Tuesday, 14 May 2013 09:16
Posted by Parvez Jabri
BRUSSELS: European finance ministers bid Tuesday to unlock a trillion-euro annual crackdown on tax evasion, under pressure from EU leaders looking for new measures to boost job creation and growth at their Brussels summit next week.The meeting is expected to be laborious, with Austrian seeking guarantees before agreeing to the automatic sharing of bank records and amid squabbling over the need for treaty change to fix a seemingly stalled banking union sold as the final fix for the debt crisis.That and a ticking clock on negotiations over the European Union's shrinking budget and rising unpaid bills, following inconclusive talks convened by EU President Herman Van Rompuy on MondayFor once, the finance ministers should be relatively refreshed after exceptionally light eurozone discussions on Monday -- notwithstanding increasing concerns over the possible need for a joint bailout of indebted Slovenia.Lower-level officials slaving away on the mechanics of complex impacts on trillions in ...
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BRUSSELS: European finance ministers bid Tuesday to unlock a trillion-euro annual crackdown on tax evasion, under pressure from EU leaders looking for new measures to boost job creation and growth at their Brussels summit next week.The meeting is expected to be laborious, with Austrian seeking guarantees before agreeing to the automatic sharing of bank records and amid squabbling over the need for treaty change to fix a seemingly stalled banking union sold as the final fix for the debt crisis.That and a ticking clock on negotiations over the European Union's shrinking budget and rising unpaid bills, following inconclusive talks convened by EU President Herman Van Rompuy on MondayFor once, the finance ministers should be relatively refreshed after exceptionally light eurozone discussions on Monday -- notwithstanding increasing concerns over the possible need for a joint bailout of indebted Slovenia.Lower-level officials slaving away on the mechanics of complex impacts on trillions in ...
LIBREVILLE: Addax Petroleum, a subsidiary of China's Sinopec Group, could lose its licence to operate in Gabon for failing to pay customs duties and comply with other laws, senior officials at the crude-producing Central African nation's oil ministry said on Monday."The government has criticized Addax for the non-payment of customs duties since 2009 and non-compliance with the Gabon's hydrocarbons and environment code," a senior official of Gabon's oil ministry told Reuters on Monday.Addax has denied ...
NEW YORK: America's housing market is both cheap and out of reach. It's one of the few assets that still look undervalued as stock and bond prices go through the roof. That's ironic, considering the Federal Reserve's bond-buying policy was designed in part to prop up housing. But tight lending standards make it hard for many to take advantage of the opportunity.There may not be much juice left in bonds. Last week PIMCO's Bill Gross ...
NEW YORK: Oil and gas company Hess Corp offered hedge fund Elliott Management two seats on its board as the company looks to avoid losing five seats to the activist at its annual meeting this week."Consistent with our commitment to refresh the majority of our board by the end of 2013, we are prepared to add two Elliott nominees whom we would choose in consultation with shareholders," the company said in a statement on Monday. ...
WASHINGTON: US retail sales unexpectedly rose in April as households bought automobiles, building materials and a range of other goods, pointing to underlying strength in the economy in the face of government austerity.The Commerce Department said on Monday retail sales edged up 0.1 percent after a 0.5 percent decline in March. Economists had expected retail sales, which account for about 30 percent of consumer spending, to drop 0.3 percent last month."The overall tone of this ...
ALMATY: Kazakhstan's industrial output growth slowed to 1.9 percent in annual terms in January-April 2013 from 2.7 percent in the same period a year earlier, data from the State Statistics Agency showed on Monday.Output in Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy, grew by 0.5 percent in 2012, the lowest rise in the last 10 years, much slower than the 2.7 percent forecast by the government and way below the 3.5 percent rise posted in 2011.Copyright Reuters, ...
SYDNEY: Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan admitted Sunday it was politically "very uncomfortable" to fail to return the budget to surplus as forecast, but blamed unprecedented shortfalls in government revenue.Swan, who will deliver his sixth annual budget on Tuesday, said a year ago that the national accounts should come out of deficit this financial year.But a fall in tax revenues has forced him to delay the surplus."What has changed has been a fundamental writedown of revenue, ...
