The Korea Herald

OECD says world economy picking up

PARIS (AP) ― The global economy is beginning to rebound, but Europe is lagging behind and unemployment rates, even in countries starting to see growth, are still too high, a leading international economic body said Thursday. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development expects growth to accelerate in Japan and the United States in the first half of 2013. And though Germany will bounce back strongly, it says other countries that use the euro will contract or only grow slowly. In an i

March 29, 2013

S&P 500 closes at a record high, beating '07 mark

For the second time in less than a month, the U.S. stock market marched past another milepost on its long, turbulent journey back from the Great Recession, toppling another record left over from the days before government bailouts and failing investment banks.The Standard & Poor's 500 closed at a new high Thursday, three weeks after another popular market gauge, the Dow Jones industrial average, obliterated its own closing record. The S&P capped its best quarter in a year, rising 10 percent, and

March 29, 2013

IMF urges cuts to energy subsidies

The International Monetary Fund urged countries to reduce subsidies on energy, saying they worsen government’s fiscal positions and eventually create more advantages for the wealthy instead of the poor.In a broad-reaching report, the IMF said subsidies of oil, petrol and electricity are aimed at helping consumers, but end up costing them as governments struggle to shoulder the cost burden.Moreover, the study said, subsidies encourage energy waste, discourage investment in energy-efficient indust

March 28, 2013

World Bank links obesity to high food prices

Food prices have dropped since peaking six months ago but remain near record levels, pushing the world’s poorest people toward “undernutrition” and obesity, the World Bank said Thursday.“Unhealthy food tends to be cheaper than healthy ones, like junk food in developed countries,” said Otaviano Canuto, World Bank Group’s vice president for poverty reduction and economic management.“When poor people with some disposable income in developing countries try to cope with high and increasingly volatile

March 28, 2013

BRICS stumble in plan for new bank

DURBAN, South Africa (AFP) ― Leaders from the BRICS group of emerging powers on Wednesday failed to launch a much-anticipated new development bank to rival Western-dominated institutions like the World Bank.After holding talks in the port city of Durban, leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and hosts South Africa agreed in principle to create a joint infrastructure lender. But they said further talks were necessary to finalise the plan.“We are satisfied that the establishment of a new devel

March 28, 2013

Draconian controls as Cyprus banks reopen

Cyprus confirmed banks would reopen on Thursday after a nearly two-week lockdown on the bailed-out country, but only under draconian capital controls, the first of their kind in the eurozone.Finance Minister Michalis Sarris issued a decree Wednesday for temporary limits on daily withdrawals to 300 euros ($385) to prevent the "collapse of credit institutions".The central bank confirmed that branches shuttered since March 16 -- leaving homes and businesses short on cash -- would open from 1000 GMT

March 28, 2013

Cyprus bank chief sacking deepens chaos

The chief executive of the troubled Bank of Cyprus, the country's biggest lender, was sacked by the central bank Wednesday just a day before the bailed-out island's banks were finally due to reopen.The firing of Yiannis Kypri was reportedly ordered by international lenders and deepened the crisis in Cyprus as authorities said they were finalizing controls aimed at preventing a run on the banks.The central bank said "indications are" the banks would reopen with restrictions on Thursday, but there

March 27, 2013

ECB, Eurogroup at odds over Cyprus

BRUSSELS (AP) ― Europe’s leading institutions clashed in a rare sign of public discord Tuesday over what shape future financial rescues will take following the bailout for Cyprus, creating further uncertainty and concern about the safety of keeping large deposits in European banks. In a 10 billion euro bailout deal clinched in the early hours of Monday morning, Cyprus agreed to dissolve the country’s second-largest bank, inflicting significant losses ― possibly up to 40 percent ― on all deposits

March 27, 2013

China tries to shift image through high-tech

China’s drive to transform the country’s image is accelerating as it tries to expand the export of high-tech industrial goods. China’s economic growth used to depend upon the exports of labor-intensive items such as clothes. In recent years, however, it has been ratcheting up the export of tech-centered products such as computers, car parts and lamps, the Wall Street Journal reported.The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, for instance, uses light-emitting diodes made by Chinese company Inventroni

March 27, 2013

China tries to shift image through high-tech

BRICS scale back plans for development bank

The BRICS grouping of emerging powers reached a scaled-back deal on Tuesday to establish a development bank that had been seen as a rival Western-backed institutions."It's done," South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan told AFP after talks with his counterparts from Brazil, Russia, India and China."We made very good progress, the leaders will announce the details," he added, shortly before a summit in the South African port city of Durban began.The bank is likely to focus on infrastructure

March 27, 2013

Saudi says $100 a barrel ‘reasonable’ price for oil

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) ― OPEC’s largest oil producing member Saudi Arabia said on Monday that $100 a barrel is a “reasonable” price for oil while its Gulf neighbor Kuwait said the price is “fair” and the market was stable.“In 1997, I thought $20 was reasonable. In 2006, I though $27 was reasonable,” Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters in Kuwait City on the sidelines of a Gulf oil conference.“Now, it is around $100 ... and I say again ‘it is reasonable’.” Kuwait’s Oil Minister Hani Hussein

March 26, 2013

Boeing 787 takes to sky in first flight check

SEATTLE (AP) ― A Boeing 787 with a redesigned battery system made a 2-hour test flight on Monday, and the company said the event “went according to plan.” The test flight was an important step in Boeing Co.’s plan to convince safety regulators to let airlines resume using the plane, which the company calls the Dreamliner. Boeing will analyze information from the flight and prepare for another flight ― using the same plane ― to demonstrate the 787’s performance to the Federal Aviation Administrat

March 26, 2013

Boeing 787 takes to sky in first flight check

British teen sells app to Yahoo

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) ― Yahoo announced plans Monday to buy mobile news reader app Summly from the London teenager who invented it, likely transforming him into one of the world’s youngest self-made multimillionaires.The company did not disclose the terms of the deal it struck with 17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio, but the London Evening Standard said Yahoo would pay between 20 million pounds and 40 million pounds ($30 million to $60 million).“We’re excited to share that we’re acquiring Summly, a mobile

March 26, 2013

Fed’s low-interest-rate policies help world economy, Bernanke says

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday that the Federal Reserve’s low-interest-rate policies are helping to boost growth around the world, rejecting criticism that they could lead to a global currency war. In a speech at the London School of Economics, Bernanke staunchly defended the Fed’s policies and similar stimulus efforts pursued by other central banks since the 2008 financial crisis. Last week, the Fed stood by its policies to keep borrowing costs at record lows, saying the U.

March 26, 2013

Fed’s low-interest-rate policies help world economy, Bernanke says

Kuroda wants to achieve Bank of Japan’s 2 percent price target in two years

Haruhiko Kuroda said he wants 2 percent inflation in two years and pledged to buy more government bonds, underscoring the new Bank of Japan chief’s efforts to accelerate an end to falling prices. “Achieving the 2 percent inflation target in two years is something that I have in my mind,” Kuroda said Tuesday in Parliament. He said the BOJ may scrap a rule limiting the scale of asset buying and consider purchasing more bonds with longer maturitiesThe comments spurred investors’ expectations for mo

March 26, 2013

Kuroda wants to achieve Bank of Japan’s 2 percent price target in two years

Cyprus' banks to remain closed until Thursday

Cyprus has extended the closure of its banks for two more days _ until Thursday _ a sudden postponement that comes after the country's leaders spent days struggling to come up with a plan to raise the money needed to secure an international bailout.Banks in the country have already been closed for more than a week to prevent a run on deposits. All except the country's two largest lenders had been due to open Tuesday morning after the country clinched an eleventh-hour deal with the 17-nation euro

March 26, 2013

Google employees exposed to toxin: report

More than 1,000 Google employees may have been exposed to high levels of a hazardous chemical, a nonprofit news organization in the United States reported Wednesday.According to the Center for Investigative Reporting, employees working at the tech giant’s new office complex in Mountain View, California, may have been exposed to trichloroethylene ― a chemical compound known to cause cancer or birth defects. The incident took place from November 2012 to January 2013, and the amount of the toxic su

March 25, 2013

Japan’s currency chief Nakao is sole nominee for ADB presidency

Japanese currency chief Takehiko Nakao is the sole nominee for the presidency of the Asian Development Bank, Philippine Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said in mobile-phone text message Monday, ensuring that Japan will maintain its hold on the top post at the lender.ADB member countries will vote on the next president in an election from Monday to April 24, the Manila-based development bank said in an e-mailed statement earlier this month. The nomination period closed Sunday.Japan has held the

March 25, 2013

Japan’s currency chief Nakao is sole nominee for ADB presidency

Euro, Asian shares rally on Cyprus deal relief

TOKYO (Reuters) ― The euro and Asian shares rallied on Monday when Cyprus averted financial disaster by sealing a tough last-ditch deal with international lenders for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout.Cyprus agreed with the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund on Monday on a bailout that will shut down its second-largest bank, Laiki Bank, and inflict heavy losses on uninsured depositors, including wealthy Russians.The plan was swiftly endorsed by eu

March 25, 2013

Euro, Asian shares rally on Cyprus deal relief

Cyprus secures bailout, avoids bankruptcy

Cyprus secured a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) package of rescue loans in tense, last-ditch negotiations early Monday, saving the country from a banking system collapse and bankruptcy.“We've put an end to the uncertainty that has affected Cyprus and the euro area over the past week,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chairs the meetings of the 17-nation eurozone's finance ministers. In return for the bailout, Cyprus must drastically shrink its outsized banking sector, cut its budget, implement struc

March 25, 2013