Economy

BASF sales up on farm chemical demand
Chemicals and oil company BASF SE said Friday its net profit fell 15 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, when one-time gains from the sale ...
Total Q1 profit hit by Canada project exit
French oil company Total said Friday that its net profit fell 58 percent in the first quarter after it took a heavy loss to pull out of a Canadian ...
Alcatel-Lucent losses mount in 1st quarter
Struggling French telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent Friday posted a wider than expected loss for the first quarter as sales nearly ...
Cyprus further eases limits on money transfers
Cyprus significantly eased restrictions on money transfers inside and outside the country Thursday to help businesses spur a deeply slumping economy.
Russian opposition trials test legal integrity
While one Russian court imposed heavy fines on the country's only independent election-watching group and another heard contentious testimony in the ...
Polish airline to resume flying Boeing 787s June 5
Poland's national airline, LOT, says it is resuming flights on its two grounded Boeing 787s on June 5 and is selling tickets for the flights. LOT said ...
Nuclear giant Areva sees revenue rise 12.5 percent
France's state-controlled nuclear engineering giant, Areva, says revenue grew 12.5 percent in the first quarter, driven by strides in its mining and ...
Sales inch up 1 percent at French retailer Kering
Kering says revenues rose 1 percent in the first quarter of the year, unusually little growth for the French luxury and retail group whose Puma brand ...
China, France vow to promote 'multipolar' world
China's President Xi Jinping and France's President Francois Hollande pledged to push for a world free of domination by any superpower Thursday as the ...
Greece pulls firing provision from austerity bill
Greece's government has withdrawn a key labor reform from a new austerity bill, following strong objections by experts and a widely reported rift ...
AstraZeneca Q1 net profit plunges 31 percent
British drug maker AstraZeneca PLC, facing generic competition for some of its biggest products, says first-quarter profits fell 31 percent.
Portugal celebrates revolution, attacks austerity
Tens of thousands of Portuguese are marching through towns and cities in annual commemorations of the 1974 Carnation Revolution, which ousted a ...
Court upholds EU ban on importing seal products
A court says the European Union's ban on importing products from seal hunts can stand, despite a challenge by manufacturers and traders. EU law ...
Britain dodges recession as economy grew in Q1
Britain has given the slip to the Triple Dip. The U.K. dodged a third recession after official figures showed the economy grew 0.3 percent in the ...
Google agrees to change search display in Europe
Google has agreed to change how it displays search results in Europe — including a better labeling of its promoted content and displaying links to ...
China signs deal to buy 60 Airbus jetliners
China has signed an agreement to purchase 60 Airbus jetliners during a visit to Beijing by French President Francois Hollande. Airbus said that ...
Outokumpu cuts 2,500 jobs to save $455 million
Finnish metals group Outokumpu Oyj says it will slash 2,500 jobs worldwide in the next four years to cut costs by 350 million euros ($455 million) and ...
German government raises 2013 growth outlook
The German government on Thursday raised slightly its growth forecast for this year, though it still expects Europe's biggest economy to expand by ...
Oil rises to near $92 on central bank hopes
The price oil rose again on Thursday, a day after its biggest increase in five months, as glum economic data from the U.S. and Germany boosted ...
US destocking dents earnings at Amer Sports in Q1
Sports equipment maker Amer Sports Corp., whose brands include Atomic, Salomon and Wilson, says first-quarter earnings fell 20 percent to 14.8 million ...
Electrolux Q1 performance hit by European crisis
Swedish home appliance-maker Electrolux said Thursday saw its profits plunge 27 percent in the first quarter amid weakness in Europe, one of the ...
Brazil slowdown dents profits at Spain's Santander
Spain's Banco Santander says net profit for the first quarter fell 26 percent compared with the same period a year earlier owing to slower economic ...
Bayer profits up 11.5 percent on new drugs
German chemical and pharmaceutical company Bayer AG said Thursday that its net profit rose 11.5 percent in the first quarter as new drugs, led by ...
Spain's Q1 unemployment jumps to record 27.2 pct
Spain's National Statistics Institute says the country's unemployment rate shot up to a record 27.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013. The agency ...
Volvo posts Q1 loss on steep sales drop
Swedish truckmaker AB Volvo sank into a first quarter loss as sales slid to a five-year low, the company said Thursday. First quarter sales for the ...