Business news with words economy+minister. 60 or more news.

Sky News' team of financial experts has joined the Prime Minister and business leaders as they warn of tough times ahead for the UK economy in 2008.

ROME (Reuters) - Alitalia has been exploited by politicians for too long and could not continue in its present state, Italy's economy minister told a newspaper, defending the decision to pave the way for a deal with Air France-KLM.

Italy's economy minister, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, said Friday he was backing Air France-KLM as the preferred bidder for the government's stake in Alitalia.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will host a meeting of Group of Seven finance chiefs on February 9 in Tokyo to discuss challenges facing the global economy including fragile markets and high oil prices, Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said on Friday.

HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Indian stocks were unsettled in early trading on Friday, after opening lower in the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former primer minister of neighboring Pakistan. The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-stock Sensitive Index, or Sensex, fell as low as 20,032.35 in the early minutes, before rebounding. It was last quoted at 20,240.89, up 0.1%. "If any, the impact (on Indian stocks from the assassination) will be only technical. It shouldn't have any fundamental or long-term impact on the Indian markets or the economy," said Naval Bir Kumar, managing director at Standard Chartered Asset Management Company in Mumbai.

Reuters - Japan will host a meeting of Group of Seven finance chiefs on February 9 in Tokyo to discuss challenges facing the global economy including fragile markets and high oil prices, Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga said on Friday.

JAPAN'S housing starts fell for a fifth month in November, indicating that stricter rules for obtaining building permits may remain a drag on economic growth in the first quarter of 2008. Ground broken on new homes and condominiums tumbled 27 percent from a year earlier after falling 35 percent in October, the Land Ministry said in Tokyo yesterday. The median estimate of 31 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 28.5-percent drop. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said last week he regretted the slump in housing starts that resulted from building-code changes made in June after an architect fabricated earthquake-resistance data. The central bank lowered its evaluation of the economy for the first time in three years last week, and the government slashed its growth forecast because of the building fiasco. "We don't expect a fully fledged recovery in housing starts at least until mid-2008," Takehiro Sato, chief Japan economist at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo, said before

BERLIN - Germany's economy minister said the government must lower its 2008 economic growth forecast, according to an interview released Wednesday.

Germany's economy minister said the government must lower its 2008 economic growth forecast, according to an interview released Wednesday.

AP - Germany's economy minister said the government must lower its 2008 economic growth forecast, according to an interview released Wednesday.

JAPAN'S Cabinet approved a budget that includes increased spending on rural areas and social welfare, making it harder for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to balance the books by 2011. Japan's deficit is set to widen for the first time in five years and spending will rise 0.2 percent to 83.1 trillion yen (US$732 billion) in the year starting on April 1, according to a budget proposal released in Tokyo, Bloomberg News reported. Fukuda may struggle to meet his deadline as cooling global growth dims the outlook for Japan's export-dependent economy. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is under pressure to assist ailing regions and elderly voters after it lost control of the upper house in July, making it difficult for it to cut debt. "The current political situation is forcing Fukuda to spend more," said Hidenori Suezawa, chief strategist at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co in Tokyo. "Given that the nation's public debt is rising, the government needs to make drastic reforms in

New ANC president Jacob Zuma has praised Trevor Manuel as a good minister who has done a good job of instilling fiscal discipline in the economy.

The Japanese government left its economic growth projection for next fiscal year at 2 percent Wednesday even as the economy minister warned that target would be hard to reach if the U.S. economy slows and oil prices remain high.

India aims to achieve 10 percent economic growth by 2012 but is not immune to a global credit crunch spreading from the United States, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned Wednesday.

A wave of bad economic figures has swamped the government, the day after the prime minister and the chancellor insisted the UK economy was fundamentally strong and would 'weather' global financial storms

Who to believe on the prospects for the UK's economy? Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling offered a positively upbeat assessment of our prospects yesterday. The Prime Minister said the country was well able to weather the financial storms battering the world, while his Chancellor said he felt relaxed because the economy had been transformed in recent years.

TOKYO (AP) -- The Japanese government on Wednesday projected the economy would grow 2 percent next fiscal year even as the economy minister warned that target would be hard to reach if the U.S. economy slows and oil prices remain high....

AP - The Japanese government on Wednesday projected the economy would grow 2 percent next fiscal year even as the economy minister warned that target would be hard to reach if the U.S. economy slows and oil prices remain high.

Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister turned Middle East envoy, tells the FT in an interview he is set to win $5.6bn in pledges for the Palestinian economy

Spaniards tip too much because they still have not fully understood the value of the euro single currency which hit the streets in 2002, says Economy Minister Pedro Solbes.