Eurozone countries, the head of UniCredit, the region’s third largest bank, has told reporters

China’s agency overseeing big state-owned businesses has received plans from 78 state companies spelling out how they intend to sell out of the nation’s heady property market, according to sources. The China Securities Journal also reported that the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) was compiling a general plan to achieve the divestment, intended […]

The World Bank is set to approve a controversial $3.75bn loan to help South African state utility Eskom develop a coal-fired power plant despite objections from the US and environmental groups. Eskom has argued it has no immediate alternative but to develop the 4,800-megawatt Medupi coal-fired plant in the northern Limpopo region to ease chronic […]

The World Bank has committed a record $100bn in financial support over the past 18 months to help developing countries recover from the global economic crisis

The US should consider raising taxes to help bring deficits under control and may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, White House adviser Paul Volcker has announced. Volcker, answering a question from the audience at a New York Historical Society event, said the value-added tax “was not as toxic an idea” as it has […]

Southeast Asian economies will grow up to 5.6 percent this year but the expansion could be jeopardised if economic stimulus is withdrawn too early, according to a report by a regional body. Nevertheless, the governments of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) need to design an orderly exit strategy to show that they […]

China’s increasing regional influence will keep Asian governments from pressuring the world’s fastest growing economy into letting its currency strengthen for fear of economic or political repurcussion. China has repeatedly said a decision on unshackling the yuan would depend on domestic conditions, after effectively pegging it to the US dollar for the past 20 months, […]

Taiwan has leveraged its goal of a landmark trade deal with China to open talks with Japan, the US and other powers on free trade deals expected to boost the long-isolated island economy, officials have declared. Appealing to countries that have been barred by Taiwan’s political rival China from signing FTAs with the island, Taiwan […]

The walls that protect central banks from external attack are under siege as politicians struggle to share out the costs of unwinding the extraordinary stimulus imparted to counter the global credit crunch

The Dubai government unveiled plans to recapitalise its indebted Dubai World flagship and repay Nakheel bonds in full, injecting what it said was $9.5bn in new funding, but without new aid from Abu Dhabi. In a statement, the government said $5.7bn in remaining funds from a loan made by Abu Dhabi would provide the lion’s […]