The U.K.’s national economic output could shrink between April to June this year, said Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King, as citizens prepare to indulge in an additional holiday in order to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee.
President Barack Obama has suspended duty-free Argentine imports into America amid a trade dispute involving U.S. investors, saying that Argentina has failed to pay more than $300 million in compensation awards to US companies.
Until Argentina pays the court-ordered damages, it would no longer qualify for duty-free trade with the United States.
Villagers in the eastern China’s Jiangsu province have received gold, and silver, bars as they celebrate the 40th anniversary of a village-owned business. The Jiangsu Xinchangjiang Group is an electronics, metals and chemicals company, and a top 500 company in China.
According to China Daily, it is the second time the village has handed out gold and silver, after Li Liangbao, Chief of Changjiang village, promised to do so in 2009.
The East African nation of Kenya could soon join the ranks of oil-producing countries in the world after Anglo-Irish oil giant Tullow Oil made the nation’s first ever oil discovery in the northwest region of Turkana.
Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki announced the discovery on Monday after receiving confirmation from Tullow about the economic viability of the oil find.
“Our country has made a major breakthrough in oil exploration,” said Kibaki to a press conference in the capital of Nairobi.
The Russian government is set to sell up to $7 billion in government bonds in the coming days, said a report by the Financial Times on Monday, as the nation prepares to overhaul their domestic bond market in order to attract foreign cash.
According to FT, the Kremlin is ready to issue the full bond amount sometime this week – with the bond said to be split into three parts, maturing in five, 10, and 30 years.
A quick preview of the key economic events for the upcoming week:
With recent economic data showing the slow and uncertain recovery of the European economy, EU leaders can ill afford a wrong move. The highlight for the week: Financial markets are looking forward to an expansion of the European bailout rescue funds, a move that EFSF chief Klaus Regling has said is necessary to calm markets.
With debt yields once again rising in Spain, Portugal and Italy, the eurozone crisis is far from over.
Monday, March 26
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has agreed to increase the firepower of the eurozone’s emergency rescue funds, despite a history of strong opposition and resistance to the fund’s expansion plans.
According to German newspaper Der Spiegel, Merkel and German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble have abandoned their resistance to combining the two eurozone rescue funds, despite opposition from German voters that it would increase the country’s liability.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is currently embroiled in an embarrassing nationwide scandal, after a top fundraiser for his political party was caught on tape trying to solicit for donations through promises of “direct access” to the national leader.
Global oil giant Royal Dutch Shell Plc is facing difficulty in paying off the National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) for nearly $1 billion in crude oil deliveries, said a report by Reuters on Sunday, after EU and US financial sanctions on Iran severely restricted any forms of payment to the Islamic state.
Asia’s three largest economies are moving closer to signing a trilateral investment deal which could soon pave the way for a wider free-trade agreement.
The investment deal, which needs to be signed into effect, is the first legal economic treaty between the three East Asian giants, despite a history of tension that has often slowed integration processes.
