PARIS (Reuters) – Surging German imports from the rest of the euro zone are offering rare respite to struggling southern economies, in a sign that economic forces tugging the bloc apart are easing.

Trade data released on Friday showed Germany’s long-running surplus with the rest of the euro zone fell to zero in April – the lowest on record – as imports from the rest of the bloc jumped 5.4 percent year-on-year.

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that there was no doubt the Syrian government had used nerve agent sarin against rebels, and that all options, including military action, were under consideration.

Increasing reports from the battlefield of the use of chemical weapons have lent urgency to a new diplomatic push to end the war and fuelled some calls for Western intervention in the conflict.

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that there was no doubt the Syrian government had used nerve agent sarin against rebels, and that all options, including military action, were under consideration.

Increasing reports from the battlefield of the use of chemical weapons have lent urgency to a new diplomatic push to end the war and fuelled some calls for Western intervention in the conflict.

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that there was no doubt the Syrian government had used nerve agent sarin against rebels, and that all options, including military action, were under consideration.

Increasing reports from the battlefield of the use of chemical weapons have lent urgency to a new diplomatic push to end the war and fuelled some calls for Western intervention in the conflict.

PARIS (Reuters) – President Francois Hollande’s government on Monday announced cuts in tax breaks for rich households as part of a plan to reduce the huge cost of France’s generous family benefits system.

The changes will stop short of cutting allowances outright for high-earning families, as some officials had wanted.

PARIS, May 30 (Reuters) – The days when multinational
companies could exploit fiscal loopholes to escape tax could
soon be numbered, after governments gave the OECD strong backing
to design an international clampdown on corporate tax avoidance.

Ministers from Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development and other countries backed OECD efforts on Thursday
to press ahead with new guidelines to ensure firms are not able
to pay little or no tax due to differences between tax regimes.

PARIS (Reuters) – A global agreement to cut red tape in world trade, which could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars to the world economy, is being stymied by some countries’ “hostage-taking”, a top U.S. trade official said on Wednesday.

Diplomats at the World Trade Organization have become increasingly pessimistic about striking a global trade deal at a meeting in December in the Indonesian resort of Bali, despite deliberately setting an unambitious target in hopes of reviving confidence in moribund global trade talks.

PARIS (Reuters) – The recession-hit euro zone will fall further behind a generally improving United States and a rebounding Japan this year, the OECD said on Wednesday, cutting its global growth forecasts.

In its twice-yearly Economic Outlook, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast the world economy would grow 3.1 percent this year before accelerating to 4 percent in 2014.

PARIS (Reuters) – The recession-hit euro zone will fall further behind a generally improving United States and a rebounding Japan this year, the OECD said on Wednesday, cutting its global growth forecasts.

In its twice-yearly Economic Outlook, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast the world economy would grow 3.1 percent this year before accelerating to 4 percent in 2014.

PARIS/WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) – The European Central
Bank is looking into expanding its range of policy tools, while
the U.S. central bank is mulling scaling back its support
measures, highlighting the contrasting fortunes between the
world’s two biggest economic blocs.

ECB Executive Board member Peter Praet said late on
Wednesday that the central bank could try new policies if needed
to battle deflation risks, adding that the central bank was also
weighing measures to encourage more lending in the euro zone.