News

German central banker in race row resigns

A German central bank board member who caused outrage with remarks about Muslim immigrants and Jews has resigned after coming under pressure from political leaders including Chancellor Angela Merkel. The Bundesbank said Thilo Sarrazin, 65, who accused Turks and Arabs of exploiting the welfare state, refusing to integrate and lowering the average intelligence, would leave…

US trade gap narrows more than expected in July

The US trade deficit narrowed more than expected in July, as imports retreated and exports shot to their highest since August 2008, according to a government report that could lift hopes for third-quarter economic growth. The monthly trade deficit shrank 14 percent to $42.8bn, which was smaller than the mid-point forecast of $47.3bn from economists…

Police beat customers at crisis-hit Afghan bank

Afghan security forces used batons on unruly customers scrambling to withdraw their savings from a branch of the graft-hit Kabulbank, the country’s biggest private financial institution. Officers from the National Security Directorate struggled to maintain control of up to 200 people outside one branch in the capital as desperate customers tried to take out money…

Barroso says EU economic recovery gathering pace

Economic recovery is gathering pace in the European Union and growth this year will be higher than initially forecast, according to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. In a policy speech to the European Parliament in the French city of Strasbourg, the head of the EU executive said structural reforms must be accelerated in the…

BOJ not doing enough on deflation

The Bank of Japan is not doing enough to fight deflation and one possibility is for the central bank to buy more government bonds, a campaign aide to a ruling party powerbroker challenging Prime Minister Naoto Kan said. But lower house lawmaker Banri Kaieda, an aide to Ichiro Ozawa, also said that the BOJ alone…

Zambia raises 2010 GDP forecast to 6.6%

Zambia has raised its 2010 economic growth forecast to 6.6 percent from a June forecast of 5.8 percent after a higher than expected performance in the first half of the year, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane has announced. “We adjusted the growth forecast to 6.6 percent from 5.8 percent because we now know that mining, agriculture…

Ukraine signs $950m China loan for railway link

Ukraine has secured a $950m loan from China to build a railway link between Kiev and the capital’s main airport and has hired a Chinese company for the project, the Chinese People’s Daily newspaper said on Friday. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, who arrived in China on Thursday for a state visit – the first by…