AFP The International Monetary Fund said that the fiscal projections underpinning Greece’s proposals for moving ahead in its bailout programme are not realistic. Poul Thomsen, director of the IMF’s European Department, raised questions about the forecast that Greece could maintain a 3.5 percent budget surplus for years as part of its plan for debt relief from European Union creditors. “We ...

  Bloomberg There’s a slew of data out of the U.K. next week, some of it likely to show the economy is in good shape. Yet still currency strategists remain preoccupied with the European Union referendum in June and the potential for further losses in the pound. Data due April 20 will show U.K. unemployment remained at a decade-low of ...

  Bloomberg One year on from the peak in the region’s government bond market, investors will be watching the European Central Bank for signs that this week’s selloff isn’t about to turn into a rout. Benchmark German 10-year bunds slid for the first time in five weeks as France led a wave of supply by selling debt via banks, including ...

  Bloomberg Volkswagen AG’s European first-quarter market share reached a five-year low as auto buyers snubbed the German carmaker’s efforts to resolve its emissions-cheating scandal and turned to models from BMW AG, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Daimler AG. Volkswagen’s brands, including mass-market Skoda and up-market Audi, accounted for 23.4 percent of new registrations in the three months ended March ...

  Thetford / AFP The Chinese investor group pursuing a takeover of the AC Milan soccer club, which is controlled by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is targeting a deal by June, people with knowledge of the matter said. The consortium, whose investors have a background in renewable energy and media, has agreed on most key terms and is seeking ...

  Bloomberg Buyers snapped up $56 billion in Treasury debt at auctions this week, lured by higher yields than found in most other developed nations, as slow global growth and mixed U.S. economic data complicate the Federal Reserve’s efforts to raise interest rates. With investors buoyed by an April 14 report showing benign consumer-price inflation, demand was so strong at ...

  Bloomberg UnitedHealth Group Inc. plans to exit a third state Obamacare market as the insurer works to stem losses from its struggling Affordable Care Act business. The insurer won’t sell policies through Michigan’s ACA exchange for next year, according to Andrea Miller, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Insurance and Financial Services. Georgia and Arkansas said last week ...

  Bloomberg Argentina’s first global debt sale in 15 years is receiving “awesome” demand, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay said. “If you haven’t done it, you might as well call your broker because the demand is awesome,” he said from Washington, where he spoke at an event at Georgetown University during the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank. “Of ...

Caracas / AFP Venezuela announced it is shifting its time zone forward 30 minutes to save power and alleviate a severe electricity crisis the government blames on the El Nino weather phenomenon. The move, effective May 1, will scrap a half-hour subtraction to the clocks Venezuela’s late former president Hugo Chavez introduced in 2007 that gave his country a slight offset ...

BRASILIA / AP Separated by only a boulevard, two rival camps of demonstrators in Brazil’s capital underscore the sharp ideological divide that is playing out in Congress as lawmakers debate whether to oust the president. On one side of Brasilia’s showcase Eixo Monumental, which cuts through the center of city and dead ends at Congress, several thousand supporters of embattled ...