Business this week

As stockmarkets crashed and fears grew about the implications of the financial crisis on the wider world economy, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England cut interest rates by half a percentage point. The co-ordinated emergency move to slash interest rates, which took markets by surprise, was joined by the central banks of Canada, Sweden and Switzerland. Soon after, China’s central bank reduced its main lending rate by 27 basis points, the second decrease in the past month. Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan also shaved their rates, as did Australia earlier in the week. See article Britain’s government unveiled a broad bail-out for the banking sector. The plan has three main elements: making GBP50 billion ($87 billion) of public funds available to banks to boost their Tier-1 capital; doubling the amount of money accessible through the Bank of England’s “special liquidity scheme”, to GBP200 billion; and providing guarantees for banks’ ... (link)