NEW YORK, April 12 (Reuters) – European Commission President
Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday that he seeks to negotiate a
“living agreement” to help deepen economic and trade ties with
the United States.

“If we manage to come to a comprehensive agreement, the
overall gains could add up to a 0.5 percent rise in GDP for
Europe and 0.4 percent for the United States by 2027,” Barroso
said in prepared remarks at a business event co-sponsored by the
European American Chamber of Commerce New York and Bloomberg
LLP.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The International Monetary fund said the European Union was moving in the wrong direction by banning the use of a hedging strategy related to sovereign credit default swaps.

In a report published on Thursday ahead of its annual meeting April 19-21, the IMF said the ban on so-called naked SCDS is not supported by any empirical evidence and could in fact lead to more instability in the financial markets.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global growth is likely to remain tepid this year and central banks should keep their easy monetary policy in place, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

“Thanks to the actions of policymakers, the economic world no longer looks quite as dangerous as it did six months ago,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told the Economic Club of New York.