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LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday said it was “impossible” for her to rule out a no-deal Brexit without stopping the process altogether, as she tries to come up with a strategy before exit day on March 29. May was responding to a letter from opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn asking her to exclude crashing out of the EU as a precondition for talks about Brexit compromise proposals. May […]
by John BIERS Agence France Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Bank executives said Tuesday that economic conditions remained solid but warned that weakening sentiment amid a lengthening US government shutdown could kill growth. Uncertainty about the shutdown — now the longest in US history — further dims the outlook at a time when questions about trade wars and Federal Reserve policies also are clouding plans, executives said. “Some would estimate that if it […]
SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — Extreme poverty in Latin America hit its highest level for nine years in 2017, according to a report by the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) published on Tuesday. Poverty remained stable at 30.2 percent of the population — 184 million people — but extreme poverty increased from 9.9 percent in 2016 to 10.2 percent, or 62 million people, it said. “The proportion of people living in […]
by Michelle FITZPATRICK / Tom BARFIELD Agence France Presse Official data suggested Tuesday that Germany avoided a recession at the end of 2018 but confirmed a sharp slowdown in growth last year as Europe’s largest economy cooled off from boom times. Economic growth sank to 1.5 percent in 2018 from 2.2 percent in the previous two years, federal statistics authority Destatis said. In absolute terms, Germany’s 2018 GDP was around 3.4 trillion euros ($3.9 […]
by Michelle Fitzpatrick Agence France Presse FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany will find out on Tuesday if Europe’s top economy ended 2018 in a technical recession, with fears over slowing momentum fuelling calls for Berlin to use its fiscal leeway to bolster growth. Federal statistics office Destatis will publish a preliminary estimate of Germany’s fourth quarter and full-year gross domestic product figures for 2018, data closely watched across the eurozone for signs […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s trade surplus with the United States widened last year, data showed Monday, while the country’s imports and exports fell in December as the long-running trade war begins to bite in the world’s number two economy. The surplus with the US is a major source of anger within the Trump administration, which imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods last year and has warned of more […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s global trade volume rose last year but its surplus fell again as its imports outpaced its exports, official data released Monday showed amid a bruising trade war with the United States. Total trade reached $4.62 trillion, a 12.6 percent rise from 2017, according to customs data. But the trade surplus for the world’s second largest economy fell 16.2 percent to $351.76 billion, as imports rose 15.8 percent while exports gained […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan said Friday it will have to amend its upcoming budget to fund compensation for people whose benefits were underpaid for years because of a scandal involving erroneous labour data. The labour ministry admitted this week that it has for years failed to collect complete data for its monthly employment report, which is closely watched as an indicator of wages and work hours. The data helps determine various government benefits, including […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo stocks opened higher on Friday, following rallies on Wall Street as investor sentiment improved but trade is seen to be cautious ahead of a long weekend. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.83 percent or 167.24 points at 20,331.04 in early trade, while the broader Topix index gained 0.79 percent or 12.07 points at 1,534.08. “Japanese shares are seen performing in a steady manner in early trade, tracking rises […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan may have underpaid billions of yen in unemployment benefits after it emerged that the government has been incorrectly collecting labour market data for as long as 15 years. Officials are supposed to gather data from all firms with 500 or more employees but in Tokyo, only about one third of 1,400 such firms were surveyed, according to a civil servant at the labor ministry. Labour minister Takumi Nemoto has […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — The cost of producing goods in China’s factories slowed sharply in December, a sign demand remains weak as the US trade war drags on, while consumer inflation also flagged, official data showed Thursday. The producer price index (PPI) — an important barometer of the industrial sector that measures the cost of goods at the factory gate — rose 0.9 percent on-year in December, compared with a 2.7 percent rise the previous […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Samsung Electronics on Tuesday flagged its first quarterly profit drop in two years, painting a grim outlook amid mounting competition from Chinese smartphone makers and declining chip prices. The South Korean tech giant — the world’s top maker of smartphones and memory chips — has enjoyed record profits in recent years despite a series of setbacks, including a humiliating recall and the jailing of its de facto chief. But operating […]
