Interest rates

BELGRADE - The average indebtedness of a Serbian citizen stands at EUR 750, which is around 16 times less than the average indebtedness per EU citizen and five times less than in Croatia, said Veroljib Dugalic, secretary general of the Association of Serbian Banks.

Turkey’s economy minister called on June 23 for a sharp rate cut a day before a meeting of the Central Bank.

“I don’t think anybody in Turkey will want high interest rates,” Nihat Zeybekci said.

“We expect the interest rates to be lowered as soon as possible” to the level before the big rate increase in January, he added.

Eurozone overnight interbank interest rates fell to their lowest levels on record on Tuesday, while a sharp rally in government bonds started to ease for some countries.

Strategists said money markets were continuing to adjust to last week's cut in the European Central Bank's main interest rates and its promise of fresh liquidity for banks, which should help short-term rates stable.

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to
please everybody.” The Central Bank of Turkey’s Gov. Erdem Başçı found
out the wisdom in this Bill Cosby quote the hard way this past week.

By Foo Yun Chee

European Union antitrust regulators charged Europe's biggest bank HSBC, US peer JPMorgan and France's Credit Agricole on Tuesday with rigging financial benchmarks linked to the euro, exposing them to potential fines.

The European Commission also said it would charge broker ICAP soon for suspected manipulation of the yen Libor financial benchmark.