Italy coaxed the EU to create a "bad bank". Total debt of Italian banks exceeds 200 billion euros. For the first time since 2010, Rome has made a real breakthrough in solving this problem. For several years, the stumbling block was the EU rules prohibiting direct state aid to banks. Now, resourceful Italians figured out how to work around them delicately without irritating the European...

China's plans to reduce steel production capacity can lead to dismissal of 400 th. steelmakers and trigger social instability. Steel production will be reduced to 150 million tons. As a result of reduced steel production, 400 th. people will be laid off, said head of the Metallurgical Industrial Planning and Research Institute, Li Xinchuang. Above employees of steel companies, workers of mining...

Expenditure on research and development (R&D) in the semiconductor industry in 2015 increased by only 0.5%. The industry shows the weakest increase in cost of new development since 2009, according to IC Insights. Analysts note that the fixed rate is also significantly below the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in this area over the past 10 years. Last year, it was only 4%. However, since the...

Leading European airlines, such as Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, British Airways, Iberia, Easyjet and Ryanair, have declared an alliance to fight against the increasing airport charges. The airlines believe that constantly increasing European airports’ taxes are reducing competitiveness of European air carriers. The carriers intend to attain ends by negotiations with the EU authorities, governments...

Number of international tourist visits increased by 4.4% in 2015 and reached 1184 million according to the latest data of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).Number of international tourist visits increased by 4.4% in 2015 and reached 1184 million according to the latest data of United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). In 2015, almost 50 million more tourists traveled in...

Royal Bank of Scotland has recommended to its customers pawning off all bonds, other than high quality. The Bank expects that 2016 will be a period of "disasters" because of low oil prices and problems in China's economy. Royal Bank of Scotland sent out an analytical report for its clients. The institution recommends getting rid of bonds. The bank warned that financial markets are expecting...

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the world's PC sales in the fourth quarter of 2015 fell by 10.6% compared to the same period in 2014. As a result, last year was the first since 2008 when world dealers sold less than 300 million PCs. According to IDC, 71.9 million PCs were sold in the fourth quarter of 2015, which is 10.6% less than the same period in 2014. In 2015 as a whole,...

North American International Auto Show opens its doors on Monday, January 11, 2016. A high guest of the exhibition will be US President Barack Obama, visiting the show for the first time. While some luxury manufacturers are going to ignore the Detroit auto show, the viewers will find a lot of interesting premiers from Mercedes, Ford and BMW. Swedish Volvo introduces the world's first car with a...

On the first days of the New Year, key US indexes marked a record fall. George Soros has warned that repetition of the 2008 world economic crisis is around the corner. The US stock market collapsed. One of the key US indexes - Dow Jones, reflects state of the country's industry, fell by five per cent - more than 900 points - from 4 to 8 January. CNN, citing data from FactSet, says that this...