Business News

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday listed a range of fresh options being considered by the White House to spur growth after "sobering" news that unemployment spiked to a 26 1/2-year peak last month.

Britain threw its weight on Saturday behind proposals to impose a global levy on banks to fund future bailouts but failed to make much progress on securing a G20 deal to meet the cost of climate change.

A tax on financial transactions to fund future bank bailouts should be considered with urgency, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Saturday, a significant departure from London's line to date.

United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Mohammed al-Hamli said on Saturday raising oil production was not currently on the agenda for OPEC.

Following are comments on Saturday from Group of 20 finance ministers, central bank policymakers and officials meeting in Scotland.

China is not counting on a quick rebound in the world economy to fuel growth but will concentrate instead on boosting home-grown demand, Yao Jingyuan, chief economist at the National Bureau of Statistics, said on Saturday.

A meeting of Group of 20 finance leaders should not be fixated on exchange rate levels, as they are a symptom of underlying economic problems rather than a cause, the head of the International Monetary Fund's policy-steering committee told Reuters on Saturday.

Banks in China are expected to lend 8-9 trillion yuan in 2010, slowing a touch from this year's likely new-loan total of 10 trillion yuan, Bank of Communications (BoCom) said on Saturday.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories has filed for marketing a generic version of Pfizer's cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor in the U.S., the company said on Saturday.

United Commercial Bank, a big San Francisco bank with branches in China, was closed by state regulators on Friday and its banking operations were acquired by East West Bancorp Inc, also active in both nations.

Chinese state-owned firms will pay a smaller cumulative dividend to the central government this year because their profits have fallen, the Economic Observer reported on Saturday.

The Orissa government will inspect several iron ore mines, a government official said, in a crackdown on firms involved in illegal mining or violating environment rules.

State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will buy 60,000 tonnes of diesel from a supplier in Egypt for consumption during January-June period of next year, a senior energy official said on Saturday.

China, which overtook the United States as the world's No. 1 auto market in January, sold 923,154 cars last month, 79.6 percent more than a year earlier, state media reported on Saturday.

Private equity firm Blackstone Group LP posted a forecast-beating quarterly profit on Friday and said it is gearing up for more deals and IPOs as the lending and equity markets recover.

Canada has mounted its biggest campaign yet to sell the United States on the energy security benefits of the oil sands as Washington debates new environmental policy, the country's energy minister said on Friday.

U.S. retailers are poised to defy gloom next week as earnings expectations have improved, but the big test will be what they say about holiday shopping.

Computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc suffered a 25 percent fall in quarterly revenue, as uncertainty over its delayed sale to Oracle Corp hurt its business.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday said quarterly earnings tripled, as rising stock markets boosted its investment holdings and a quiet hurricane season contributed to higher insurance profit.