Global Economy | featured news

China reported its first quarterly trade deficit in six years Sunday as surging prices for commodities pushed up its import bill.

Icelandic voters appeared Sunday to have rejected a government-approved deal to repay Britain and the Netherlands $5 billion for their citizens' deposits in the failed online bank Icesave.

The European Central Bank is poised to raise interest rates from a record low 1.0 percent on Thursday and more is likely to follow but, fearful of heaping more pain on the euro zone's stragglers, it will give few clues about when the next move will come.

A World Bank study to be released Thursday reports that the online gaming industry has grown into a $3 billion business that provides living wages to migrant workers in Asia who play games all day, amass virtual currency and sell it to wealthy customers in the Western world for actual cash.

China's central bank increased interest rates on Tuesday for the fourth time since October, raising suspicions that data next week may show inflation rose more than expected in March.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded two of the euro zone's most troubled member states, citing fears that the pair may have to restructure their debt after 2013.

President Obama arrived in Brazil Saturday for his first trip to South America, a five-day tour intended to underscore economic ties to the region.

Concerns over the deteriorating condition of Japan's stricken nuclear reactors, and the effect on global economies, sparked the Dow's biggest selloff since August and left the S&P 500 in the red for 2011.

Japan's devastating earthquake and deepening nuclear crisis could result in losses of up to $200 billion for the world's third largest economy but the global impact remains hard to gauge five days after a massive tsunami battered the northeast coast.

Stocks tumbled Thursday, hit first by new worries about global growth and then by reports that Saudi police had fired on protesters.