Credibility meets compromise in Europe’s bank stress test

(Reuters) – When Europe announced its latest health check of top banks early last year it promised a “comprehensive assessment” of how well prepared they were to withstand another financial crisis. In practice, a spirit of comprehensive compromise...

Global shares decline on world economic growth concerns

Asian shares were off session lows but still nursed losses amid a selloff in global equities on Thursday, as heightened concerns about world economic growth sent US Treasury yields down and Japanese stocks tumbling. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside...

Irish trade surplus at €3.3bn in August

Irish exports increased by 23 per cent in August (to €7.97 billion) from July, figures from the Central Statistics Office have shown. Coupled with a small increase of €29 million (1 per cent) in imports, the seasonally adjusted trade surplus increased by €1.43 billion...

Can Europe wean itself off Russian gas?

By Christian Oliver and Henry Foy The night shift at Agropolychim, Bulgaria’s biggest fertiliser plant, received a fax at 4.30am on January 6 2009 warning that their gas supply was going to be cut off immediately. The engineers demanded four more hours: an instant...