Central Banking

Cyprus is scrambling to overhaul its banking sector to avoid financial meltdown, after the European Central Bank threatened to pull the plug on emergency funding for the island's lenders.

Cyprus is scrambling to overhaul its banking sector to avoid financial meltdown, after the European Central Bank threatened to pull the plug on emergency funding for the island's lenders.

The IMF forecast Thursday that Iraq's economy would grow around nine percent this year helped by surging oil production, but said Baghdad needs to do more to support private, non-oil business.

Ratings firm Standard & Poor's dealt a further blow to reeling Cyprus Thursday, cutting its credit rating as the eurozone country struggles to avoid a banking sector meltdown.

US stocks fell Thursday, hit by uncertainty over the Cyprus banking crisis and some surprisingly weak corporate earnings.

Cyprus Thursday was examining an overhaul of its banking sector to avoid financial meltdown after the European Central Bank threatened to pull the plug on emergency funding for the island's banks.

As the EU raised the spectre of a eurozone exit for Cyprus, experts warned on Thursday of the consequences of brinksmanship from Brussels to Moscow in the race to fix new bailout terms.

A senior Indian central bank official cleared three private banks of money-laundering on Thursday after an undercover media investigation led to the suspension of dozens of their employees.

European stock markets slid Thursday as disappointing eurozone data and the Cyprus bailout impasse overshadowed strong Chinese economic performance.

Spain's battered banks predicted Thursday they will turn a profit this year after a "horrific" 2012 in which the overall industry recorded losses for the first time in its history.

Spain's borrowing costs dipped in a bond auction Thursday, easing concerns that a feared banking meltdown in Cyprus could scare investors away from other troubled eurozone states.

The European Central Bank warned Thursday it was ready to pull the plug on emergency funding for Cyprus banks as the island's politicians scrambled to raise billions of euros to head off financial meltdown.

European stock markets slid Thursday as traders looked past strong Chinese economic data to focus on bleak eurozone news, notably fallout from the Cyprus bailout impasse.

The Bank of Japan's new governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday pledged "all-out efforts" to rid Japan of growth-sapping deflation as gloomy new trade data underlined the scale of the task ahead.

Asian markets were mixed Thursday as Chinese data showing manufacturing activity in the world's number two economy picked up in March, while Tokyo was lifted by renewed weakness in the yen.

Cyprus was on Thursday fine-tuning a "Plan B" aimed at securing a eurozone bailout that the European Central Bank warned should be adopted by the weekend to avoid a banking meltdown on the debt-hit island.

Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Thursday that the Cyprus debt crisis poses a "systemic risk" that threatens to ricochet right through the eurozone.

Cypriot leaders are to decide on Thursday on a newly drawn up plan aimed at securing a bailout for the near-bankrupt eurozone member, after parliament rejected a controversial tax on savings.

Japan logged another trade deficit in February, this time of $8.1 billion according to the latest figures, reversing a year-earlier surplus and underscoring the uncertain state of the world's third-largest economy.

US stocks recorded solid gains Wednesday as the Federal Reserve held steady on its policy of economic stimulus.