UNEMPLOYMENT

Veronika Szalai had just graduated from elementary school when Nokia, the Finnish phone maker, opened a factory by the Danube in Komarom. The 27-year-old, who has worked here for years, now faces unemployment as the company implements major layoffs.

The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco said Wednesday the Fed may resume expanding its balance sheet to boost the U.S. economy if the recovery loses momentum or inflation stays below two percent.

Istanbul was ranked as the European city with the best prospects for 2012 by PricewaterhouseCooper and the Urban Land Institute, with German cities also on top.

Some countries, including the U.S., could be trying to bring their budget deficit down too quickly, posing a risk for the economic recovery, the head of the International Monetary Fund's fiscal affairs department warned Wednesday.

Republican and Democratic leaders accused each other of bad faith negotiations on Tuesday, as both parties played hardball in talks to extend a tax cut for 160 million workers.

Inflation in China is expected to trend lower in January, which provides room for Beijing to stimulate the country's economy if the Euro area experiences a sharp recession. However, economists do not expect to see aggressive stimulus packages to be put in place as Beijing is looking to achieve a smooth leadership transition this year.

Former United States President George W. Bush defended the emergency bailout funds his administration provided to General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC in a speech to car dealers Monday, saying he would do it again.

A poll shows that President Barack Obama’s approval rating has finally hit the magical 50 percent mark just as the job market is on its way to recovery, reported AFP. This puts the President at a double-digit point lead over Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney.

The leaders of the three national parties in Greece's coalition government will meet the Prime Minister, Lucas Papademos to discuss the terms of the proposed bail-out plan.

The domestic economic evidence in the U.S. has remained upbeat in early 2012, with a much better than expected employment report for January being the latest piece of good news according to the report by IHS Global Insight.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Greece Monday to make up its mind fast on accepting the painful terms for a new EU/IMF bailout, but the country's political leaders responded by delaying their decision for yet another day.

House Republicans Monday said a positive January jobs reporting showing 243,000 new jobs and a dip in the unemployment rate belied the number of discouraged job seekers who leave the workforce and underemployed Americans with college degrees.

The Federal Reserve should start raising interest rates next year, a top Fed official said on Monday, arguing that many years of near-zero rates will do little to return economic output to pre-recession levels and risks causing disaster.

Hopes of India and the European Union striking a free trade deal at a summit this week are fading fast, with differences over duties on cars and market access for software and service companies standing in the way of an accord.

China's annual economic growth could be cut nearly in half this year if Europe's debt crisis tips the world economy into a recession, putting pressure on Beijing to unveil significant fiscal stimulus, the International Monetary Fund said.

Gold prices declined Monday on concerns Greece will - despite the Eurozone's two years of efforts - default on its massive sovereign debt, with acute consequences for global economic growth.

Indian stock markets opened on a positive note and continued to trade in the green on Monday, boosted by unexpectedly healthy news from the U.S. jobs front that is widely seen as a sign of global economic recovery.

Spot gold edged higher on Monday after surprisingly strong U.S. jobs data sent prices down nearly 2 percent in the previous session, as investors shifted focus to a looming deadline for Greece to accept the terms of a new bailout deal.

It does not guarantee him re-election in November, but it is an advantage President Barack Obama is likely to carry into the fall: a broad base of supporters who have given him the symbolic vote of confidence with a donation of less than $200.

A renewed focus on Europe's banking and debt crisis may quickly sap the nascent optimism about global economic prospects that followed a remarkably solid U.S. January employment report.

Republican front-runner Mitt Romney cruised to an easy victory in Nevada on Saturday, taking firm command of the party's volatile presidential nominating race. He captured 44 percent of the vote with about 43 percent of precincts counted, taking about a 20-point lead over his closest rivals.