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BEIJING – Chinese consumer inflation spurted to a 16-month high in February and a raft of economic data displayed broad-based strength, providing fresh arguments for policy tightening sooner rather than later.

The pace of credit growth halved in February, as expected, but some economists said the central bank would probably not wait long before increasing banks required reserves for a third time this year and perhaps even raising borrowing costs.

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GENEVA – For a Swiss private banking industry that is under fire and could see traditional sources of asset inflows dry up, Islamic banking is a unique opportunity that should be grabbed with both hands, one expert said on Thursday.

Mounting international pressure has forced Switzerland to relax banking secrecy rules and come into line with OECD standards for tax cooperation, hitting the traditional markets of wealth managers like UBS “Swiss private banking is having to adapt to a new world of tax transparency, and former markets will no longer provide the assets under management they once did,” said independent Islamic wealth and asset management consultant John Sandwick.

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BERLIN – A Swiss member of parliament alleged Saturday that top German public officials had secret bank accounts in Switzerland and threatened to out them if Germany purchased stolen data.

Alfred Heer, of the hard-right Swiss Peoples Party (SVP), told the daily Bild that his party would work towards having the law changed to allow the names to be published.

Bild said that Swiss financial sources had evidence that German politicians and judges maintained tax-dodging accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

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BRUSSELS – The International Monetary Fund Friday joined the European Union in pledging support for Greece in its struggle to bring its ballooning budget deficit under control and contain its debt crisis.

The IMFs declaration follows an EU summit, which sent Athens a “clear message of solidarity,” but produced no specific rescue plan, disappointing markets and sending both the euro and Greek government bonds lower.

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ZURICH – Troubled Swiss bank UBS said Tuesday it had surged back into quarterly profit for the first time in more than a year even though it was still grappling with a worrying loss of client confidence.

The bank, severely hit by the financial crisis and international pressure on tax evasion and Swiss banking secrecy, posted a 1.20-billion-franc profit (1.12 billion dollars, 821 million euros) in the fourth quarter of 2009.

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NEW YORK: US and European stocks eked out gains on Monday, lifted by defensive shares, while the euro edged up from 8-1/2-month lows despite persistent worries about the fiscal health of highly indebted nations in the euro zone.

A modest rebound on Wall Street helped pushed the euro to a session high above $1.37, although sentiment toward the single currency remained broadly negative, analysts said. US stocks edged higher after results at drugstore operator CVS Caremark Corp. and toy maker Hasbro Inc. topped expectations and both companies raised their outlooks. Rising defensive stocks such as drug makers helped European shares snap three days of losses, but worries about Greece and other debt-laden European countries kept gains in check.

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NEW YORK/LONDON/TOKYO – World markets fell Friday, led by bank stocks after President Barack Obama proposed a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street to avert future financial crises.

Obama said he would seek to limit the size and complexity of large financial institutions so that their collapse wouldnt imperil the broader financial system and world economy or cost taxpayer money in bailouts.

The announcement spooked investors, causing a sell-off in North America, Europe and Asia.

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AMSTERDAM: A crisis tax proposed by the Obama administration would cut substantially into bank earnings across Europe and could sidetrack the sectors recovery, analysts and industry officials said on Friday.

While there is little clarity over the practical effect of the levy, many questioned its fairness given that the European banks it would affect did not get bailouts in the United States and lack many of the guarantees their US competitors received.

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GENEVA – Switzerlands finance minister acknowledges that he had a rough time this year after the Swiss bowed to international pressure on banking secrecy under the onslaught of US lawsuits and a crackdown on tax evasion.

Yet, the Swiss banking industry insists that it was stirred rather than shaken by a tumultuous year that holed their sacrosanct secrecy, threatened to sap billions from their vaults and left their battered flagship bank UBS wheezing.

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DUBAI: Abu Dhabi threw its flashy but debt-laden neighbor Dubai a $10 billion lifeline on Monday to head off a bond default, cheering Gulf and global markets but raising questions about the undisclosed terms.

The surprise rescue should enable Dubai World to repay a $4.1 billion Islamic bond its property developer unit Nakheel was due to honor on Monday, but which has a 14-day grace period for payment.

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