European Council President Herman Van Rompuy warned against complacency in handling the euro zone debt crisis and stressed the need for meeting budget rules and reducing deficits.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces an unexpected challenge in getting new euro-zone budget-discipline rules approved at home, after the government confirmed on Saturday the new treaty will require a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament.
Moody's Investors Service on Friday cut the credit ratings of Greece, saying that the recently announced debt-exchange proposals for the country imply expected losses to investors of more than 70 percent.
The week ahead will largely be defined by two major events. First, on Friday, the February U.S. nonfarm payrolls report will be released, providing important data about the economic recovery. Second, also on Friday, euro-zone finance ministers will hold a conference call to decide whether Greece can get its second, €130 billion ($175 billion) bailout.
Despite agreeing to the new European Union fiscal stability pact, Spain has autonomously decided to defy the established deficit target. Spain will not reach the previously set deficit target of 4.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and instead opts for more flexibility, setting a new target of 5.8 percent of GDP.
The EU's decision was taken at a summit in Brussels late Thursday night, and launched the former pariah state on what will be a lengthy process towards full blown membership of the Union.
Spain defied the European Union on Friday, setting a 2012 deficit target at 5.8 percent of gross domestic product, a far softer goal than the 4.4 percent agreed with Brussels.
Barclays Plc has taken 8.2 billion euros ($10.9 billion) of the European Central Bank's (ECB) long-term refinancing operation (LTRO), which offers three-year loans to banks at a rate of 1 percent, in order to manage funding gaps in Spain and Portugal.
Producer prices in the euro zone rose by a greater-than-expected 0.7 percent in January, a result that could add to concerns that overall inflation won’t drop rapidly to the European Central Bank's target, giving the ECB less leeway to intervene to boost the region's economy.
A Red Cross aid convoy prepared to enter the shattered Baba Amro district of the city of Homs, Syria, on Friday after a government official declared the area cleansed and the opposition spoke of a massacre by President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Rebels withdrew Thursday in a key moment in the year-old uprising.
Bloc leaders on Friday signed a new pact to allow for faster transfer of capital to the EU's planned permanent €500 billion ($660 billion) bailout fund and to set strict rules on member states' debt.
Oil prices fell Friday following the confirmation from Saudi Arabia denying the pipeline explosion in the Kingdom.
Austerity and reform finely balanced to bring back growth in Europe in face of record unemployment rates.
Despite international pressure against the deal, Pakistan said it would honor a 2010 agreement to build a natural gas pipeline that will eventually send 8.7 billion cubic meters of Iranian gas to Pakistan annually.
For several months, the Iranian people have been living under economic hardship brought on by sanctions imposed by the U.S. and European Union over their government's nuclear energy program, which some believe is a cover for producing nuclear weapons. The sanctions, designed to prevent money-laundering that could fund nuclear research and development, have hampered the country's foreign trade and frozen Iranian firms out of the global banking system.
Greece has taken all the legal action needed to secure a second bailout from the euro zone countries, Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday, and ministers are now waiting for the completion of the private second bond swap.
Data protection agencies in European countries have concluded Google Inc's new privacy policy is in breach of European law, EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said on Thursday.
Russia, along with China, has stymied efforts by the West and the United Nations to condemn violence perpetrated by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a longtime Moscow ally.
Euro zone manufacturing contracted in February for the sixth month in a row, according to a Markit Economics report published Thursday, but the sector may be stabilizing as increases begin to offset decreases.
Turkey is maintaining the façade of good relations with Iran, while a larger power struggle for domination of the Middle East is brewing between Ankara and Tehran
India's exporters have begun receiving the first rupee payments from Iran, Indian government and trade sources said on Thursday, kicking off a mechanism to skirt Western sanctions which have made doing business with Tehran tougher.
Euro zone unemployment rose in January to 10.7 percent, the highest figure since 1999, as the ranks of the jobless continued to swell in Portugal, Italy and Spain, among others, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, said Thursday.
