Finance & Economics | WPN World People News

China's economy has seen a slowdown in the first three months of this year.

Portuguese politicians voted in favor of a key European treaty on budget discipline Friday. The pact introduces increased controls on public finances in European Union (EU) countries, limiting their annual budget deficits.

Global trade growth is forecast to slow down for the second consecutive year to 3.7 per cent in 2012, which is below the last 20 years average including the period of the trade collapse when it was 5.5 per cent, World Trade Organization forecast Thursday.

Surprise warm weather in March gave a boost to non-food retail sales particularly clothing, footwear and garden furniture, both on and offline, according to the latest data from the British Retail Consortium.

Resurfacing fears over Eurozone sovereign debt, particularly Spain's creditworthiness, is expected to see investors again gravitate towards gold leading to a price rally towards the $2,000 mark by yearend, a precious metal consultancy forecast Wednesday.

Small business owners in the US have expressed a dip in sentiments and outlook that could result in fewer job openings, according to a new survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.

Given the fragile global economy, there is a strong possibility of a significant fall in commodity prices over 2012-13, the International Monetary Fund has forecast in a research report released Tuesday.

As food prices remained volatile and fuel prices rose, China's consumer price index, a main gauge of inflation, scaled more than expected to 3.6 per cent in March from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Monday.

Customers buy subsidized bread at a Cairo bakery

China is now the world's largest food and grocery market, having overtaken the US in terms of sales in 2011, a market research firm said.