The news that Petros Christodoulou, former head of asset management at the National Bank of Greece, will take over from Spyros Papanicolaou comes as financial markets worry that Greece may default on its mounting load of public debt.

Athens has come under intense pressure by its European Union partners to bring its finances under control and explain the use of financial deals known as currency swaps and how they affected the countrys debt and deficit figures.

Greece says the swaps debt deal, made with U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs, was above board and will be explained in a letter being sent by the finance minister to the European Union.

The country has announced a series of harsh austerity measures to help pull the country out of its worst debt crisis in decades. Greek unions have been opposing the measures.

A nearly weeklong customs strike left many gas pumps running dry, and taxi drivers stayed off the streets in a 24-hour walkout.

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LONDON — More than 60 economists weighed in on Prime Minister Gordon Browns side in a crucial pre-election debate on how soon and how deeply to cut the nations ballooning budget deficit.

Deficit-cutting is a major dividing line between Browns Labour Party, which would postpone major steps until 2011, and the opposition Conservatives who say they would move faster.

In a pair of letters published in the Financial Times, 67 economists endorsed the governments position that moving too quickly to reduce the deficit would sabotage Britains feeble recovery from six quarters of recession by removing the stimulus of government spending from the economy.

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SINGAPORE — Singapore raised its 2010 growth forecast and now expects the city-states economy to expand between 4.5 percent and 6.5 percent after shrinking 2 percent last year.

Thats up from a previous forecast of between 3 percent and 5 percent growth.

Singapore expects to benefit from increased demand for its exports from neighbors as the region leads the global economy out of recession.

But Singapores stock measure still retreated 0.9 percent as Asian shares dropped following moves by the U.S. Federal Reserve. Hong Kongs Hang Seng stock index led decliners, diving 2.6 percent, Japans Nikkei 225 stock average dropped 2.1 percent, South Koreas Kospi declined 1.7 percent, India fell 1 percent and Indonesia dropped 0.5 percent.

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LONDON — Retail sales in the United Kingdom fell 1.3 percent in January from December, but were still 3.2 percent higher than a year earlier,.

Retail sales had been expected to slow in January with the end of a temporary 15 percent sales tax rate, now back to 17.5 percent.

European shares moved higher. Britains FTSE 100 closed up 0.6 percent,Frances CAC-40 added 0.6 percent and Germanys DAX stock index gained 0.7 percent.