Breaking Finance news

Germany’s economy will grow by 3 per cent this year, according to a sharply upwardly revised Bundesbank forecast issued as investors pushed the cost of borrowing by its government towards fresh record lows

Pakistan is to ask the International Monetary Fund to ease restrictions on a $10bn loan it received in 2008 after concluding that the recent devastating floods had made the conditions attached to the lending programme impossible to meet

The last American combat brigade has left Iraq as the US moved ahead with its plans to reduce its troop numbers to 50,000 by the end of August and rebrand its military mission seven years after ousting Saddam Hussein

Analysis likely to revive complaints that the reforms have been softened too much in the face of lobbying by banks

Carmaker rescued from collapse by American and Canadian taxpayers last year begins its return to public ownership

Global Markets Overview: A brief rally in risky assets is snuffed out and ‘haven’ assets such as the Japanese yen and US Treasuries are once again in demand

A $298m settlement struck by Barclays with the US Department of Justice over sanctions violations added to public perceptions that white-collar crime receives lighter treatment in the legal system than other offences, an American judge claimed

The Anglo-Australian miner launched a direct offer to PotashCorp’s shareholders, valuing the world’s largest fertiliser group at $39bn

The upturn in the trade, boosted by traffic of goods to and from emerging economies, has been so strong that analysts say that it has caught many by surprise

With demand set to outstrip supply, the price of the red metal can only move higher

Ranked among the world’s most successful macro hedge fund managers, his retirement could signal a parade of similar departures

Nearly a decade after Saddam Hussein’s downfall supposedly opened a new era for Iraq, more than 1.5m of the country’s people are scattered across the globe as refugees from their homeland’s turmoil

Nick Clegg has pledged to break Britain’s entrenched class structures and ‘improve people’s lives’ without resorting to the handouts from the state preferred by Labour

Call centre workers are becoming as cheap to hire in the US as they are in India, according to the head of the country’s largest business process outsourcing company

Global Markets Overview: A levelling of economic expectations, helped by a possible stimulus package in Japan and continuing industrial growth in the US, has given backbone to risk-takers

Companies with profits ahead of analyst forecasts are nevertheless seeing share prices stagnate

Retailers, airlines and ship operators can expect to assume billions of dollars more liabilities on their balance sheets as the result of a radical overhaul of lease accounting

World’s largest fertiliser producer rejects $38.6bn takeover approach from BHP Billiton, in the latest stage in the rapid consolidation of the fragmented fertiliser industry

While millions have been forced to flee their homes by the worst floods in Pakistan’s history, thousands of men are braving the rising waters to protect their homes from a man-made menace: river bandits intent on exploiting the chaos

A suicide bombing at an Iraqi army recruitment centre in Baghdad has killed at least 57 people and injured many more in one of the bloodiest attacks in weeks as political tensions simmer