The US dollar lost much of its luster over the past decade as its status as a global reserve currency was challenged and its value against most key currencies saw erosion. On the foreign exchange market, the euro was virtually on parity with the dollar at December 31, 1999 but a decade later the greenback has fallen by 30 percent against the single European currency. The euro, launched on January 1, 1999, fetched around 1.43 dollars on Thursday, the last trading day of the year. The dollar's... Read Full Story
The International Monetary Fund's predictions for global economic growth will almost certainly be revised upward as the world embarks on a quicker-than-expected recovery from its worst recession in generations, the IMF's deputy head said Monday. Read Full Story
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, seeking to lift Britain out of a record recession as he battles to stay in power, urged stronger trade links with China in a speech to business leaders on Monday. Brown, whose Labour government is expected to lose an election next year at the hands of the opposition Conservatives, unveiled a new growth strategy at the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry. The CBI, the nation's biggest employers' body, is focusing this year on how businesses... Read Full Story
LONDON (Reuters) - The global economy is in a holding pattern and vulnerable to more upheaval, and a lasting recovery will depend on policymakers taking the proper steps in coming months, the head of the IMF said on Monday. Rich countries' top priority should be planning to clean up the fiscal mess left by emergency support measures although it was still too early to remove them, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said. "Exiting too soon would be terrible... Read Full Story
A look at economic developments and activity in major stock markets around the world Monday: ___ LONDON — The international economy is still fragile and vulnerable to shocks despite recent improvements in financial markets, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund said. Dominique Strauss-Kahn told business leaders he believes the worst of the economic crisis has passed — but that problems remained. Strauss-Kahn also said Asian countries needed to help drive international... Read Full Story
PARIS (Reuters) - Half of the losses suffered by banks could still be hidden in their balance sheets, more so in Europe than in the United States, the International Monetary Fund's chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was quoted as saying on Tuesday. In an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro, Strauss-Kahn also said the IMF thought the euro currency was probably a bit too strong. "There are still some important losses that have not been unveiled," Strauss-Kahn was quoted as saying in response... Read Full Story
The international economy is still fragile and vulnerable to shocks despite recent improvements in financial markets, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund said Monday. Dominique Strauss-Kahn told business leaders in London that he believes the worst of the economic crisis has passed — but that problems remained. "The economy remains very much in holding pattern — stable and getting better but still highly vulnerable," he said in a speech to the Confederation of British... Read Full Story
The head of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Kahn said here on Monday that although the worst of the global financial storm had passed, the world economy remains "highly vulnerable." "Today the storm has passed. The worst has been averted thanks to a bold and rapid policy response and thanks to cooperation," he told delegates at the annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) -- Britain's biggest employers group. "We can say that the recovery has started but everyone understand... Read Full Story
The dollar firmed against the euro and fell versus the yen on Tuesday following a rare comment on currencies by US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke. In late morning trading here, the European single currency fell to 1.4939 dollars from 1.4972 dollars late in New York on Monday. Against the Japanese currency, the dollar eased to 88.97 yen from 89.05 yen late on Monday. Bernanke's remark in a speech on Monday caused the dollar to shoot up against the euro, but the greenback soon came under... Read Full Story
Ukraine on Friday appealed to the International Monetary Fund for a loan of around two billion dollars to overcome an "extremely difficult" financial situation, government officials said. The cash would be half of the next tranche of Ukraine's 16.4-billion-dollar standby credit from the IMF that was agreed last year, Natalya Lysova, spokeswoman for Deputy Prime Minister Grigory Nemyria, told AFP. "It amounts to around 2 billion dollars," she said. Lysova confirmed comments made by Nemyria to... Read Full Story
