Romanian financial markets continue to witness foreign capital withdrawals as global investors retreat to less risky securities. The Bucharest Stock Exchange lost more than 3% yesterday, continuing a downward trend that began last week. Stock exchanges in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary saw declines of 3% to 6% yesterday, while Moscow dropped almost 11%.
Iran’s ambassador to Turkey said trade between Turkey and Iran will hit $8 billion this year, up $2 billion on 2005.
Li Zhiqun, director of foreign investment in China’s Ministry of Commerce said that foreign businesses have recorded more than $200 billion in post-tax profits in China since the 1990s. He also said that around 500,000 foreign firms operate in China, and that they have invested $270 billion and set up more than 700 research and development centres.
The third round of negotiations for a China-Pakistan Free Trade Area was held in Islamabad, Pakistan. Both teams said they were satisfied with the progress of this round, and that it set a strong precedent to achieve an agreement on free trade in goods before the end of the year. China-Pakistan trade is growing fast. It reached $4.26 billion last year up by 39% on 2004, and hit $1.018 billion in the first quarter of 2006.
Chile’s banks posted net profits of 296 billion pesos ($558 million) from January to April this year, up 8.19% on last year according to data of the country's authority for Banks and Financial Institutions.