Economy

Turkey and Russia will hold negotiations over a cut in gas prices again next week and Turkey is still looking for a discount, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Y?ld?z said on Jan. 23.

BELGRADE - Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic and Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Serbia Juma Rashid Saif Zayed Al Dhaheri agreed Friday that overall cooperation between the two countries had improved considerably.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she wanted Greece to "remain part of our story", ahead of elections this weekend which could sweep the anti-austerity Syriza party to power and determine whether the country stays in the eurozone.
 

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz has died at the age of about 90, international news outlets reported on Friday.

Drivers in Albania are angered by the fact that while oil prices fell almost 60 per cent on international markets in the last few months, the pump price for petrol in Albania fell by just 10 per cent.

Apart from frustrating consumers, the small scale of the price drop has ingited a blame game between the parties over who or what is to blame.

The European Central Bank (ECB) will buy EUR 60B in assets per month from March 2015 until end-September 2016 to stimulate flagging economic growth in Europe, the bank's President Mario Draghi announced on Thursday.

The unemployment rate in Romania hit 5.29 percent at a national level at end-Dec., by 0.11 percent higher than in Nov. and by 0.36 percentage points lower than at end-Dec. 2013, says a release sent by the National Employment Agency to AGERPRES on Thursday.

Photo credit: (c) CONSTANTIN DUMA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Turkey is a net winner from the decline in oil prices, said Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Jan. 22.

?Our biggest gain from low oil prices is the improvement in our current account balance,? Babacan said, adding that the decline may have a slight negative effect on collecting tax revenues from petroleum products.

French cosmetics giant L?Oreal has won a lawsuit against Turkish retail chain EVKUR by claiming EVKUR sold fake L?Oreal products. The court has decided to collect the products that have been verified as fraudulent and destroy them. It also decided that EVKUR would pay compensation to L?Oreal.

The European Central Bank on Thursday committed to a quantitative easing (QE) program that will see it print money to buy up 60 billion euros worth of sovereign bonds from March until the end of September next year.

The money will include some from existing programs.