Topic: Economy (Global)

New York Fed President Bill Dudley, a leading dove on the Federal Open Market Committee, sounding a somewhat hawkish tone in an exclusive CNBC interview, suggested he does not at the moment see a need for additional easing from the central bank.

On the same day official figures showed the biggest slide in retail sales figures in two years and one member of the Bank of England’s interest rate-setting committee indicated it would restart its asset purchase program if the economy weakened significantly, 10-year sovereign debt yields fell to record lows.

Any Greek exit from the euro zone would pose a huge disruption with unforeseeable consequences, European Central Bank policymaker Ewald Nowotny said on Thursday.

There has been no global recession but negative sentiment and maximum uncertainty are clouding the reality of the situation, Frank Appel, Deutsche Post’s CEO told CNBC on “Worldwide Exchange.”

Joint bonds issued by the euro zone, also known as Eurobonds, are one of the possible solutions to Europe’s debt crisis, Joaquin Almunia, vice president of the European Commission told CNBC, “but many conditions would have to be met” before they were introduced.

Greece will leave the euro zone next year and the country's new currency will "immediately fall by 60 percent," according to Citi chief economist Willem Buiter.

British insurer Aviva is putting its South Korean and Sri Lankan businesses on the auction block, sources with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday, as part of a wider retreat from sub-scale Asian markets in a deal that could fetch around $150 million.

Rio Tinto, the world's No.2 producer of iron ore, sees no signs of a slowdown in demand from top consumer China and still plans to almost double its output of the steel-making ingredient by 2016.

Germany's manufacturing sector has been shrinking at the fastest rate in three years in May, renewing concerns about the stamina of Europe's largest economy, which likely propped up the euro zone in the first quarter but is beginning to show signs of strain.

"He is not in a confrontational mindset. He didn't arrive brandishing a
Kalashnikov and saying 'you must accept euro bonds'," one aide said. "It's a
different approach."

Continued weakness in China’s economic data, as well as growing risks of a Greek exit from the euro zone, will drive Beijing to launch aggressive stimulus measures in order to prevent a further deterioration of growth in the world’s second largest economy, economists and strategists told CNBC.

European shares are called to open the trading day higher despite a lackluster European Union summit that found Greece being urged to stay in the euro zone but to honor commitments to its bailout agreement.

Market correlations have once again been rising - with stocks, bonds and even gold dropping in recent weeks on worries about Greece. That's making it harder for investors to use traditional forms of portfolio diversification. Instead, according to one fund manager, investors should be looking at technical price patterns.

New Zealand unveiled its toughest budget in 20 years on Thursday, with no spending increase and moves to increase the tax take in the struggling economy, as it laid out a return to a budget surplus by 2015.

With Greece’s membership in the euro zone teetering, fears of bank insolvency rising and Europe’s leaders bickering about what to do, the euro crisis is once again intensifying and threatening to undermine fragile growth globally. The NYT reports.