Global Economy, International Monetary Fund | featured news

Portugal will elect a new government on Sunday which will lead the country through a period of deep austerity and recession after it received a 78-billion-euro ($114 billion) bailout from the European Union and IMF.

Euro zone finance ministers are ready to back an EU/IMF bailout of Portugal at a Monday meeting overshadowed by the arrest of International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn on sexual assault charges.

The Belgian finance minister and International Monetary Fund suggested that the scope of measures to stabilize the euro should be strengthened.

The EU and IMF extends 85bn euros of emergency loans to the Republic of Ireland, according to reports on Irish state television.

Greece reached agreement with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund on rescue loans to keep Athens from defaulting on its debts, a deal that will impose harsh cuts on the county's 11 million people for years.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday declared that a global economic recovery has begun led by Asia, also cautioning that the strength of the rebound depended on a rebalancing of global growth.