March 20th, 2012
06:31 AM GMT
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(CNN) – Gas prices in China rose as much as 7% Tuesday, the biggest increase since 2009 to offset rising costs for oil refineries. In the U.S., drivers are seeing pump prices inching up, slowly approaching record highs not seen since July 2008.

As gas prices rise, due largely to fears that tensions with Iran will cut off supply, is oil set to become the new Greece?

The chief economist at HSBC thinks so. Much like worries of the eurozone debt woes could weigh on the global economy, now rising oil prices are attracting similar attention.
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March 16th, 2012
06:25 PM GMT
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London (CNN) – The bail-out is a done deal, the International Monetary Fund has agreed its share and the Europeans have started to hand over the money. One of the ratings agencies has even upgraded the new Greek bonds.

So it is incredibly dispiriting to be reading more and more notes from economists and analysts suggesting that this is not over yet.

Paul Donovan, in his note from UBS, noted that the markets were not that impressed by the state of play. The markets, he said, were pricing in “the debate about when the next restructuring will take place.”
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March 14th, 2012
01:11 PM GMT
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Editor’s note: The Millennials are a generation that are constantly plugged in and moving fast to make their mark on the world. CNN’s Quest Means Business is tracking four of them. Here, Millennial and guest blogger David Lloyd - managing director of Intern Latin America, which brings international students to the region - writes on the unstoppable rise of Latin America.

Santiago, Chile (CNN) – “This 21st century will be our century, the century of Latin America,” wrote Sebastián Piñera, the president of Chile, in a recent article for The Economist. Piñera is right and the bet on “LatAm” as financiers like to refer to it, is a bet that is almost certain to come off.
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March 13th, 2012
10:04 AM GMT
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Berlin (CNN) – Oozing creativity and spirit, Berlin is Europe's capital of cool. It is full of culture, with renewed economic hope.

CNN's Richard Quest visits a city being reborn.



March 1st, 2012
01:54 PM GMT
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Hong Kong (CNN) - Dismissed by many Western sceptics, the ancient philosophy of Feng Shui plays a key role in shaping life in Hong Kong.

CNN's Richard Quest reports on the theory's impact on architecture, business and lifestyles in the territory.



February 28th, 2012
03:49 PM GMT
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(CNN) - The fact that Greece is not officially regarded as defaulting is ridiculous – and how anyone can say the 70% net debt “haircut” for the private sector is truly voluntary simply beggars belief.

But now that Standard and Poor’s has downgraded Greece’s credit to “selective default,” that part of the fig leaf has been stripped away – and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) must declare that a “credit event” has now happened in Greece if the organization is to maintain any shred of credibility.

A “credit event” will enable anybody who’s holding Greek debt to enact a credit default swap (CDS), a form of insurance that investors use to protect against default. For these insurances to pay out, there has to be a “credit event.”

When the Greek parliament decided unilaterally to change the terms of its bond agreements with investors, that was the “credit event,” and now the ISDA must act. FULL POST



February 21st, 2012
06:22 PM GMT
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(CNN) - Back on track, the finance minister cried, giddy from all-night negotiations. Back on track they shrilled, grateful that they had got a deal to shovel another €130 billion into Greece to prevent a default… for now.

Wait a moment. From the second my Blackberry buzzed with economists’ analysis this morning, there has been an uneasy truth they may be “back on track” - but for how long?

It may be raining on the eurozone’s parade. There are a lot of private economists who basically say this deal is not good enough because no matter how much money is being shovelled into Greece, it still leaves the country with a debt-to-GDP ratio that is too high.
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February 15th, 2012
02:32 AM GMT
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London (CNN) – It is official. The Greek economy has gone into meltdown.

The numbers released Tuesday show that during 2011 the economy contracted by 7%. Barclays estimates that much of that loss came in the last three months – when the economy dropped a whopping 5.1%.

A look at the IMF's World Economic Outlook puts it into context. In the darkest days of the recession no other developed country came close to suffering such a large loss (U.S. -2.4%; UK -4.9%; Eurozone -4.1).

It is now clear Greece's economy has fallen off a cliff. It has endured five years of grueling recession and every prospect of much more to come, as even the Greek prime minister warned that things would be tough for years to come.
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February 14th, 2012
02:48 PM GMT
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Hong Kong (CNN) - The increasing number of visitors from mainland China and overseas means that space is at an absolute premium in Hong Kong.

As Hong Kong continues to grapple with incredible urban density and a real lack of open space, the redevelopment of an iconic landing strip is being watched closely.

As Richard Quest reports, there are plans in the works for even more land reclamation projects from the surrounding seas. FULL POST



February 7th, 2012
10:50 AM GMT
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Hong Kong (CNN) – Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places on the planet.

In a place like this, one of the greatest challenges is getting people from A to B.

The city's main subway carries 4 million passengers a day. This key piece of infrastructure is being expanded.

CNN's Richard Quest goes beneath the city streets to find out how it will be done.



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About Quest Means Business

Quest Means Business airs Monday to Friday, 1900 London, 2000 CET, 0300 HK and is hosted by Richard Quest.

Q&A: A Q&A each Thursday with Quest and Ali. You send the questions – they give the answers. Nothing’s off limits.

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