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Ft.com
Oil contracts for delivery in three to five years’ time are trading at their biggest ever discount to spot prices, prompting a debate about whether the era of triple-digit oil prices will be a short-term  phenomenon. Spot oil prices have rallied nearly $20 since the start of the year and traded above $125 a barrel yesterday, on the back of supply disruptions and geopolitical fears over Iran. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/24b7eb40-7824-11e1-bffc-00144feab49a.html#axzz1qCBjoSth

The sponsors of the London interbank lending rates used in $350tn in contracts worldwide are considering imposing tighter codes of conduct and new statistical controls at a time when regulators on three continents are probing allegations that the rates may have been manipulated.Three weeks after promising a review, the British Bankers’ Association has convened a steering committee of five global banks, a wholesale broker group and the CME, the futures exchange group, to come up with revisions to the London Interbank Offered Rates that help set the price of financial products including mortgages and credit cards. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e6dfceca-7812-11e1-b237-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=published_links/rss/home_uk/feed//product#axzz1qCBjoSth

The family of Igor Shuvalov, Russia’s first deputy prime minister, bought nearly $18m in Gazprom shares through an offshore company as the government prepared to liberalise share trading, a reform which greatly increased their market value, documents show. The offshore holding company, Sevenkey, would have made more than $100m in gains by 2008 from the shares, which were bought in mid-2004 when Mr Shuvalov was an economic aide to President Vladimir Putin. The share purchase, documented in letters seen by the Financial Times, was carried out via a vehicle belonging to Suleiman Kerimov, one of Russia’s richest men. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ec7257ea-7808-11e1-b237-00144feab49a.html?ftcamp=published_links/rss/home_uk/feed//product#axzz1qCBjoSth

Have fortunes shifted in the “currency war”? Brazil, which introduced the phrase in September 2010, has long been on the losing side of this conflict. Last July its currency, the real, was worth three times its trade-weighted value of October 2002, inflicting damage on export competitiveness. Brazil’s initial response was mild and defensive, with limited intervention by the central bank and some taxes on foreign portfolio investments. But this month it has gone on the offensive, stepping up transaction taxes for foreigners and accusing developed nations of using currency depreciation to engage in “the fiercest protectionism that exists” – even as the real has been depreciating.http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/afd846fc-781f-11e1-b237-00144feab49a.html#axzz1qCBjoSth

Wsj.com
Asian stock markets were mostly lower Wednesday as Wall Street’s modest declines Tuesday capped demand, while shares of Sharp were limit-up after the Japanese firm announced a capital and business alliance with Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Industry. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.2%, South Korea’s Kospi Composite dropped 0.4%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.5%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index declined 1.0% and India’s Sensex lost 0.4%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 bucked the trend, and rose 0.9%, helped by a weaker Australian dollar. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up six points in screen trade. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577308380526769966.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Home prices fell to new lows in January, but the rate of decline appeared to be easing, offering the latest hint that prices may be at or near a bottom. Prices dropped 0.8% in the three-month period that ended in January, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index that tracks 20 U.S. metro areas. While that lowered the index to levels not seen since the end of 2002, the monthly decline improved from a drop of 1.1% in December and 1.3% in November. House prices tend to weaken during the winter months, when sales activity slows and the share ofhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303404704577307300388803654.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

Weeks after agreeing to an agonizing bailout deal with Europe, Greece is splintering politically ahead of national elections, raising the risk that it won’t be able to make the economic sacrifices still needed to keep it in the euro. The election, not yet scheduled but expected in April or May, is shaping up as a public revolt against Greece’s political establishment, which has backed the austerity policies that are the price of financial life support from Europe and the International Monetary Fund. Mainstream politicians are increasingly painted as leading Greece into a debt trap, then impoverishing it in trying to http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304177104577305691587114600.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

In an effort to avoid a legal battle in Australia, an attorney for Apple Inc. said Wednesday that the company had proposed refunding any consumers that may have felt misled over the 4G broadband capability of its new iPad device ahead of a complaint by the country’s consumer watchdog. At a preliminary hearing at the Federal Court in Melbourne, Apple’s senior counsel Paul Anastassiou said the company had also made a proposal to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, or ACCC, to publish a clarification on its website and at sales outlets regarding the incompatibility of the iPad 3 with 4G networks in Australia. In the company’s defense, Mr. Anastassiou said that Apple had never claimed the device would work fully on the existing 4G network operated by Telstra Corp. Apple says it will work on what is globally accepted to be a 4G network, but not the network that Telstra defines as 4G.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577308282123733976.html?mod=WSJAsia_hpp_LEFTTopStories

Singapore Exchange Ltd. said Wednesday it will reorganize its business structure to better leverage growth opportunities in the Asia region, while putting the exchange’s chief executive at the helm of its listings business. The new structure will see parts of the exchange’s business that were previously under Co-President Gan Seow Ann be consolidated and reallocated between Chief Executive Magnus Bocker and the group’s president, Muthukrishnan Ramaswami. The exchange said Mr. Gan has resigned to review his personalhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577308492731677830.html?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_LEFTTopWhatNews

Marketwatch.com
Australian banks are in relatively good shape although economic conditions are widely divergent across the economy, with business failures and debt defaults now above their norms, the country’s central bank said Wednesday. In its latest report card on the stability of Australia’s financial system, the Reserve Bank of Australia also cautioned banks against expecting strong profit growth to continue, as credit demand remains weak across the economy. The RBA said large banks are in a better position than a few years ago to cope with tight funding conditions while household balance sheets are robust. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/australia-central-bank-sees-challenges-for-lenders-2012-03-27

Euro-zone finance ministers meeting at the end of this week need to boost the firepower of the region’s rescue funds to at least 1 trillion euros ($1.34 trillion) in order to restore market confidence, Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said Tuesday. Gurria, in a statement, said a credible firewall will provide governments with the breathing space they need to focus on restoring growth and competitiveness. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said Berlin is open to allowing around 200 billion euros in existing bailout loans continue to run through the temporary European Financial Stability Facility as the 500 billion euro European Stability Mechanism becomes operational at mid-year, providing total firepower of around 700 billion euros.http://www.marketwatch.com/story/euro-zone-needs-1-trilllion-euro-firewall-oecd-2012-03-27

Scholars and company heads attending an economic forum on March 25 blamed excessive government involvement in economic affairs for structural problems in the world’s second-largest economy. China’s economy is retreating to a crude growth model due to government market intervention and price controls, producing rent-seeking and corruption, said Wu Jinglian, a senior researcher at the State Council’s Development and Research Center. He was speaking at the Lingnan Forum sponsored by Sun Yat-Sen University’s Lingnan College and Caixin. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/beijing-receives-criticism-for-market-intervention-2012-03-27

Reuters.com
Brent crude fell for a second session on Wednesday, breaching $125, on the possibility of a release of strategic oil reserves by the United States even after crude stockpiles in the world’s largest oil user rose more than expected last week. Brent May crude fell 63 cents to $124.91 a barrel by 0426 GMT (12.26 am EDT). U.S. crude was down 53 cents to $106.80. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/28/us-markets-oil-idUSBRE82B04920120328

Gold hovered around $1,680 an ounce on Wednesday, as investors awaited more trading cues from U.S. data after recent hints from the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman on more stimulus propelled bullion to a two-week high near $1,700 in the previous session. Spot gold was flat at $1,680.09 an ounce by 0307 GMT (11.07 pm EDT), after falling more than half a percent in the previous session. U.S. gold edged down 0.3 percent to $1,680.10. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/28/us-markets-precious-idUSTRE82403220120328

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday it is too soon to declare victory in the U.S. economic recovery, warning against complacency in policymaking as the outlook brightens. “We haven’t quite yet got to the point where we can be completely confident that we’re on a track to full recovery,” Bernanke told ABC News in a rare on-the-record interview. The Fed chairman welcomed a decline in the unemployment rate and signs financial strains in debt-stricken Europe were easing. But he said joblessness was still at a troubling high and housing markets still weak. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/28/us-usa-fed-idUSBRE82Q19M20120328

More than two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the way President Barack Obama is handling high gasoline prices, although most do not blame him for them, according to a Reuters/Ipsos online poll released on Tuesday. Sixty-eight percent disapprove and 24 percent approve of how Obama is responding to price increases that have become one of the biggest issues in the 2012 presidential campaign.http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/27/us-usa-campaign-poll-idUSBRE82Q19Z20120327

Bloomberg.com
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) won’t face a union challenge to Lloyd C. Blankfein’s dual role as chairman and chief executive officer after agreeing to appoint an independent board member as “lead director.” “We think it’s a step in the right direction,” said Lisa Lindsley, the Washington-based director of capital strategies at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which she said owned 7,101 Goldman Sachs shares when the union filed a proposal to split Blankfein’s roles. She said AFSCME and Goldman Sachs reached the compromise, reported earlier today by the Wall Street Journal, on Feb. 6. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-27/goldman-sachs-preserves-blankfein-s-dual-role-with-lead-director.html

Cnbc.com
Gold prices should remain high this year but are unlikely to rise above the record levels reached in 2011, according to CPM Group. That is the key takeaway from CPM Group’s latest forecast—“Gold Yearbook 2012,” its annual analysis into the supply and demand factors driving the global gold market. CPM Group is an independent commodities research and investment banking company, and its annual forecast is widely followed by the gold market. Increasing supply versus a bigger global pool of investors for gold are combining to put a floor under the market, and prices are expected to remain firm, without the parabolic rallies of the recent past. http://www.cnbc.com/id/46871385

Pressure is building in Britain and Australia for fresh probes into Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, already under siege over phone-hacking claims, after allegations that it ran a secret unit that promoted pirating of pay-TV rivals.  The Australian Financial Review on Wednesday alleged that News Corp had used a special unit, Operational Security, set up in the mid-1990s, to sabotage its competitors, reinforcing claims in a BBC Panorama documentary aired earlier this week. http://www.cnbc.com/id/46874480

Cnn.com
Dailyfinance.com
Americans’ rosy outlook about the U.S. economy remains resilient as they focus on the good in the barrage of conflicting economic news. A widely watched barometer of consumer confidence barely budged in March after hitting its highest level since before the financial crisis began in the previous month. Americans continued to be upbeat in March despite mixed economic signs. The stock market is up, but gas prices are, too. Unemployment is falling, but home prices also are declining. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index fell slightly to 70.2. That’s down from a revised 71.6 in February – the highest level it’s been since the same month in 2011.http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/03/27/us-consumer-confidence-roughly-flat-in-march/
Foxbusiness.com
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday that he is sleeping a little better at night because “things are moving in the right direction.” In an interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer to air Tuesday night on “World News,” Bernanke said the financial system looks stronger. But Bernanke said it is important not to be “complacent.” The Fed chairman said gas prices pose only a “moderate” risk to growth. He said the Fed should not change policy too quickly. Bernanke said he was not taking any options off the table. He said the Fed saying that rates would stay exceptionally low until late 2014 was not a guarantee. “If things get a lot stronger or weaker, we’ll have to change our plans,” he said. http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/03/27/bernanke-says-is-sleeping-little-better/#ixzz1qNsbiW63

More easing steps could be advisable, especially if growth doesn’t pick up or slows down, said Eric Rosengren, the president of the BostonFederal Reserve Bank, on Tuesday. “If real GDP does not grow more rapidly and unemployment remains at its current unacceptably high level, monetary policy may need to be more accommodative,” Rosengren said in a speech to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research in London. While there have been some positive trends in some recent data, the Fed must “avoid complacency”, he said. Rosengren, who is not an FOMC voted this year, said the Fed should also not be quick to start to exit from its ultra-low interest rate policy until it is confident that thelabor market is healing. http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/03/27/feds-rosengren-backs-more-easing-if-growth-lags/#ixzz1qNshkWV4

USAtoday.com
The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy U.S. homes dipped in February from nearly a two-year high, a mixed signal ahead of the spring home-buying season. The National Association of Realtors said Monday that its index of sales agreements declined 0.5% last month to a reading of 96.5. January’s reading of 97 was the highest since April 2010, the last month buyers could qualify for a federal home-buying tax credit. A reading of 100 or higher is considered healthy. April 2010 was also the last time it was that highhttp://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/story/2012-03-26/pending-home-sales-february/53782496/1

BBC.co.uk
US technology firm Apple has offered to refund Australian customers who felt misled about the 4G capabilities of the new iPad. The country’s consumer watchdog has taken Apple to court for false advertising because the tablet computer does not work on Australia’s 4G network. Apple’s lawyers said they were willing to print a clarification. However the company does not accept that it misled customers.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17532613

The Indian government has said it will review a new tax on gold jewellery, after 11 days of protests by gold shop owners. Shops have been closed in some parts of India since the levy was announced in the federal budget on 16 March. However authorities said they would not budge on an import duty hike from 2% to 4%. India is the biggest importer of gold in the world. In 2011 India imported 933 tonnes of gold, according to the World Gold Council. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17532861

Spain’s biggest bank in terms of assets has been created after CaixaBank bought Banca Civica for 977m euros ($1.3bn, £817m). The government has amended laws to encourage mergers between banks, many of which collapsed following the bursting of the property bubble. Banca Civica itself was formed by combining four troubled “cajas”, or regional savings banks. The merged bank will have 14 million customers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17521076

Telegraph.co.uk
Pensioners have exaggerated how much money they are losing because of quantitative easing (QE), according to Sir Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England. Britain’s top economist said the Bank’s monetary easing programme is not as bad for the value of pensions as has been claimed.  In a hearing at the House of Lords on Tuesday, he admitted he could not rule out an extension of QE, which was increased by £50bn in February to a total of £325bn. Sir Mervyn said the falling value of pensions was not the fault of the extra stimulus. “I’m concerned about what has happened to the pensions industry and defined benefit pensions but I think they reflect a wider set of issues. The decline cannot be laid at the door of our programme. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/9170099/Elderly-exaggerate-QE-effect-on-pensions-claims-Bank-of-England-Governor-Sir-Mervyn-King.html

Spain’s fragile economy has fallen back into recession and the country faces a year of grinding economic decline as premier Mariano Rajoy slashes spending yet further to meet EU demands. The Bank of Spain said the “contractionary dynamic” in the economy continued into early 2012 for the second quarter in a row, with an “intensifying” pace of job losses. It expects GDP to fall by 1.5pc this year. Mr Rajoy said at a meeting in Seoul that he would press ahead later this week with a “very austere budget”, ordering 15pc cuts in spending across the ministries.  The conservative leader promised a “fair and just” distribution of pain. Public sector salaries will be frozen rather than cut and there will be no rise in VAT. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9170309/Spain-to-slash-spending-as-economy-slumps-back-into-recession.html

Guardian.co.uk
As African lions outpace Asian tigers, one of the world’s poorest states is moving from civil war bust to boom – but who will gain. The shells of stylish colonial-era buildings, like shipwrecks on the ocean floor, still give Maputo a distinct character. But the capital of Mozambique no longer feels like an urban museum. Amid the crumbling grandeur rumble cranes and mechanical diggers, carving out a different skyline. A construction boom is under way here, concrete proof of the economic revolution in Mozambique. Growth hit 7.1% last year, accelerating to 8.1% in the final quarter. The country, riven by civil war for 15 years, is poised to become the world’s biggest coal exporter within the next decade, while the recent discovery of two massive gas fields in its waters has turned the region into an energy hotspot, promising a £250bn bonanza. The national currency was the best performing in the world against the dollar. Investment is pouring in on an unprecedented scale; as if to prove that history has a sense of irony, Portuguese feeling Europe’s economic pain are flocking back to the former colony, scenting better prospects than at home. Increasingly this is the rule, not the exception in Africa, which has boasted six of the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies in the past decade http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/27/mozambique-africa-energy-resources-bonanza

Straitstimes.com
In his biggest challenge to Italy’s unions since he became Prime Minister, Mario Monti threatened to quit if his reform efforts, designed to restore growth to one of Europe’s most sluggish economies, are rejected. Mr. Monti delivered the threat Monday, when he was attending the nuclear security summit in Seoul. When his technical government was appointed in November, he pledged to push through sweeping economic reform programs before elections are held in 2013. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-news/italian-pm-throws-down-gauntlet-for-labour-reforms/article2383466/

The Centre on Tuesday said it would borrow Rs.3.79 lakh crore from the market in the first half of the next fiscal, which would be over 65 per cent of the total amount that it wanted to raise from borrowings during 2012-13. “We have budgeted the fiscal deficit at Rs.5.13 lakh crore. In the first half, gross borrowing will be Rs.3.79 lakh crore,” Department of Economic Affairs Secretary R. Gopalan told reporters here after a meeting to decide the borrowing calendar for the next fiscal. http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/article3251636.ece

Xinhuanet.com
The first two months of 2012 saw China’s industrial businesses suffer their biggest decrease in profits in three years. To many, that signaled the country’s economy was worsening under the pressure of declines in exports and property prices and that authorities would be more inclined to ease monetary policies. In the first two months, industrial companies’ net income decreased by 5.2 percent from a year before, hitting 606 billion yuan ($96 billion). That came after a relatively strong year in 2011, when their net incomes had increased by 25 percent, according to a statement from the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday. During the first two months of that year, their profits increased by 34.3 percent.http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-03/28/c_131494012.htm

The World Bank on Tuesday announced that it has approved a 109 million U.S. dollars funding for the Rajasthan Agricultural Competitiveness Project in India to enhance agricultural productivity through sustainable and efficient use of water resources. The project is expected to increase agricultural productivity and farmer incomes through efficient water management, crop management, improved agricultural technology, farmer organizations and market innovations in some 20 selected areas across 10 agro- ecological zones of Rajasthan in India, benefiting some 155,000 mainly smallholder farmers, the Washington-based World Bank said in a statement. “The agricultural sector needs an end-to-end approach ranging from water management to better agricultural practices and marketing,” said Roberto Zagha, World Bank Country Director for India. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-03/28/c_122890009.htm

The World Bank on Tuesday announced that its Board of Executive Directors has approved 132 million U.S. dollars in zero-interest financing for Cameroon’s Lom Pangar Hydropower Project (LPHP), to boost the country’s economic development and improve the supply of electricity to homes and businesses across Cameroon. Together with the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Central African States Development Bank (BDEAC), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the French Agency for Development (AFD) and the Government of Cameroon, the project will finance the Lom Pangar dam to store water during the rainy season and later release it during dry periods, to increase all-season hydropower generation capacity on the Sanaga River by approximately 40 percent, the World Bank said in a statement.http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-03/28/c_122889922.htm

Bank of Spain (BOE) Tuesday predicted that the Spanish economy will continue in recession and unemployment will continue to rise in the first quarter of 2012. Although the BOE did not provide any concrete data, it based its expectations on data collated from elsewhere, such as studies into private consumption and confidence indicators, which show that con fidence among consumers and small business owners continues to fall in the first three months of the current year. The BOE also focused on the continued decline in the sales of new cars and a 4.7 percent drop in sales in small shops in January. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-03/27/c_131493011.htm

Thehindu.com
Defending the move by the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — to set up a bank, China said the developing world had been left with few options, stressing the need for governments to allocate the initial seed money for the initiative. Growing Chinese concerns about fluctuations in the U.S. dollar and a fresh drive to promote cross-border settlements in the Renminbi were behind Beijing’s renewed interest in pushing forward the move, according to officials in Beijing. If Beijing had its way, after leaders of the five countries approve the pacts for local currency trade and the bank on Thursday, the idea could be forwarded to other emerging countries at the forthcoming G-20 summit in Mexico. This is an idea that India and Brazil had also suggested at the G-20 Finance Ministers’ meeting.http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/article3251640.ece

Economictimes.com
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday evening said he may modify some provisions of the General Anti-Avoidance Rules (GAAR) prescribed in this year’s budget, holding out hope that the government could adopt a lenient position on the issue of taxing short-term capital gains of Mauritius-based foreign institutional investors (FIIs). Earlier in the day, finance ministry mandarins said the government had no intention of targeting participatory note (PN) trades, triggering a 205-point rise in the 30-share BSE Sensex. But experts said uncertainty will remain till an amendment is passed to specifically exclude PNs from the ambit of the relevant section of the income-tax law.http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/gaar-may-be-modified-as-and-when-required-pranab-mukherjee/articleshow/12434004.cms

Yonhapnews.co.kr
The government is committed to helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and reviving traditional markets that form the backbone of the local economy, the finance minister said Wednesday.
Bahk Jae-wan told a weekly economic policymakers meeting that Seoul aims to implement programs that will directly benefit SMEs and small-time merchants that employ the bulk of the country’s workforce. “Efforts are also underway to revive traditional markets that have been losing ground to large discount outlets and big super market chains owned by conglomerates,” he said. “State policies must be tailored to allow small and medium businesses to reap benefits.”http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2012/03/28/34/0501000000AEN20120328001800320F.HTML
Themoscowtimes.com
Russia’s recovery from the 2008 crisis is weak relative to its international peers and slower than after the financial crash of 1998, the World Bank said Wednesday as it lowered its 2012 growth forecast. There are 20 percentage points between projections on the eve of the 2008 crisis for Russia’s gross domestic product in 2012 and today’s reality — compared to 7 percentage points for high-income OSCE countries and 15 points for developing European Union economies, according to the World Bank’s latest Russian Economic Report.  After the 1998 financial shock, the country’s GDP took seven quarters to recover to its former levels, the World Bank said. After 2008′s contraction, it took 14 quarters. And although growth was 4.3 percent last year, it has not come close to pre-2008 highs of above 7 percent.  “If you look at other big emerging economies they have actually returned to the growth rates they had pre-crisis,” said Kaspar Richter, the World Bank’s lead Russia economist. “Russia has taken a hit in the post-crisis environment.” http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/world-bank-finds-economic-comeback-weak/455611.html#ixzz1qNxbwdnK

Fin24.com
South Africa imported no oil from Iran in January, according to government trade and customs data, suggesting Pretoria has heeded a call from the United States to halt oil shipments from Tehran as part of Western sanctions. Trade figures showed marked increases in January imports from Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, indicating they have replaced Iran, usually South Africa’s biggest supplier of crude accounting for a quarter of its oil imports. Pretoria has come under Western pressure to cut Iranian crude imports as part of sanctions designed to halt Tehran’s suspected pursuit of nuclear weapons, although it has been unclear how the diplomatically non-aligned nation would respond. http://www.fin24.com/Economy/SA-halted-Iran-oil-imports-in-January-20120327

Khaleejtimes.com
Eurozone leaders will likely achieve positive results at a weekend gathering on the region’s sovereign debt crisis, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said Wednesday. The finance ministers meet in Copenhagen on Friday is expected to mainly focus on whether to increase the size of a permanent bailout fund from a planned 500 billion euros ($667 billion).  “I’m confident that we will reach a positive outcome,” Van Rompuy told a news conference after talks with South Korea’s President Lee Myung-Bak.  The International Monetary Fund has been pushing for an increase to as much as one trillion euros before it agrees to strengthen its own resources against a crisis. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/biz/inside.asp?xfile=/data/finance/2012/March/finance_March27.xml&section=finance