Currency Exchange Helensburgh

Economy News Headlines - Yahoo! News
Get the latest economy news headlines from Yahoo! News. Find breaking economy news, including analysis and opinion on top economy stories, photos and more.


April inflation hits lowest in more than two years
22 May 2012 at 1:46pm

LONDON (Reuters) - Inflation fell to its lowest in more than two years in April, raising the prospect that the Bank of England will be able to inject more stimulus later this year to support the economy. The Office for National Statistics said consumer price inflation eased to 3.0 percent in April from 3.5 percent in March, freeing BoE Governor Mervyn King from the obligation to write an explanatory letter to finance minister George Osborne. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices fell on Tuesday as signs of a deal between the U.N. nuclear watchdog and Iran on Tehran's nuclear program eased fears of oil supply disruptions, while the euro zone debt crisis continued to threaten economic growth. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Yukiya Amano said he expected to sign a deal with Iran soon to boost cooperation with the investigation into Tehran's nuclear activity, although differences remained. ...

Just as investors were getting used to a steady diet of worrying news about the global economy, along came an encouraging report on the housing market.

GRIM WARNING: The 17-country eurozone risks falling into a "severe recession," the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned as it called on governments and Europe's central bank to keep the slowdown from dragging down the global economy.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pace of sales for existing homes in April rose to its fastest in nearly two years and a falloff in foreclosures helped cause an unexpected jump in prices, hopeful signs for the country's economic recovery. Home resales increased 3.4 percent to an annual rate of 4.62 million units last month, the National Association of Realtors said on Tuesday. Housing has been one of the economy's weakest links as it recovers from the 2007-09 recession, but many economists think the sector will actually add to economic growth in 2012 for the first time since 2005. ...

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's central bank kept its policy rate on hold at 12 percent on Tuesday for the fourth time in a row, saying the worrying trend of slowing economic growth countered largely expected higher inflation. Central bank governor Lamido Sanusi said the bank was concerned about a slowdown in global economic activity and lower crude oil prices and domestic oil output, which meant Nigeria was facing a potentially sustained decline in its previously surging growth rates. ...

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's economy grew 6.17 percent in the first quarter this year, down from 7.68 percent in the fourth quarter last year, due partially to the removal of government fuel subsidies, the national bureau of statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday. Nigeria's oil production fell to an average of 2.35 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter of this year, from 2.4 million bpd in the fourth quarter 2011, NBS said.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Western investors have to realise South Africa does not need their money since it can turn increasingly to fellow BRICS members India and China to fund its economic development, the Secretary-General of its ruling ANC said on Tuesday. "There is a dynamic that Western investors must wake up to," Gwede Mantashe, day-to-day head of the African National Congress, told Reuters in an interview. "If they are still sulking regularly, there is a growing 'Look East' tendency that is emerging throughout the continent, the developing world. ...