EU leaders have agreed tighter sanctions against Iran, including measures to block investment in the oil and gas sector and curtail refining and natural gas capability

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that doubling the five percent sales tax was an option to curb the country’s massive debt, as his Democratic Party shifted its platform gears ahead of a July 11 election

Goldman Sachs Group Inc said first-quarter earnings nearly doubled, and Britain’s financial regulator launched a formal probe related to civil fraud allegations against the Wall Street bank

Ukraine is seeking $12bn credit from the IMF in a new programme over two and a half years, Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Tigipko has announced

The emergency aid deal for Greece dramatically cuts the risk of troubles spreading to other strained Eurozone countries, the head of UniCredit, the region’s third largest bank, has told reporters

The return of investors to Gulf Arab markets will help bridge a gap with emerging economies which appeared last year amid the debt crisis in Dubai, the chief executive of London-based Silk Invest said

Britain and Germany set their sights on an IMF meeting next month to push for a global “risk” tax on banks that aims to avert the need for more taxpayer bailouts

Djibouti’s banking sector is thriving with two more foreign banks likely to start operations within a year and the number of people with accounts set to almost double by 2011, its central bank governor said

The devastating earthquake in Chile will set back the country’s recovery from recession and put pressure on central bankers to keep interest rates low to help the economy

Snowstorms have repeatedly battered parts of the US this winter, making it more difficult to discern returning weakness in the economy from seasonal distortions

A recovery in tourism and other key sectors in Kenya led to economic growth of 2.5 percent last year and the government forecasts growth of 4.5 percent in 2010, President Mwai Kibaki said recently

A range of reforms aimed at reducing risk and preventing another financial crisis could be “very onerous” and hit profits across the industry, the CEO of Europe’s second-biggest bank Santander said

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has some explaining to do

Toyota Motor’s unprecedented recall of millions of vehicles with accelerator problems is taking a toll on sales and may force the world’s largest automaker to cut 2010 sales forecasts.

The US and three European powers hope to blacklist Iran’s central bank and firms linked to the Revolutionary Guard Corps in a new round of UN sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear programme, diplomats said.