Following his meeting with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long, the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso said that a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Singapore will likely be finalized "very soon".

Hot on the heels of recent remarks made by Austria’s Chancellor Werner Faymann pertaining to the taxation of the country’s wealthiest, Finance Minister Maria Fekter issued a categorical ‘no’ to the idea of introducing a wealth tax in Austria.

Parliament approved the Cyprus government’s first package of austerity measures aimed wrestle down its high deficit, which politicians said had been watered down in order to calm union leaders, particularly those representing civil servants and employees in the semi-government sector.

An article on American medium and large companies tending to move their headquarters to tax-free areas has been published on Forbes homepage.

Li Keqiang, the man almost certain to succeed Wen Jiabao as China’s premier, came to Hong Kong last week bearing gifts.

Berlin made clear on Wednesday that a proposed tax on financial transactions would have to apply to the entire European Union, but renewed Franco-German backing for the levy still unnerved investors and depressed shares in European stock exchanges.

In a move to quash longstanding tax disputes between the German government and Swiss financial institutions, the governments of Germany and Switzerland on August 10 concluded negotiations on tax issues and initialled a framework for the future taxation of funds deposited in Switzerland by German residents.

Determined to regain market confidence and to rescue a failing eurozone from the brink, Germany and France have called for a common European 'economic government' to be established, spearheaded by an appointed leader, and for the fiscal and economic policies of eurozone member states to be dovetailed in order to strengthen the euro as a common currency.

Cyprus's largest commercial bank, the Bank of Cyprus, has called on the Cypriot government to make radical decisions to reduce the budget deficit and quash speculation that Cyprus will require an EU-funded bailout.

According to figures released by the Company Registry, the number of companies registered in Hong Kong at the end of June this year reached above 900,000.