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There has been growing talk that China will soon increase its purchases of Italian debt in a move that Italian officials hope will drive down Italy's borrowing costs. Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti is said to have met with Lou Jiwei, the head of the Chinese sovereign wealth fund China...

Millions of Italians across Italy are thought to be taking part in a general strike to protest against their government's proposed austerity measures that were expected to amount to 45.5 billion euros. The strike is disrupting everything from transportation to manufacturing, with government offices...

Germany is downplaying speculation that a Tuesday meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will result in some sort of agreement to create eurobonds backed by all of the eurozone members. Steffen Seibert, a spokesman for the German government, said a day...

The French economy unexpectedly stagnated during the 2nd quarter, according to France's National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, which reported that France's 2nd quarter economic growth rate was 0% and that consumer spending fell 0.9%. The news is troubling because France is the...

Switzerland's central bank increased its efforts to cool a rising Swiss franc that threatens the competitiveness of the country's exporters. The Swiss franc has become an even more popular safe haven currency in the aftermath of Standard & Poor's downgrade of the United States' credit rating...

The governments of Italy and Spain are breathing a sigh of relief as a bond purchasing market intervention by the European Central Bank (ECB) has pushed down yields on bonds issued by the two troubled eurozone members. The European Central Bank's previous efforts to keep the yields of troubled...

Moody's Investors Service announced on Monday morning that it was placing the credit rating of Spain and five of its biggest banks under review for possible downgrades, while downgrading the credit rating of six Spanish regions. One of the main factors cited by Moody's for Spain's possible...

The euro suffered heavy losses on Monday, as debt fears moved from Greece to Italy, the Eurozone's third largest economy. At the moment, the euro lost 0.764% of its value to trade around $1.4155. At the same time, the euro suffered smaller losses against the Japanese yen, falling 0.625% to ¥114.32...

European Union politicians are up in arms over the latest in a series of downgrades of the sovereign debt of troubled EU member states by the United States-based rating agencies Moody's Investors Service, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings. The uproar was spurred by the Moody's Investors...

President Barack Obama asked Congress yesterday to get a deal done on raising the debt ceiling, as opposed to a makeshift, short-term solution. Obama also wants tax hikes included in the deficit reduction deal. Yesterday, Moody's cut Portugal's credit standing to junk, warning the country may...

The markets took a little bit of a plunge after Moody's downgraded Portuguese debt to junk status, cutting the longer-term government debt by four notches. Moody's Investor Services cut the rating to Ba2, down from Baa1, and said that the outlook is negative. Moody's cited the growing risk of a...

Moody's Investor Services has downgraded Portugal's long term debt to Ba2 with a negative outlook, down from Baa1. Portugal's debt rating has been move to 'junk' status. As such, equity markets are moving lower after the announcement. The Dow is off 19 points, the S&P 500 is off by 2 points...

Sweden's central bank raised its repurchase rate 25 basis points to 2% on Tuesday in a move to keep its growing economy from overheating and driving inflation higher. The move by the Riksbank was widely expected and is the seventh straight time that Sweden's central bank has raised interest rates...

Asian stocks climbed higher again during Friday trading in Asia, as the markets reacted positively to the Greek Parliament passing a second set of austerity measures that allowed Greece to receive the latest 12 billion euro ($17 billion) installment of its emergency loan from the European Union (EU...

It looks as though Greece will avoid plunging the international financial system into turmoil, as the Greek Parliament is preparing for a second vote on austerity measures that the European Union (EU) demanded in order for Greece to receive the next installment of the 110 billion euro bailout that...