FRANKFURT Economic growth in the euro zone is still too weak to create a sufficient number of jobs, European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure told a French newspaper group EBRA on Friday. “Growth is still not strong enough to create a sufficie... More »
BRUSSELS International creditors expect the first review of Greek reforms under the latest bailout to start in October, bringing changes to a memorandum of understanding signed with Athens and paving the way for debt rescheduling talks, euro zone officials sai... More »
BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that the euro zone economy was in better shape than a year ago and said reform efforts by countries like Spain and Ireland had paid off. “If we look at the euro zone as a whole, we can say that there is ... More »
TOKYO The dollar clawed back some of the ground it had lost against the yen on Monday, after skidding on mixed U.S. employment data that failed to bring much clarity to the timing of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s long-awaited interest rate hike. The dollar added ... More »
SHANGHAI China’s yuan weakened against the dollar on Monday in spite of a firmer midpoint, as investors sold the Chinese currency and the central bank was seen to be less heavily intervening in the market via state-owned banks. “Dollar sales by state-owned ban... More »
NEW YORK Stocks edged higher on Wall Street in another volatile session on Thursday while the euro fell 1 percent on a darkening euro zone outlook as investors grew cautious ahead of the closely watched U.S. monthly jobs report. Global stock markets rallied ea... More »
LONDON/NEW YORK Global manufacturing and service sector activity expanded in August at the same pace as in July, with both the U.S. and euro zone doing better than Asia, according to purchasing manager surveys. “Scratching beneath the headline numbers, however... More »
BERLIN German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday that Spain’s economic development showed that the euro zone was tackling its crisis well. “Spain is the best example that we’ve done a lot of things quite right in Europe,” Schaeuble said at a b... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices fell in Asia on Monday as traders took profits, snapping gains last week that saw the biggest two-day rally in six years. Brent crude futures for October delivery LCOc1 slipped more than $1, or 2 percent, before recovering although that st... More »
TOKYO/SINGAPORE The dollar began the week under pressure on Monday, on track for monthly losses but off recent lows as investors kept alive hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates as early as next month. The dollar index .DXY, which trac... More »
SHANGHAI, China’s yuan firmed on Monday after the central bank set a stronger guidance rate while it also appeared to continue using state-owned banks to support the Chinese currency, traders said. For August, the currency is set to depreciate 2.7 percent if i... More »
TOKYO The dollar began the week under pressure on Monday, on track for monthly losses but off recent lows as investors kept alive hope that U.S. jobs data later this week would give the U.S. Federal Reserve reason to raise interest rates as early as next month... More »
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. Central bankers from around the world are telling their American counterparts that they are ready for a U.S. interest rate hike and would prefer that the Federal Reserve make the move without further ado. In private and in public at last wee... More »
ACCRA Ghana faced down the first major challenge to an IMF austerity program on Monday when doctors suspended a three-week strike but a bigger test of President John Mahama’s commitment will come next year as he fights for reelection. The International Monetar... More »
NEW YORK Traders priced in a more than 1-in-2 chance the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates in October after Atlanta Federal Reserve President Dennis Lockhart suggested the Fed could consider such a move. In over-the-counter trading, overnight ind... More »
BERLIN A Greek exit from the euro zone was a possibility and remains a threat if Athens does not fulfill the conditions of its third bailout agreement, the head of the European Stability Mechanism said on Thursday. “This threat as a possibility must always be ... More »
BERLIN French Economy Ministry Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday developments in China pose a risk that should not be underestimated. He was speaking at an event with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the German capital. (Reporting by Andreas Ri... More »
SHANGHAI, China’s yuan dipped against the dollar on Tuesday after closing at its weakest level since 2011 on Monday, hit by another slump in the mainland’s stock market and a weak central bank midpoint. Traders said they believed the yuan’s current range betwe... More »
LONDON Volatile global markets got some respite from the latest blood-letting on Tuesday as bargain hunters nudged up Asian and European stocks, though China, at the center of the rout, was smashed again. The dollar and oil prices saw their first rises in five... More »
BEIJING China said it would launch a three-month crackdown on underground banking to curb money-laundering and illegal funds transfers as unstable markets stoke fears of capital flight. Worries over China’s economic slowdown and possible interest rate rises by... More »
SINGAPORE/TOKYO The dollar rose against the yen on Tuesday, pulling up from a slide to seven-month lows the previous day, but the outlook remained clouded by worries of a China-led slowdown in global growth. Traders said a rise in U.S. stock index futures and ... More »
(James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own) By James Saft (Reuters) – Future risk-adjusted returns look poor from here, but if the Federal Reserve deploys its safety net they will be worse still. Monday’s savage markets selloff inev... More »
TOKYO Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso warned market players against pushing up the yen too much further, saying that its spike against the dollar overnight was “rough” and undesirable for the economy. Aso said that while there was no immediate plan for G20 ... More »
BlackRock Inc’s (BLK.N) chief investment officer of fundamental fixed income, Rick Rieder, believes the window for the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates is closing, he said in an interview on Monday. While Rieder hopes the Fed will still begin raisi... More »
NEW YORK Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz SE, said Monday that turmoil in stock markets was creating opportunities for investors, but could prevent the Federal Reserve from hiking interest rates next month. El-Erian also said that equity mar... More »
FRANKFURT Between 50 and 60 euro zone banks will be included in next year’s stress test of top EU lenders, fewer than half of the number in the 2014 exercise, a European Central Bank spokeswoman said on Friday. The ECB is the supervisor for top banks in the si... More »
SHANGHAI China’s currency fell to a four-year low on Wednesday, slumping for a second day, after a central bank devaluation on Tuesday, and government sources believe the yuan may be allowed to slide even further to help the country’s exporters. The yuan trade... More »
NEW YORK Stocks, the U.S. dollar, and emerging market currencies around the world remained under pressure for a second day on Wednesday after China’s yuan weakened again, a day after the country devalued its currency. Major Wall Street averages pared losses by... More »
NEW YORK The U.S. dollar fell on Wednesday to its lowest in about a month against a basket of major currencies, on doubts over whether the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in September given China’s devaluation of the yuan. The euro hit its highe... More »
BEIJING China’s move to devalue its currency reflects a growing clamor within government circles for a weaker yuan to help struggling exporters, ensuring the central bank remains under pressure to drag it down further in the months ahead, sources said. The yua... More »
JAKARTA Indonesian President Joko Widodo put two experienced technocrats into economic management posts on Wednesday in a cabinet reshuffle designed to reassure investors worried about a policy drift that has allowed growth to slip to a six-year low. Widodo’s ... More »
BEIJING Growth in China’s factory output, investment and retail sales were all weaker than expected in July, adding pressure on Beijing to roll out more measures to prevent a deeper slowdown, days after it shocked markets by devaluing its currency. While the c... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday said China’s devaluation of the yuan would be “devastating” for the United States. “They’re just destroying us,” the billionaire businessman, a long-time critic of China’s currency policy, sa... More »
China’s massive foreign currency reserves are dwindling at a more than half-trillion-dollar annual pace, a trend which may tighten global credit conditions. China’s central bank said its reserves fell by $43 billion in July to $3.65 trillion, in the first ever... More »
LONDON/SYDNEY Economic headwinds facing Chinese manufacturers intensified last month, with conditions deteriorating to their weakest level in two years, while euro zone factories largely shrugged off Greece’s brush with bankruptcy. July was a fraught month for... More »
BERLIN French finance minister Michel Sapin has criticized his German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble for suggesting that Greece could temporarily leave the euro zone, but said the Franco-German relationship is “not broken”. In an interview with German business... More »
LONDON U.S. equities’ share in global portfolios fell to the lowest in at least five years and U.S. bond allocations were also cut as nervous investors started readying themselves for the first Federal Reserve rate rise in almost a decade. But while U.S. asset... More »
ATHENS Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, struggling to contain a revolt in his left-wing Syriza party, said on Wednesday that his government would not implement reform measures beyond those agreed with lenders at a euro zone summit this month. Tsipras faces... More »
BERLIN A Greek exit from the euro zone would cause “utter chaos” but would have to be accepted if Athens was not willing to implement reforms, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian ally Horst Seehofer told German newspaper Die Welt on Wednesday. “No one can pred... More »
PARIS European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Wednesday that talks on a third bailout plan for Greece were taking place in “good conditions” and that the risk of an exit of Greece from the euro zone was gone. “Grexit is beh... More »
BERLIN The German government’s panel of independent economic advisers favors creating an insolvency mechanism for euro zone states and says countries should be able to leave the single currency as a last resort. The Greek crisis has called into question the fu... More »
LONDON/NEW YORK The global economy started the second half of the year on shaky ground with China’s factory sector activity contracting in July at the fastest pace in 15 months and euro zone manufacturing weaker than expected, although U.S. activity picked up.... More »
PARIS The prospect of Greece being forced to leave the euro zone has lifted, ECB governing council member Christian Noyer said in an interview with Le Monde newspaper published on Friday. Noyer, who is also governor of the Bank of France, said that Greece repr... More »
LONDON Britain’s government is asking some departments to prepare to cut day-to-day spending by as much as 40 percent by the 2019/20 tax year, in a major spending review launched by Conservative finance minister George Osborne on Tuesday. The finance ministry ... More »
BERLIN German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel criticized Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in a television interview to be broadcast later on Sunday for suggesting that Greece could quit the euro zone temporarily. Schaeuble has said that Greece could take a ... More »
BRUSSELS The latest paroxysm of Greece’s debt crisis has exposed growing rifts in the euro zone which, unless addressed soon, could lead to the break-up of European monetary union, the EU’s most ambitious project. The most worrying sign for European leaders is... More »
BERLIN German lawmakers gave their go-ahead on Friday for the euro zone to negotiate a third bailout for Greece, but a warning from Chancellor Angela Merkel that the alternative was chaos failed to prevent a hefty rebellion in her own party. The Bundestag, the... More »
BERLIN German lawmakers gave their go ahead on Friday for the euro zone to negotiate a third bailout for Greece, heeding a warning from Chancellor Angela Merkel that the alternative to a deal with Athens was chaos. The Bundestag lower house of parliament, whos... More »
BRUSSELS The head of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Friday he was “certain” there would be problems with Greece in the years to come after the euro zone’s bailout fund decided to open talks with Greece on a third bailout program. “It’s not going to ... More »
BRUSSELS Euro zone leaders told near-bankrupt Greece at an emergency summit on Sunday it must enact key reforms this week to restore trust before they will open talks on a financial rescue to keep it in the European currency area. Leftist Prime Minister Alexis... More »
BRUSSELS/ATHENS Greece faces a last chance to stay in the euro zone on Tuesday when Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras puts proposals to an emergency euro zone summit after Greek voters resoundingly rejected the austerity terms of a defunct bailout. With Greek bank... More »
ATHENS Euclid Tsakalotos, the mild-tempered professor who was appointed as Greece’s new finance minister on Monday, is a clear change in style from his combative predecessor Yanis Varoufakis. The 55-year-old Tsakalotos studied at prestigious private London sch... More »
FRANKFURT The euro may be facing an existential crisis but the giant 14-metre sculpture of the euro symbol that towers over downtown Frankfurt, home of the European Central Bank, was still getting its biggest makeover in 13 years on Monday. Considered an eyeso... More »
ATHENS The head of the European Commission made a last-minute offer to try to persuade Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to accept a bailout deal he has rejected before a referendum on Sunday which EU partners say will be a choice of whether to stay in the e... More »
WASHINGTON The fuse may be lit for a Greek exit from the euro zone but the fallout in the United States is expected to be modest and not enough to throw the Federal Reserve’s likely September rate hike off course, said former Fed officials and outside analysts... More »
LISBON The euro zone needs to strengthen cooperation to avoid contagion in financial markets as no country is immune to the consequences of a potential Greek exit from the single currency, Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho said on Monday. “Nobody c... More »
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