Portugal is under pressure to seek a European bailout due to concerns Lisbon’s debt woes could drag down Spain and trigger an even greater crisis. The Financial Times Deutschland said some states wanted Portugal to seek aid in order to avoid Spain, the fifth largest EU economy, from having to follow suit. “If Portugal were…
Western energy firms are poised to strike deals in Turkmenistan as the Central Asian state opens up its lucrative oil and gas reserves after years of isolation. Chevron Corp, Total and TXOil Ltd, a company chaired by a younger brother of former US president George W. Bush, are among those pursuing deals in the desert…
After two days of talks, the G20 has ended up at the lowest common denominator. An agreement to develop “indicative guidelines” to help identify large current account imbalances that risk destabilising the global economy was the bare minimum expected of the leaders of the world’s 20 major economies. By giving finance ministers the task of…
China cannot continue to resist upward market pressure on its yuan currency without facing higher inflation and rising asset prices, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said recently. Geithner, in an interview with CNBC television on the sidelines of a Group of 20 leaders summit, said he believed there had been progress on China currency issues…
