Category: Other

LONDON, September 18, 2008 (AFP) – Oil prices extended gains on Thursday as the dollar fell following a coordinated plan by major central banks around the world to boost liquidity amid a credit crunch. “The coordinated move by central banks has seen the dollar sold off and has sparked some interest in the dollar denominated […]

NEW YORK, September 16, 2008 (AFP) – The dollar rallied against the other main currencies Tuesday after the Federal Reserve surprised the market by holding interest rates steady and defied expectations of a rate cut. The Fed decision to hold its base lending rate at 2.0 percent in the face of panic on the world […]

LONDON, September 17, 2008 (AFP) – Barclays said Wednesday it had reached a deal to acquire the North American investment banking and capital markets businesses of beleaguered US investment giant Lehman Brothers for 1.75 billion dollars. The bank said it would acquire trading assets with an estimated value of 72 billion dollars (40 billion pounds, […]

JEDDAH, September 17, 2008 (AFP) – Finance chiefs of oil-rich Gulf states on Wednesday approved proposals to set up a monetary council and a charter for a monetary union, the Arab bloc’s secretary general said. Finance and economy ministers of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council approved the monetary union charter and the council’s bylaws during […]

LONDON, September 17, 2008 (AFP) – The global financial firestorm claimed a fresh victim Wednesday as top British mortgage lender HBOS said it was in takeover talks after a huge US bailout of insurer AIG helped underpin volatile share prices. “In the light of market speculation, the Board of HBOS plc confirms that it is […]

TOKYO, September 16, 2008 (AFP) – The Bank of Japan on Tuesday injected 1.5 trillion yen (14.4 billion dollars) into money markets in a bid to contain market turmoil after the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers. The central bank said on its website that it injected the sum onto the open markets at […]

NEW YORK, September 15, 2008 (AFP) – Struggling US insurance giant American International Group was thrown a life-line Monday by New York authorities, who said the company could borrow some 20 billion dollars from its subsidiaries. New York Governor David Paterson said he had called on regulators “to provide the authorization, such that AIG can […]

WASHINGTON, September 16, 2008 (AFP) – US consumer prices dropped 0.1 percent in August as falling energy costs eased inflation pressures, government data showed Tuesday. The softer inflation came as welcome news for an economy battered by a credit crunch and real estate woes, analysts said. Some said it could make it easier for the […]

LONDON, September 16, 2008 (AFP) – British 12-month inflation hit a fresh 16-year high of 4.7 percent in August on the back of soaring domestic energy bills, official data showed. Britain’s economy experienced zero percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the second quarter, which was the country’s weakest performance for 16 years. Despite the […]

WASHINGTON, September 15, 2008 (AFP) – A last-ditch effort to find a buyer for troubled Wall Street investment bank Lehman Brothers appeared near collapse Sunday in a turbulent weekend for the finance sector.As emergency weekend talks on Lehman’s woes were being held in New York, a London source at British bank Barclays, who requested anonymity, […]