For a fifth straight month, officials at the Magyar Nemzeti Bank left their Base Rate at 6.0%.  Three prior increases of 25 basis points were implemented last November, December and January.  The rate was reduced previous to that some fourteen times from a cyclical peak of 11.5% to a low of 5.25% between November 2008 [...]

The meeting in Luxembourg of EU finance ministers postponed paying Greece EUR 12 billion, the next part of the EUR 110 billion package.  They’ll try again in July but insist that Greek politicians must first legislate more austerity.  Prime Minister Papandreou faces a confidence vote this week. All things considered, the euro’s overnight losses were [...]