BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON Feb 17 (Reuters) – Belgium-based
SWIFT, which provides banks with a system for moving funds
around the world, bowed to international pressure on Friday and
said it was ready to block Iranian banks from using its network
to transfer money.

Expelling Iranian banks from the Society for Worldwide
Interbank Financial Telecommunication would shut down Tehran’s
main avenue to doing business with the rest of the world – an
outcome the West believes is crucial to curbing Iran’s nuclear
ambitions.

BRUSSELS, Feb 15 (Reuters) – Heineken, the
world’s third-largest brewer, beat expectations with a 9 percent
profit increase in 2011 after recovering from a damp European
summer that kept a lid on drinking, and launched a new drive to
cut costs.

Heineken, which had forecast flat net profit, said its
earlier caution was driven by a poor summer particularly in
Europe, when it was unclear whether drinking was depressed just
by bad weather or by falling consumer confidence.

BRUSSELS, Feb 9 (Reuters) – The organisation that
facilitates the bulk of the world’s cross-border payments is
facing growing U.S. pressure to do what it has never done before
- cut a country off from its global messaging system.

Belgium-based SWIFT – the Society for Worldwide Interbank
Financial Telecommunication – is vital to international money
flows, exchanging an average 18 million payment messages per day
between banks and other financial institutions in 210 countries.

BRUSSELS, Feb 7 (Reuters) – ArcelorMittal,
the world’s largest steelmaker, forecast on Tuesday an
improvement of earnings in the first half of 2012 after a weak
end to last year, with a pick up of steel demand and further
cost control.

The company, which makes around 7 percent of global steel,
said steel shipments would return to the level seen at the start
of last year and mining output would continue to grow.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium fell back into recession in the second half of last year, data showed on Wednesday, the first euro zone member not subject to a bailout programme to do so.

It paved the way for what is expected to be a very difficult

2012 for the 17-member bloc, both core economies and those in the debt-ridden periphery.

BRUSSELS, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Belgium became the first
euro zone member formally to fall into recession in the second
half of last year, data showed on Wednesday, paving the way for
what is expected to be a tough contraction for the bloc as a
whole in 2012.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the bloc’s sixth largest
economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the fourth quarter, following a
quarterly contraction of 0.1 percent in the July-Sept period.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Germany is the champion of exporters, but it may not be getting as much of a boost from a newly weaker euro as advertised — indeed, there is evidence that the bigger beneficiaries could be the troubled economies on the euro zone periphery.

Thomson Reuters data shows that German exports do not receive the boost of demand that do products from places such as Italy and Spain when the single currency is weaker.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium’s first general strike in almost two decades brought the country to a partial halt on Monday in an anti-austerity protest aimed at the government and EU leaders meeting in Brussels.

The entire rail network closed, buses and trams were idled, many schools and shops shut and production at the Audi and Volvo car plants stopped.

BRUSSELS, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Belgium’s first general
strike in almost two decades will bring the country to a near
halt on Monday in an anti-austerity protest aimed at the
government as well as at EU leaders meeting in Brussels.

The entire rail network will close, buses and trams will be
idled, many schools will be shut and production at the Audi
and Volvo car plants will stop.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Germany is the champion of exporters, but it may not be getting as much of a boost from a newly weaker euro as advertised — indeed, there is evidence that the bigger beneficiaries could be the troubled economies on the euro zone periphery.

Thomson Reuters data shows that German exports do not receive the boost of demand that do products from places such as Italy and Spain when the single currency is weaker.