INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND

The US dollar dropped against its major counterparts on Wednesday after data showed October consumer price inflation was slower than expected with housing starts data for the same month also coming in at a weaker-than-expected level.

Ireland is open to talks with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a bailout program for its failed banks, EU Economics and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said after a Tuesday night meeting of eurozone finance ministers and officials in Brussels.

The world’s low-income countries coped much better during the global financial crisis than in past global downturns, according to a new study from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The European Union (EU) cannot survive if it fails to solve the debt crisis plaguing the continent, warned EU president Herman Van Rompuy.

Debt-stricken Greece announced on Monday its budget deficit will contract to 9.4 percent of the GDP this year and said the country has been able to manage a much greater pruning of its deficit than initially calculated, immediately after the European Union Statistical agency revised upwards the country's 2009 deficit to 15. 4 percent.

India's foreign exchange reserves were up $2.25 billion to $300.21 billion as on November 5, 2010, from $297.96 billion in the previous week, according to the weekly statistical supplement of the Reserve Bank of India on Friday.

France and the International Monetary Fund will work together to develop criteria for the establishment of an international monetary mechanism to establish equity among currencies, and will have something tangible to present to the G-20 nations, and the rest of the world, next year, said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in a press briefing at the close of the Seoul G-20 Summit.

Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega touted the voice developing nations had in the G20 process and getting the Chinese delegation to change its mind. But he was hit with tough questions about the G20 process and whether it made any real difference to the world economy.

The leaders of the G20 countries completed their summit in Seoul, South Korea with an agreement to push for “market-determined” currency exchange rates, to enhance exchange rate flexibility, and to establish a timetable to lay out “indicative guidelines” for global economies to confront trade imbalances by the first half of next year.

Indian gold demand is likely to recover near to its pre-credit crunch level following the fall in demand in 2009, said World Gold Council (WGC) on Friday in a report titled India: Hear of Gold.

Greece's budget problems are far from over, as its deficit is likely to have narrowed much less sharply than the Government had predicted, Capital Economics said in a note. Greece will now come under heavy pressure to implement an even more draconian fiscal squeeze, Ben May, a European economist with Capital Economics, said.

At the closing plenary session of the G20 business summit in Seoul, South Korea, David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, praised the host country’s miraculous economic advances and also highlighted some major themes underlying the purpose of the G20.