BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union finance ministers will later seek ways to cut down on tax evasion — action British Chancellor George Osborne says is particularly important in current circumstances.
On his way into a meeting of the 27 ministers in Brussels Tuesday, Osborne says it is "right that everyone makes their fair contribution" given the current economic backdrop.
Part of the effort will involve a long-stuck savings directive, which seeks an automatic exchange of information between different countries so that interest income on various types of savings accounts can be properly taxed
The ministers will also continue their effort to construct a banking union. And they will try to reach a budget agreement for the current year.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Mail and freight company Deutsche Post DHL saw its profits dip in the first quarter as a tough global economy meant companies shipped fewer goods by air.
A large one-time gain in the year-ago quarter from the sale of the Postbank business to Deutsche Bank also hurt the profit comparison, the Bonn, Germany based company said Tuesday.
Overall, Deutsche Post made a net profit of 498 million euros ($647 million) in the first three months of the year, 5.9 percent lower than the year ago equivalent of 529 million euros. The Postbank sale added 186 million euros last year.
The profit fall came despite a 0.6 percent rise in revenues to 13.44 billion euros.
Deutsche Post, which operates an air freight hub in Cincinnati, Ohio, said its freight business saw slower demand for freight in "a strained macroeconomic environment" that includes a stagnant European economy.
Air freight revenue fell 8.2 percent to 1.2 billion euros, with a particularly strong decline in the technology and manufacturing sectors. Still, operating earnings for the freight division showed a 1 percent increase due to strict cost management.
Deutsche Post, which has 473,000 employees in 220 countries and territories, emerged from the former government post office through privatization, and remains Germany's domestic mail carrier. The German government owns a 24.9 percent stake through its KfW bank.
The company maintained its full-year forecast for as much as 2.95 billion euros in earnings before interest and taxes.
BERLIN (AP) — Inflation in Germany, Europe's largest economy, has hit its lowest rate in nearly three years largely on the back of a fall in fuel costs.
The Federal Statistical Office said Tuesday that consumer prices rose 1.2 percent in April 2013 compared to the same month a year ago. That's down on the 1.4 percent rate in March and takes inflation to its lowest level since August 2010 when prices rose 1 percent.
The European Central Bank's target is to achieve inflation of just below 2 percent across the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro. In April, eurozone inflation fell to 1.2 percent — a drop that was largely behind the ECB's decision to cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent.