Forex / Eastern Europe news

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russia's gold and foreign currency reserves were at 408.4 bln usd on July 6, up from 406.0 bln usd on June 29, Interfax reported, citing a Central Bank statement.alfred.kueppers@thomson.comamk/lam..

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - The European Commission's powerful antitrust policy came under fresh scrutiny today following two key judgments from the EU's second-highest court which ruled that the EU executive owes damages to Schneider Electric and imposed excessive restrictions on a rough diamond distribution agreement between Alrosa and De Beers...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russia warned on Friday that the entry of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO could affect its ties with the alliance and would do nothing to bolster trust in Europe, Interfax news agency reported."Georgia's and Ukraine's joining of the alliance cannot fail to influence our relations with those countries, and with NATO as a whole," Interfax reported Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov as saying...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russia on Thursday officially refused a request from Britain to extradite the chief suspect in the murder last year of a former Russian agent in London, the Russian prosecutor general's office said.Russia's constitution prevents the extradition of Russian citizens, the prosecutor's office said in a statement...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russia's outlays on hosting the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi will be repaid in resulting revenues within ten years, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref was quoted as saying today.Sochi was awarded the games in a decision in Guatemala late yesterday...

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said the government has to pursue an "active industrial policy" to protect local firms in the telecommunications, banking, postal, logistics and energy sectors from being taken over by foreign state-owned funds...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Net capital inflows to Russia may total 70 bln usd this year, and the country's already booming money supply will rise 37-39 pct over the whole of 2007, central bank chairman Sergei Ignatiyev was quoted as saying today.Testifying in parliament, Ignatiyev said inflows likely totaled 67 bln usd in the first half of 2007 and at most would be just over 70 bln for the whole year...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Russian First Deputy Minister Sergei Ivanov said Moscow could deploy rocket units in the Kaliningrad exclave near Poland if Washington goes ahead with its missile defence plans in Central Europe.tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson...

MOSCOW Thomson Financial - Russian gas giant Gazprom and pipeline monopoly Transneft will be given the right to set up armed security forces under a bill passed by Russian lawmakers.The bill allows the two state-controlled companies to use guns and anti-riot equipment such as tear gas to prevent attacks on pipelines and other installations "necessary for state contracts...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Consumer prices in Russia likely grew by 0.5-0.6 pct in June, Interfax reported the Economic Development and Trade Ministry as saying.The ministry said hat inflation likely stood at between 5.2 and 5.3 pct in the first half of 2007...

MINSK, Belarus (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for a strategic partnership with Belarus Friday, calling his Belarusian counterpart a "brother-in-arms" and lamenting the pressure he said the United States was putting on Minsk and Caracas...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller insisted in an interview that the company had the trust of its foreign partners and rejected an EU warning that it might have to sell its proposed Baltic Sea pipeline.In the interview with Kommersant newspaper, Gazprom's chief denied the company was a "monster" and insisted it was moving to implement market conditions at home and abroad...

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the European communities, said the global energy market will "never be stable" without Russia.Speaking here on EU-Russia energy relations, the ambassador said: "There are factors which have led to energy 'Russophobia' (including in the EU)...

MOSCOW (Thomson Financial) - Venezuela and Russia are likely to discuss plans for Russian gas giant Gazprom and oil giant Lukoil to develop projects in Venezuela during Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's visit to Moscow which started today, Kommersant newspaper reported...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Commodity traders will look to a government report on agricultural products Thursday to gauge the impact of June's inclement weather on U.S. crop prices.The Department of Agriculture is scheduled to release its June agricultural prices report at 3 p...

PRAGUE (Thomson Financial) - The Slovak central bank (NBS) board today left its main interest rate unchanged for the second month running at 4.25 pct, in line with market expectations.The bank cut rates by 50 basis points in two steps in April and March, but has since held off, as it bids to balance currency stability with control of inflation on its road to planned adoption of the euro in 2009...

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - The European Central Bank said the euro's share of world foreign exchange reserves rose slightly over the past two years.The share of euro-denominated assets in global foreign exchange reserves rose to 25.8 pct in Dec 2006 from 24...

ZAGREB (Thomson Financial) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend an energy summit in Zagreb on Sunday organised by Croatian President Stipe Mesic, for the Balkan countries to discuss their current problems with energy supplies, the organisers said...

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - The US was by far the world's largest recipient of foreign direct investment in 2006 partly as a result of the decline of the dollar, the OECD said in a report on FDI flows.The US attracted 183.6 bln usd of FDI inflows in 2006, up from 109...

BRATISLAVA (Thomson Financial) - Output in the construction sector of Slovakia grew 13.4 pct year on year in April 2007. According to data of the European Statistical Office Eurostat, this was the sixth highest growth of the thirteen EU countries which provided their data to Eurostat...