The Korea Herald

OECD chief urges ‘credible signal’ from ECB, bond buying

BLED, Slovenia (AFP) ― OECD chief Angel Gurria on Sunday urged the European Central Bank to give a credible signal to markets and resume bond-buying to help debt-wracked Italy and Spain as soon as possible.“I think that the ECB is the bazooka, the firepower, the muscle, the one that has the capacity to impress upon the markets and say: yes we will,” Gurria told journalists on the sidelines of a conference in Slovenia’s lakeside resort of Bled.Asked whether the ECB should buy Italian and Spanish

Sept. 3, 2012

Oil platforms retaken in Gulf of Mexico

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ― Energy companies have reoccupied nearly 400 of the production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico that were abandoned in advance of Hurricane Isaac, a federal agency said Saturday, though offshore oil production still remains almost entirely shut down.Oil and gas workers began retaking the offshore sites Friday and federal officials said that 377 of the 596 productions platforms have some staffing on them, up from just 97.Yet officials estimate that 94 percent of oil production, a

Sept. 2, 2012

China manufacturing output falls

China’s manufacturing unexpectedly shrank for the first time in nine months as new orders contracted and output rose at a slower pace, signaling the slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy is deepening. The Purchasing Managers Index fell to 49.2 in August from 50.1 in July, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said yesterday in Beijing. Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. cut its estimate for China’s full-year growth after the report. T

Sept. 2, 2012

High noon at ECB over bond-buying plans

FRANKFURT (AFP) -- Tempers may well fray at the European Central Bank‘s policy meeting this week as president Mario Draghi seeks to head off German-led resistance to the bank’s anti-crisis armoury.As financial markets look to the ECB to come to the eurozone‘s rescue yet again in the seemingly never-ending debt crisis, the meeting could see a face-off between Draghi and the head of Germany’s Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann.The German central bank chief has made no bones about his opposition to a bond-b

Sept. 2, 2012

Bankia to receive immediate aid

MADRID (AP) ― The Spanish government will immediately inject financial aid into Bankia after the troubled lender announced losses of 4.4 billion euro ($5.6 billion) in the first half of the year, authorities said Friday.The money will come from the fund for the orderly restructuring of banks, or FROB, a bank rescue fund set up to help Spain’s deeply troubled financial sector. The fund said in a statement late Friday that it planned to transfer capital into Bankia SA and its parent group Banco Fi

Sept. 2, 2012

China's manufacturing activity slows for 4th month in August

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) – China's manufacturing activity for August slowed for the fourth straight month amid global economic uncertainty, an industry group said Saturday.The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) of China's manufacturing sector came in at 49.2 last month, down from 50.1 in July, according to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP).The index hit its worst level since Nove

Sept. 1, 2012

S&P cuts rating on Sharp to junk status

TOKYO (AFP) -- Standard & Poor's on Friday cut its credit rating on Sharp Corp. to junk status, following huge losses at the struggling Japanese consumer electronics giant.The global ratings agency said it downgraded Sharp two notches to “BB+” and warned that the Osaka-based firm was beset by weak cash flow and “deteriorating” market conditions.“Sharp’s liquidity position has weakened, and the company is highly dependent on short-term borrowings in light of weak internal cash flow and a less fav

Aug. 31, 2012

Global food prices soar 10%: WB

Severe droughts drive food prices higher, threatening the poor WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Global food prices soared 10 percent in July, increasing the threat to millions of the world’s poor especially in Africa and the Middle East, the World Bank said Thursday.Drought and soaring temperatures in the United States and Eastern Europe have savaged some of the key grain crops that feed much of the world, with prices for corn (maize) and soybeans hitting records.The Bank warned that a repeat of the price sur

Aug. 31, 2012

Buffett ups remaining gift to kids’ charities

OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) ― Warren Buffett has decided to increase significantly the amount of stock he gives the foundations run by his three children, so they will each eventually get roughly $2.1 billion. Buffett announced the change in his charitable giving plan on his 82nd birthday Thursday in a letter, first reported by the Omaha World-Herald. In 2006, Buffett promised to give roughly $1.5 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to each of the foundations his children run as part of a plan give the

Aug. 31, 2012

Buffett ups remaining gift to kids’ charities

Citigroup to pay $590m to settle ...investor suit

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Citigroup said Wednesday it had agreed to pay $590 million to settle a suit by investors who accused the bank of misleading them on its subprime mortgage-based security losses in 2007-2008.The agreement settled the four-year-old class-action suit that arose from the collapse of the U.S. real estate market, which savaged the bank’s share price in part due to its heavy losses on collateralized debt obligations.Investors who bought Citigroup shares between February 2007 and April 2

Aug. 30, 2012

ECB chief hits back at critics of fire-fighting role

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi hit back Wednesday at critics of his armory of different anti-crisis measures, saying they were justified by the current exceptional circumstances. Facing a primarily German revolt to the wide range of emergency measures the ECB has taken since the very beginning of a crisis that is threatening to break up the single currency area, Draghi wrote in a newspaper article that the bank was pulling out all the stops to help.“The ECB will do wh

Aug. 30, 2012

ECB chief hits back at critics of fire-fighting role

China‘s Wen calls for action on Europe debt

BEIJING (AP) _ Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed alarm Thursday about Europe’s debt problems and called on Greece, Spain and Italy to embrace budget cuts and other reforms following a meeting with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.Merkel was in Beijing for talks aimed at boosting trade amid slowing global growth and allaying fears about Europe‘s heavy government debts. China has a stake in a resolution not only because Europe is its biggest export market, but because Beijing holds bill

Aug. 30, 2012

Spain's Catalonia asks Madrid for financial help

Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia, a hub of industry and business, said Tuesday it will seek (euro) 5.02 billion ($6.29 billion) in aid from the central government, adding to the country's financial troubles as it struggles to avoid needing a sovereign bailout.Catalonia, which has Barcelona as its capital, became the third region after Valencia and Murcia to officially solicit aid. Valencia

Aug. 30, 2012

Catalonia asks Madrid for financial help

MADRID (AP) ― Spain’s financial worries increased Tuesday after another of its struggling regions asked for central government aid to stop it from defaulting on its debt, adding further pressure on the country as it tries to avoid an international bailout.The northeastern region of Catalonia said Tuesday it would seek 5.02 billion euros ($6.29 billion) in aid from the central government, adding to the country’s financial troubles as it also struggles to keep its banking industry from crumbling u

Aug. 29, 2012

ECB will stay within mandate, board member says

BERLIN (AFP) ― The European Central Bank will stay within its mandate and intervene on the secondary debt markets only in conjunction with European Union rescue funds, board member Joerg Asmussen said on Monday.“We will act within the framework of our mandate,” Asmussen said in a speech in Germany, while insisting on the “complete independence” of the ECB.Earlier this month, ECB chief Mario Draghi suggested the central bank could restart buying bonds of crisis-hit member states to drive down the

Aug. 28, 2012

Chinese industrial profits fall in July

BEIJING (AP) ― Profits at China’s industrial companies tumbled in July for a fourth straight month, a sign of enduring economic weakness that adds to pressure on Beijing to drive a sluggish recovery. Total industrial profits declined 5.4 percent compared with a year earlier, accelerating from June’s 1.3 percent fall, government data showed Monday. That might hurt investment, a key part of Beijing’s recovery plan for China’s deepest slump since the 2008 global crisis. The decline follows July’s c

Aug. 28, 2012

Roesler rejects more time for Greece

Germany’s economy minister tells Greece ‘time is always money’BERLIN (AP) ― Germany’s economy minister has rejected calls for Greece to get more time to implement economic reforms, saying in an interview Sunday that Athens needs to respect the bailout deal reached with its international creditors.Philipp Roesler’s comments to ZDF public television come after a visit by Greece’s prime minister to Berlin on Friday, during which Antonis Samaras told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that his country

Aug. 27, 2012

Honda expects best U.S. sales since 2007, exec says

Honda Motor Co. expects its August deliveries to be up “40-plus percent” on U.S. demand for Civic small cars and CR-V crossovers, buoying a 27 percent annual rise to the company’s best sales in the region in five years. Deliveries of Honda and Acura vehicles will reach at least 1.46 million this year, U.S. Executive Vice President John Mendel said in an interview in Santa Barbara, California. That would be Tokyo-based Honda’s best U.S. sales since 2007 as its North American plants work overtime

Aug. 26, 2012

Honda expects best U.S. sales since 2007, exec says

China blamed for fake goods seized in Italy

ROME (AFP) ― Italy’s police said Saturday they have seized so far this year 52 million counterfeit items, including train tickets, smartphones, condoms and detergents, with much of them coming from China.The financial police’s counter-fraud division said 97 members of organised criminal gangs, 41 percent of them Italian, were arrested during the same first seven months of 2012 in connection with the counterfeit goods.A statement said that 35 daily monitoring operations helped deprive the undergr

Aug. 26, 2012

HSBC probed for money laundering

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― U.S. prosecutors are looking into whether British bank HSBC was involved in laundering money for Mexican drug cartels and moving cash for Saudi Arabian banks with ties to terrorists, The New York Times reported Saturday.Citing unnamed federal authorities with direct knowledge of the investigations, the newspaper said the investigators were also probing whether HSBC circumvented U.S. law by transferring money through its American subsidiary for sanctioned nations, including Ira

Aug. 26, 2012