Japan's Pioneer cutting 10,000 jobs

Japan's Pioneer cutting 10,000 jobs
13-02-2009

The Japanese electronics firm Pioneer has announced that it's cutting 10,000 jobs, 6,000 of them full-time, from its global workforce. It's ending production of its flat-screen televisions and closing plants in the United States and Britain. Analysts say the company is bracing itself for a big financial loss. Pioneer is the latest Japanese electronics firm to announce large job cuts.

Chinalco investing US$19bn in Rio Tinto

Chinalco investing US$19bn in Rio Tinto
13-02-2009

China's state-owned aluminium producer, Chinalco, says it will invest US$19.5-billion in the debt-laden mining group Rio Tinto. It will be the biggest foreign investment ever made by a Chinese company. The deal would double Chinalco's share in the Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto Group to eighteen percent. The agreement between the two companies was announced as Rio said its annual earnings were down 50 percent. The group is also under pressure to pay back some of its US$38-billion debt later this year.

Markets plunge after plan announcement

Markets plunge after plan announcement
11-02-2009

Immediately after Mr Geithner's announcement, the Dow stock index plunged 3.5 percent. There was a similar reaction in European exchanges. London's FTSE 100 index shed 2.19 percent, while in Paris, the CAC 40 lost 3.64 percent as did the Frankfurt Dax.

Geithner unveils 3-point bailout plan

Geithner unveils 3-point bailout plan
11-02-2009

The US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, has unveiled a three-part programme to stabilize the financial system. He said the government would use all of its powers to strengthen the financial system to get the economy back on track. A key element would be a public-private investment fund, starting with 500-billion dollars, to help cleanse the banking system of toxic real-estate assets. The second part would include additional capital injections into banks. The third element would see Treasury and the Federal Reserve expand a programme to boost lending for mortgages and other consumer and business loans to up to one trillion dollars. The US central bank, in coordination with Treasury, said it was preparing a substantial expansion of a programme announced last year to get more credit flowing. This would see the fund expanding to one-trillion dollars from the previously announced 800-billion dollars.

Start of joint cargo services delayed

Start of joint cargo services delayed
11-02-2009

Europe's biggest airline, Air France-KLM, is delaying a deal on cargo flights with China Southern. Media reports said the joint venture with the Chinese airline was to have been set up at the beginning of 2009, but the objective now was to launch the company towards the end of the year. The deal has been delayed because the companies do not want to rush, at a time when cargo traffic is going down because of the economic downturn.

GM to cut 10,000 jobs by end of 2009

GM to cut 10,000 jobs by end of 2009
11-02-2009

US carmaker, General Motors, has confirmed it is cutting 10,000 jobs from its workforce by the end of 2009. GM said it would reduce its global salaried staff to about 63,000, from its current level of 73,000. The company said it was forced to act by a severe drop in vehicle sales worldwide, and by the need to restructure for long-term viability. About 3,400 cuts will be made in the US. The cost-cutting was part of an initial restructuring plan GM submitted to Congress in December, as part of a request for aid.

China firm wins Saudi monorail contract

China firm wins Saudi monorail contract
11-02-2009

A Chinese company has won a contract to build a US$1.8 billion monorail to carry pilgrims around the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. More than two million Muslims visit Mecca each year during the annual hajj pilgrimage. The contract was announced by Saudi King Abdullah during a state dinner attended by President Hu Jintao.

US trade deficit continues to narrow

US trade deficit continues to narrow
11-02-2009

The US trade deficit narrowed to nearly 40-billion dollars in December, the third consecutive month of a shrinking gap amid the global economic slowdown. The US Commerce Department reported that the seasonally adjusted December deficit fell 4.1 percent from November. This was much higher than the 35.5-billion forecast by most analysts. The US trade deficit for the whole of 2008 fell 3.3 percent from the prior year to 677-billion dollars.

US bankers cautioned on public anger

US bankers cautioned on public anger
12-02-2009

Leading bankers in the United States have been told by members of the US Congress that they need to understand the widespread anger against Wall Street -- and work ungrudgingly to rebuild public trust. The call came as a congressional committee was hearing evidence from the chief executives of eight banks, which received a hundred-and-twenty-five billion dollars of American taxpayers' money as part of a government rescue plan.

Microsoft warns of security risks

Microsoft warns of security risks
12-02-2009

The world's biggest software maker, Microsoft, has warned companies to expect a rise in security attacks by disgruntled workers who've been laid off. Microsoft says that what are known as 'malicious insider breaches' are on the increase, and will only get worse in the present economic downturn.

Peugot to cut 11,000 jobs

Peugot to cut 11,000 jobs
12-02-2009

The French car manufacturer, PSA Peugeot-Citroen, says it expects to cut 11,000 jobs this year -- about 5-percent of the current workforce. An official said the posts would be lost at factories in Europe but not in France itself. Peugeot-Citroen has promised to maintain staffing levels in France in return for receiving a government loan of nearly $US4-billion. The European Commission is considering whether France's financial support to its car makers, also including Renault, contravenes EU laws.

Mainland imports & exports plunge

Mainland imports & exports plunge
12-02-2009

Mainland exports and imports fell unexpectedly sharply in January, underlining how badly the economy has been hit by the global financial crisis. Exports were down 17.5 percent from a year earlier, after a 2.8 percent decline in December. Imports plunged 43.1 percent, twice as much as December's 21.3 percent year-on-year drop. Both falls were the steepest since economists' records began in 1993. Imports and exports have now fallen for three months in a row. The declines mirrored big falls elsewhere in Asia."Basically, the economy is still weakening and fundamentals are still weakening, mostly due to the external shock," said Qing Wang, chief China economist with Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong. "At least in the next quarter or two, the headwinds from weak external demand will be extremely strong, which is why we expect that overall economic growth will be worse before getting better," he said. As a result of the weakness in imports, China notched up its second-biggest monthly trade surplus. January's total of US$39.1 billion was just shy of November's record of US$40.1 billion.

Obama speaks on economy at rally

Obama speaks on economy at rally
10-02-2009

President Barack Obama has held his first public rally outside Washington since taking office, calling on the United States Congress to approve his 800 billion US dollar economic stimulus plan immediately. Mr Obama told a crowd in the hard-hit industrial city of Elkhart, Indiana, that any delay in Congress would bring deepening disaster for the US economy. Congress has been divided over the plan, which has presented Mr Obama with the first major challenge of his presidency.

Govt says HSBC has no layoff plans

Govt says HSBC has no layoff plans
10-02-2009

The Labour and Welfare Bureau says it 'understands' that HSBC has no imminent plans for large-scale lay-offs. A spokesman said the bank has been asked to clarify the matter, following numerous media reports that HSBC is planning to sack up to 1,000 staff.

Nissan to cut 20,000 jobs

Nissan to cut 20,000 jobs
09-02-2009

Nissan is to cut 20,000 jobs worldwide, 8.5 percent of its workforce, over the next year because of a sharp fall in sales. The Japanese carmaker made the announcement as it said it expected to make a loss of nearly US$3-billion for the current financial year.

Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn said the the firm's "worst assumptions on the state of the global economy have been met or exceeded".

"The global auto industry is in turmoil. Nissan is no exception."

Sales slump

US bank announcement put back

US bank announcement put back
09-02-2009

The Obama administration has put back until Tuesday the unveiling of its new plan for America's frozen banking sector. National Economic Council director Larry Summers said the plan would include at least 50 billion US dollars to shore up the housing market, as well as new measures to stabilize banks and encourage them to resume lending. The revamp of the second half of the Bush administration's 700-billion-dollar financial bailout was to have been announced later today. But the Treasury Department deferred it as the Senate prepares to vote on Barack Obama's huge stimulus plan. It is expected to pass it tomorrow.

SFC urged to release PCCW probe results

SFC urged to release PCCW probe results
09-02-2009

The Securities and Futures Commission has been urged to release interim results of its probe into PCCW's privatization bid. Minority shareholders had last week voted to approve the $15.9-billion deal but the securities watchdog is now investigating allegations of vote-buying. Speaking on RTHK's City Forum, DAB lawmaker, Starry Lee, accused the SFC of dragging its feet on the probe. She said the Commission should announce its preliminary findings as soon as possible -- before the High Court holds a hearing on 24th February on whether to approve the privatisation.

HSBC reportedly cutting 1,000 HK jobs

HSBC reportedly cutting 1,000 HK jobs
09-02-2009

Banking giant HSBC is reported to be preparing to sack up to 1,000 staff in Hong Kong this coming week. The Chairperson of the Hong Kong Banking Employees Association, Lee Lai-Ching, said she'd received news of the redundancies, and that back-office and information-technology staff would be the hardest-hit. She said it would be 'unreasonable' for the bank to take such a step, and warned that industrial "work-to-rule" action was possible if the sackings went ahead.

British Treasury orders probe into banks

British Treasury orders probe into banks
08-02-2009

Britain's finance minister, Alistair Darling, says the UK Treasury is to order an independent investigation into how banks are managed. The investigation will also examine the pay and bonuses of top executives. The move comes amid growing concern around the world about the role of the banks in the current economic crisis. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper Mr Darling said he plans an independent review of banks' management and bonus structure. "We cannot return to business as usual," Mr Darling said, according to extracts of the article released ahead of publication. "It is in everyone's interest to get banks' governance right. It would be wrong to reward people whose excessive risk-taking brought the banks down, causing misery to millions of their customers. Success should be rewarded. Failure should not." The Sunday Telegraph said Mr Darling would announce full details of the review on Monday.

WTO chief warns of 'political unrest'

WTO chief warns of 'political unrest'
08-02-2009

The global economic crisis could trigger political unrest equal to that seen during the 1930s, the head of the World Trade Organization said in a German newspaper interview. "The crisis today is spreading even faster (than the Great Depression) and affects more countries at the same time," Pascal Lamy told the Die Welt newspaper. Questioned about the risks of political instability, Lamy - who wraps up his four-year term as WTO director-general in September - responded that that was "the main danger". "This crisis weighs heavily on politics and puts peace in danger," he said. "Some democracies are old and sufficiently stable to overcome such problems, (but) others are going to be confronted by unrest and inter-religious and inter-ethnic conflicts." He went on to warn against protectionism, saying it would be "wrongly easy" for nations to throw up trade barriers in response to the economic and financial downturn.

Recession could end this year - banker

Recession could end this year - banker
08-02-2009

Easing inflation and stimulus packages adopted by governments around the world offer hope that the world economic crisis could come to an end as early as this year, according to French Central Bank Governor Christian Noyer. While the final three months of 2008 had proved especially painful, lower energy and commodity prices and, as a result, easing inflation were one reason for optimism, Mr Noyer said in an interview broadcast by France Culture radio. "The stimulus plans are one of the reasons we hope the economic crisis can end relatively quickly," said Mr Noyer, who is also a governing council member of the European Central Bank.