Ethiopia Dec inflation falls yr/yr, at lowest for 2012

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopian inflation dropped in December to 12.9 percent year-on-year, its lowest rate of 2012, official data showed on Wednesday.The government had targeted single-digit inflation in 2012, something it now hopes to achieve this year.Inflation, which has been billed by the IMF as the country's biggest economic challenge, peaked at 36.3 percent last February, and has steadily...

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Sudan says secures $1.5 bln loan from China as it battles currency slide

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Sudan has secured a $1.5 billion loan guaranteed by Chinese state oil firm China National Petroleum Corp, its finance minister said, throwing a lifeline to the African country battling its worst economic crisis for decades.Sudanese Finance Minister Ali Mahmoud said the loan, agreed on December 31, would come from a Chinese bank, which he declined to identify. It comes at a crucial...

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Obama aide presses Republicans to accept more tax revenues

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress should accept in the next round of deficit-reduction talks that revenue from taxes must be raised further if it expects President Barack Obama to sign off on a deal, the president's top economic adviser, Gene Sperling, said in an interview.The White House and Congress are trying to reach an agreement that would delay planned austerity measures and keep funding...

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Germany to host Sudan forum delayed by embassy storming

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Germany will host a Sudan investment conference this month which was postponed after its embassy in Khartoum was stormed last year, officials and diplomats said on Monday.Sudan is trying to attract more investment to overcome a severe economic crisis after losing most oil reserves to South Sudan when it became independent in 2011. Most Western companies shun the country due to...

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Stock markets cool off following gains last week

 Global stock markets drifted lower on Monday as some investors sought to cash in on last week's strong gains and worries grew of more political brinkmanship in Washington.Major indexes surged last week after U.S. lawmakers passed a bill to avoid a combination of government spending cuts and tax increases that have come to be known as the "fiscal cliff."The deal, however, remains incomplete....

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Chinese hold anti-censorship protest outside newspaper

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Hundreds of supporters of one of China's most liberal newspapers demonstrated outside its headquarters on Monday, backing a strike by journalists against interference by the provincial propaganda chief.The rare anti-censorship protest happened in Guangzhou, capital of wealthy Guangdong, China's most liberal province and birthplace of the reforms, begun three decades ago,...

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US job market shrugs off fears of 'fiscal cliff'

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. job market proved resilient in December despite fears that a budget impasse in Washington would send the economy over the fiscal cliff and trigger growth-killing tax hikes and spending cuts.Employers added 155,000 jobs last month, roughly matching the solid but unspectacular monthly pace of the past two years.The gains announced Friday weren't enough to reduce unemployment,...

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TSX rises as data boosts sentiment; energy leads

TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto's main stock index finished broadly higher on Friday, with energy companies leading the gains, as encouraging North American economic data bolstered investor sentiment.Energy stocks, which make up about 25 percent of the index were up 1.07 percent. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd was the most positive stock on the TSX, adding 2.06 percent to C$30.15. Encana Corp was also...

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Fed officials eye timeline for ending asset purchases

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve could halt its asset purchases this year if the economy improves and unemployment drops, two top Fed officials said on Friday, a view seconded by most economists at Wall Street's top financial institutions.Meanwhile, another top Fed official warned the U.S. central bank's aggressive easing plan threatens the Fed's credibility.St. Louis Fed President James...

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Fed minutes short-circuit Wall Street rally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks dipped on Thursday after signs the Federal Reserve has growing concern about its highly stimulative monetary policy, giving investors reason to pull back after a two-day rally.The minutes from the Fed's December policy meeting, released on Thursday, showed increasing reticence about adding to the central bank's $2.9 trillion balance sheet, which it expanded sharply in response...

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Asian shares drop on Fed minutes, dollar extends gain

 Asian shares fell on Friday, tracking overnight weakness in global equities, but the dollar gained as U.S. debt yields rose after several Federal Reserve officials expressed concerns about continuing to expand stimulative bond buying.Minutes from the Fed's December policy meeting released on Thursday showed some voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee were increasingly concerned...

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Wal-Mart appoints Lev Khasis to develop new store concepts

The world's largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc appointed Lev Khasis as president and chief executive of New Formats for Walmart International, a company spokesperson said.Khasis, who joined Wal-Mart in 2011 as senior vice-president, will focus on developing new store concepts that can be deployed across markets, Wal-Mart spokesperson Kevin Gardner said in an e-mail statement.Khasis built up Russia's...

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Congress members seek investigation of Shell barge

 Calls for federal scrutiny of Royal Dutch Shell PLC drilling operations in Arctic waters swelled Thursday with a request for a formal investigation by members of Congress.The House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition called on the Interior Department and the Coast Guard to jointly investigate the New Year's Eve grounding of the Shell drilling vessel Kulluk on a remote Gulf of Alaska...

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Google emerges from FTC probe relatively unscathed

 Google has settled a U.S. government probe into its business practices without making any major concessions on how the company runs its Internet search engine, the world's most influential gateway to digital information and commerce.Thursday's agreement with the Federal Trade Commission covers only some of the issues raised in a wide-ranging antitrust investigation that could have culminated...

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Congress tightens belt, trims spy budget for 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress has drastically trimmed the budget for U.S. spies and satellites for 2013, though not quite as deeply as the White House wanted.In one of the last votes of the year, House lawmakers voted Monday 373-29 in favor of a Senate-passed bill to slightly boost the president's $72 billion budget request for intelligence agencies including the CIA, adding extra cash for the counterterrorism...

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Shell drill ship runs aground on island off Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell PLC's foray into Arctic offshore drilling has suffered a serious setback after one of its two Alaska drilling rigs ran aground in shallow water off a small island.Officials at a unified command center run by the Coast Guard, Shell, state responders and others said the Kulluk grounded Monday night on rocks off the southeast side of Sitkalidak Island, an uninhabited...

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Analysis: Economy would dodge bullet for now under fiscal deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A deal worked out by Senate leaders to avoid the "fiscal cliff" was far from any "grand bargain" of deficit reduction measures.But if approved by the House of Representatives, it could help the country steer clear of recession, although enough austerity would remain in place to likely keep the economy growing at a lackluster pace.The Senate approved a last-minute deal early...

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Bill to avert fiscal cliff heads to House

WASHINGTON (AP) — Legislation to negate a fiscal cliff of across-the-board tax increases and sweeping spending cuts to the Pentagon and other government agencies is headed to the GOP-dominated House after bipartisan, middle-of-the-night approval in the Senate capped a New Year's Eve drama unlike any other in the annals of Congress.The measure cleared the Senate on an 89-8 vote early Tuesday, hours...

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Senate approves "fiscal cliff" deal, crisis eased

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate moved the U.S. economy back from the edge of a "fiscal cliff" on Tuesday, voting to avoid imminent tax hikes and spending cuts in a bipartisan deal that could still face stiff challenges in the House of Representatives.In a rare New Year's session at around 2 a.m. EST (0700 GMT), senators voted 89-8 to raise some taxes on the wealthy while making permanent low tax...

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BMW's vehicle sales reach 1.8 million in 2012: CFO

BMW , the world's largest premium carmaker, has sold about 1.8 million vehicles in 2012, its chief financial officer told a German newspaper."One of our goals was to increase vehicle sales in 2012 and to reach a new record in deliveries. With about 1.8 million vehicles, we have achieved this," the executive, Friedrich Eichiner, told Die Welt in an interview.In December, BMW said vehicle sales in the...

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