The episode showed how little margin for error remained even for France, which is already suffering from a drop in industrial production and has watched the gap between its bonds' rates and those of Germany widen to record levels, an ominous development in this environment.
So far, he said, the widening to record levels of the ratio of current account deficit to gross domestic product had been, "with the exception of the dollar's exchange rate, seemingly uneventful".
By contrast, Japan's trade and current-account surpluses both widened to record levels last year.
On March 16th, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate oil fetched more than $56 for the first time.America's current-account deficit also broke records, widening to 6.3% of GDP in the last three months of 2004, or more than $750 billion at an annual rate.
Broadcasting and recording widened even further the potential audience for concert artists, at the same time as they tended to decrease the physical necessity for large new public performance arenas.
The spread, or differential, between the yields on Spanish 10-year government bonds and German bonds set a euro-era record Friday, widening to 2.64 percentage points.
What universities with strong records of widening access do is provide high quality teaching and learning which lifts candidates with weaker school exit qualifications and provides them with a platform for their higher education.
But the strength of sterling will make life tougher for exporters, widening the UK's record current account deficit and making it harder for the government to achieve its aim of rebalancing the economy away from consumer-led growth.
The minister for women, Barbara Roche, will urge WI members at the organisation's training college in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, to consider lending their talents to bodies from the strategic rail authority to the commission for health improvement as part of an attempt to improve the government's poor record on widening the membership base of the UK's 1,000 quangos.
[C12.] Trade Deficit Widens to a Record The United States trade deficit widened to a record $31.9 billion in July from $29.8 billion in June as demand for autos, oil and Chinese toys and clothes pushed imports to their highest level ever, government figures showed.
