Business

May 23, 2011

IMF boss should be chosen on merit say Australia and SA

South Africa and Australia have said the next managing director of the International Monetary…

May 23, 2011

Realigning trade alliances

With the demise of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a realignment of trade alliances is evident in the hemisphere—witness ALBA, Petro Caribe, expanded Mercosur. In the aftermath of the Lome Convention between the European Union and its…

May 23, 2011

Greece default fears rise as reprofiling talk flounders

Bond markets are pricing in a growing risk of an outright debt default by Greece, with its 10-year cost of borrowing hitting a new high of 16.7%. The rising market fears come as European leaders give mixed messages over whether Athens would be…

May 23, 2011

BP reaches Deepwater Horizon settlement with MOEX

One of the owners of the oil well that leaked millions of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico last year has agreed to contribute to BP's compensation fund. MOEX Offshore has agreed to pay $1.065bn (£657m) to BP to settle all claims between the…

May 23, 2011

Tepco president quits as firm reports $15bn loss

The president of Tepco, which operates Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, has resigned as the firm reported a loss of 1.25tn yen ($15.3bn; £9.4bn) for the past financial year. Masataka Shimizu will be replaced by managing director…

May 19, 2011

Japan back in recession as earthquake cuts consumption

Japan, the world's third largest economy, contracted sharply in the first three months of…

May 19, 2011

Greece warned over economic reforms by IMF

The man leading the IMF mission to Greece has warned that the country's plans for reducing its budget deficit will fall short without further reform. Greece must cut its budget deficit to 7.6% of GDP this year to meet the terms of its EU and IMF…

May 19, 2011

US Stocks Advance

U.S. stock indexes advanced in Wednesday's trading. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose seven-tenths of a percent to close at 12,560. The S&P 500 index gained nine-tenths of a percent to end at 1,341 while the NASDAQ gained 1.1 percent to…

May 19, 2011

ECCU accounting professionals increase capacity in financial reporting standards

Over 50 accounting professionals from the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) member countries are engaged in a train the trainers workshop on the international financial reporting standards (IFRS) at the ECCB headquarters in St Kitts and…

May 19, 2011

Japan’s Economy Shrinking at 4% Annual Rate

Japan says its economy shrank at an annual rate of nearly 4 percent during the first three months of the year, as the country struggles to recover from the March earthquake and tsunami. Japan's gross domestic product — the total of all goods and…