Paris — The global economic recovery may be slowing down faster than had been expected, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said yesterday in Paris. “Recent high-frequency indicators point to a slowdown in the pace of recovery of the world economy that is somewhat more

TOKYO — Japan yesterday raised the prospect of intervention in the currency markets as leaders faced mounting calls to act on the surging yen, which is sitting at 15-year highs against the dollar. Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said the government was examining ways that it could sell down the Jap

SYDNEY — Australian regulators rejected National Australia Bank’s $12.2 billion bid for financial firm AXA Asia Pacific on competition concerns yesterday, in a move welcomed by rival suitor AMP. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said NAB’s suggestion of divesting key techno

LONDON — The Bank of England kept its key lending rate at a record low level of 0.50 per cent for the eighteenth month running yesterday, as data shows Britain’s strong recovery from recession is stalling. The central bank also kept easy money flowing to the economy. “The Bank of England’s Monetar

LONDON — A British watchdog hit the iconic but controversial Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs with a huge fine of £17.5 million yesterday, for information failures tied to US fraud charges. The Financial Services Authority said the fine, equivalent to $27 million or 21 million euros, was for “weakn

WASHINGTON — New US reforms are poised to dramatically shift the nation’s healthcare spending, not only curbing Medicare costs but also pumping more money toward the private sector as roughly 32 million people gain coverage. Although the law has little impact on overall healthcare spending, governm

KRYNICA, Poland — The euro was like a sleeping pill ahead of the global economic crisis, as countries failed to wake up to the need to reform, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso (pictured) said. “I don't want to think how we would be now if we didn't have the euro,” Barroso told the

TAIPEI — Political pressure to protect farmers will stall Taiwan's dreams of signing free trade agreements (FTA) with Southeast Asia, setting back a piece of the island's growth strategy, a senior official said yesterday. Taiwan's $12.8 billion agricultural sector, dominated by small farms that rep

CHICAGO — BP sought to spread the blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, setting off a battle of oil industry giants with tens of billions of dollars in potential fines and legal liabilities at stake. The British energy giant released a report concluding that a “sequence of failures” were to bl

WASHINGTON — New US claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week to a two-month low, while the trade deficit narrowed sharply in July, hopeful signs for the stuttering economic recovery. Analysts said the reports yesterday helped to calm fears growth was slowing sharply and im