Spain will be given time till 2016 to bring its budget deficit down below 3 percent of gross domestic product, in line with European Union mandates, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn said on May 3 "For France and Spain it is very obvious that it is more reasonable to have a correction of the excessive deficit over another two years," Rehn said at a press conference in which he presented the European Commission's macroeconomic forecasts for 2013 and 2014.
Indian consumer confidence dropped in the first quarter of 2013 to become the second after Indonesia due to the 'environment around them', according to a survey by market insights and information provider Nielsen.
An emerging, if only partial, solution is channelling some of trillions of euros of European pension and insurance savings into more targetted loan funds, unlisted loans, private placements or even direct business financing - stepping up the "disintermediation" of the hobbled banks.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not to blame for the austerity policies being imposed elsewhere, the head of the European Commission was quoted on May 5 as saying, in an apparent attempt to mend fences with Berlin.
Public services such as clean water, sanitation, healthcare, and schooling in many Asian countries, particularly in South Asia, are failing frequently to reach the needy, widening the region's already sharp disparity between the rich and the poor, says a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) study.