Economies

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.

Canada's Tory government pegged a return to a balanced budget and its re-election hopes in 2015 on a strong rebound in the economy on Thursday, after being dealt an unexpected slump in recent months.

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.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said he will announce on Friday his decision on who will be asked to form a government after inconclusive elections in the austerity-stricken country and amid rising tensions in the eurozone.

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

Ratings firm Standard & Poor's cut troubled Cyprus' sovereign credit rating by one notch on Thursday citing "acute problems" in Cyprus's banking sector.

Canada's finance minister unveiled a no-frills budget on Thursday that aims for a return to black in 2015 despite a lower economic growth forecast of 1.6 percent for this year.

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.

The head of the International Olympic Committee's Evaluation Commission Craig Reedie said he is happy with the guarantees given by the Madrid 2020 bid team that the Spanish economy could support hosting the Olympics.

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.

London shares closed lower on Thursday as traders looked past positive economic data to focus on bleak eurozone news, notably fallout from the Cyprus bailout impasse.

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.

Ireland's bailed-out economy grew by 0.9 percent in 2012 but stagnated in the final quarter of the year, official data for the troubled eurozone nation showed on Thursday.

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.

US existing-home sales and prices pushed higher in February, with sales at their highest rate since November 2009, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

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.