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ROME, Italy (AFP) — Italy needs more migrants in order to pay for the population’s pensions, the country’s social security chief said Wednesday, drawing the ire of far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini. If we halved migratory flows “in five years we would lose population equivalent to that of Turin”, Boeri said referring to the country’s important northern industrial hub. If immigration were reduced to zero we would lose “700,000 people under 34 years of age […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP)–Taiwan’s struggling smartphone maker HTC announced Tuesday it would slash 1,500 jobs, around a fifth of its total workforce, in the biggest staff cull for three years following heavy losses. The announcement of the cuts to its manufacturing workforce comes despite a new deal with Google, completed in January, which boosted HTC’s first quarter performance after a dismal 2017. Once a star of the intensely competitive smartphone sector, HTC has been struggling in […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP)–Confidence among Japan’s biggest manufacturers has slipped for the second straight quarter, a key central bank survey showed on Monday. The Bank of Japan’s Tankan report — a quarterly survey of about 10,000 companies — showed a reading of 21 among major manufacturers in its June survey against 24 in the March report. The latest Tankan, however, hardly made economists pessimistic about the world’s third largest economy, with the headline index still close […]
by Julien Girault © Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s government is facing a multi-front battle to defend its economy, fighting to reduce its debt mountain while the yuan and local stock markets tumble in the face of a US trade conflict. With the Trump administration preparing to roll out tariffs on some $34 billion of Chinese imports next week, the Shanghai Stock Exchange is taking a nosedive — down some eight percent in […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP)–South Korea’s LG Group on Friday welcomed the heir to its late patriarch as holding company board member, paving the way for yet another family transfer of corporate power in the country. LG is the South’s fourth-biggest conglomerate and perhaps best known internationally for its household appliances and consumer electronics, but among myriad other activities also has operations in chemicals, cosmetics, and Coca-Cola bottling. Koo Kwang-mo, a senior executive at LG Electronics […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP)–Japan’s jobless rate slumped to a 26-year low in May while the jobs-to-applicants ratio hit new record high, as the country struggles with labor shortages, official figures showed Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 2.2 percent from 2.5 percent in the previous three months, according to a survey by the internal affairs ministry, the lowest level since August-October of 1992. The jobs-to-applicants ratio stood at its highest rate in 44 years, with 160 […]
by Yanina Olivera © Agence France-Presse BRASILIA, Brazil (AFP) — Brazilian President Michel Temer and US Vice President Mike Pence discussed Tuesday the fate of Brazilian children stranded at America’s southern border and Venezuela’s deepening crisis. “I pointed out that our government is ready to help transport Brazilian children back to Brazil, if that is the wish of their families, the authorities of both countries will continue to be in touch with this issue,” Temer […]
by Joseph Schmid Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – The European Union will retaliate again if US President Donald Trump imposes more tariffs on EU goods to remedy what he calls “unfair” trade relations, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday. The EU on Friday imposed a range of tariffs on goods worth 2.8 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in a tit-for-tat response to Trump’s decision to apply stiff tariffs on European steel and aluminium […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo stocks opened flat on Monday with worries over a US-China trade war partly offset by optimism about the US economy. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index edged up just 0.20 points to 22,517.03 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.11 percent or 1.95 points at 1,742.88. Falls in Japanese shares come after world stock markets mostly climbed Friday despite rising trade tensions, with the Dow snapping an […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) – A Malaysian official who probed the 1MDB mega-scandal which helped topple the corruption-plagued former regime has been appointed as the new central bank governor, the government said Friday. Nor Shamsiah Mohamad Yunus is returning to Bank Negara Malaysia to take up the top job almost two years after leaving her post as deputy governor, a spokesman for the prime minister told AFP. Muhammad Ibrahim quit as bank chief this month […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Hong Kong stocks finished a painful week on a positive note Friday but investors remain on edge about a possible trade war between China and the United States. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.15 percent, or 42.65 points, to close at 29,338.70, sinking 3.18 percent over the week. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.49 percent, or 13.95 points, to 2,889.76 but it lost 4.37 percent over the week. The […]
TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Tokyo stocks opened lower on Friday, extending losses in global markets amid escalating trade tensions and a stronger yen against the dollar. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 1.02 percent or 231.15 points to 22,461.89 in early trade, while the broader Topix index was down 0.94 percent or 16.44 points at 1,734.19. The European Union slapped revenge tariffs on iconic US products including bourbon, jeans and motorcycles on Friday in its […]
