Economy, Global Economy | featured news

China delivered a surprise interest rate cut on Thursday to combat faltering growth, underlining concern among policymakers worldwide that the euro area's deepening crisis is threatening the health of the global economy.

The European Commission will propose far-reaching powers for regulators to deal with failing banks on Wednesday, a step towards the banking union the European Central Bank has demanded to secure the euro's future.

When Jean-Claude Trichet called last June for the creation of a European finance ministry with power over national budgets, the idea seemed fanciful, a distant dream that would take years or even decades to realize, if it ever came to be.

Spain, the latest combat zone in Europe's long-running debt wars, urged the euro zone to set up a new fiscal authority to manage the bloc's finances and send a clear signal to markets that the single currency project is irreversible.

Oil prices plunged as bleak reports on U.S. job growth and manufacturing heightened worries about a slowing global economy. Benchmark oil fell $3.49 to $83.04 per barrel Friday.

German, US and UK yields fell to all-time lows after Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said the future of the euro is at stake, driving demand for the safest government securities.

Concerns over a slowdown in the world's biggest economies hit world markets on Friday, with weak indicators out of China and Europe's financial turmoil unsettling investors ahead of a crucial U.S. jobs report.

India’s problems have dampened hopes that it, along with China and other non-Western economies, might help revive global growth.

Spanish 10-year borrowing costs neared the 7 percent danger level and Bankia shares hit record lows on Monday after the government, struggling to sort out its finances, proposed putting sovereign debt into the struggling lender.