WASHINGTON – Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei criticized Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, calling him “an irrational type” due to the candidate’s proposal that tariffs on imported Chinese goods be increased to up to 45 percent. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday, Lou said, “Trump is ... Read More »

LONDON  – A growing roster of developing states are turning to their compatriots abroad to raise cash by marketing “diaspora bonds”, a funding strategy successfully pioneered by India and Israel but sometimes tricky to imitate. Some 250 million people, around 3 percent of the world population, live outside their native ... Read More »

WASHINGTON– Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz pushed back on Saturday at the suggestion the central bank had accepted economic assumptions from the Department of Finance without doing due diligence about Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s budget. “It might be worth spending a couple minutes on the question of fiscal multipliers ... Read More »

DUBAI – Saudi Arabia will announce on April 25 a comprehensive plan to prepare the kingdom for an era in which it does not rely heavily on oil, Bloomberg quoted deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman as saying. The “Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” will include developmental, economic, social ... Read More »

DOHA  – A deal to freeze oil output by OPEC and non-OPEC producers fell apart on Sunday after Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran join in despite calls on Riyadh to save the agreement and help prop up crude prices. The development will revive oil industry fears that major producers are ... Read More »

Brazil’s lower house of Congress will decide on Sunday whether to recommend impeaching President Dilma Rousseff on charges of manipulating budgetary accounts, in a vote that could hasten the end of 13 years of leftist Workers Party rule. The political crisis, which comes amid Brazil’s worst recession since the 1930s, ... Read More »

As earnings season shifts into high gear next week in what is expected to be the weakest U.S. quarterly results reporting period since 2009, the hope among some is that this is as bad as it’s going to get. The U.S. earnings recession that began in the third quarter of ... Read More »

Iran’s main goal in its nuclear talks with world powers was to secure access to the global financial system, and the United States must now do more to remove obstacles to the banking sector, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday. In January, world powers led by the United ... Read More »

A growing roster of developing states are turning to their compatriots abroad to raise cash by marketing “diaspora bonds”, a funding strategy successfully pioneered by India and Israel but sometimes tricky to imitate. Some 250 million people, around 3 percent of the world population, live outside their native countries, according ... Read More »

Airbus Group (AIR.PA) has not expressed an intention to take a stake in Russian Helicopters, an Airbus spokesman said on Sunday. Russian economy minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Friday that the European aerospace company was interested in the privatization of the state-owned Russian Helicopters for which Russia is looking for ... Read More »

The U.S. Treasury Department is finalizing new tax rules aimed at combating the use of shell companies to evade taxes, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Saturday amid increased pledges by global finance leaders to cooperate on tax issues. In a statement to the International Monetary Fund’s steering committee, ... Read More »

As earnings season shifts into high gear next week in what is expected to be the weakest U.S. quarterly results reporting period since 2009, the hope among some is that this is as bad as it’s going to get. The U.S. earnings recession that began in the third quarter of ... Read More »