The Korea Herald

Spain, Greece launch austerity plans to secure aid

Spain and Greece outlined plans Thursday to reduce government spending and raise taxes to convince international lenders and financial markets they are on track to cut their deficits.The latest round of belt-tightening comes as economies across Europe get weaker and public resentment toward austerity grows stronger.Spain's plan to slash its deficit in 2013 and 2014 signals to many analysts that it

Sept. 28, 2012

U.S. economy grew only 1.3% in Q2

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The U.S. economy grew 1.3 percent in the second quarter of the year, far weaker than previously believed, Commerce Department data released Thursday showed.The Commerce Department's third estimate of gross domestic product growth for the April-June period was well below expectations that the annual growth rate would hold unchanged at the prior estimate of 1.7 percent.The latest

Sept. 27, 2012

China industrial profits fall 6.2%

Chinese industrial companies’ profits dropped for a fifth month in August, a government report showed, adding to signs the nation’s economic slowdown is extending into a seventh quarter. Net income fell 6.2 percent from a year earlier to 381.2 billion yuan ($60.4 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said today in Beijing. That compares with a 5.4 percent decline in July and a 1.7 percent slide in June. Thursday’s report may increase pressure on Premier Wen Jiabao to step up easing measure

Sept. 27, 2012

U.S. eases Myanmar import ban

NEW YORK (AP) ― Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday the U.S. will ease its import ban on Myanmar that had been a key plank of remaining American economic sanctions. “In recognition of the continued progress toward reform and in response to requests from both the government and the opposition, the United States is taking the next step in normalizing our commercial relationship,” Clinton said during a meeting with President Thein Sein on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assem

Sept. 27, 2012

Unswayed by protests, Spain unveils new austerity budget

MADRID (AFP) - Spain's government met Thursday to take an axe to spending in a new budget for 2013, unswayed by angry protests but bowed by markets anticipating a full sovereign bailout, and soon.Spain has said it will lop spending and boost taxes to rake in 39 billion euros ($50 billion) in the budget, adding to the pain that sent thousands of protesters into Madrid's streets on the previous two

Sept. 27, 2012

ECB sees grounds for euro optimism

BERLIN (AFP) ― European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said Tuesday he saw grounds for optimism on the euro area, as he defended his recent actions to shore up the bloc in front of a skeptical German audience.In a wide-ranging speech to the Federation of German Industries, Draghi also expressed confidence European governments would be able to set aside their differences on a proposed EU banking union spearheaded by the ECB.“The first question that comes to mind for all of us is the followin

Sept. 26, 2012

Japan's Sharp to cut 11,000 jobs, sell assets: report

TOKYO (AFP) -- Troubled Japanese consumer electronics giant Sharp is to cut 11,000 jobs worldwide and sell $2.7 billion worth of assets and factories in a bid to turn its finances around, a report said Tuesday.The company, best known for home appliances, including LCD televisions, will also cut wages, Kyodo News said, citing a company plan presented to creditor banks on Monday.Once the new plan is finalized, the banks are expected to offer fresh loans totaling 360 billion yen ($4.6 billion) to t

Sept. 25, 2012

Japan's Sharp to cut 11,000 jobs, sell assets: report

S&P cuts ratings on Japan's Sony

TOKYO (AFP) -- Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday lowered its long-term credit ratings on Sony by one notch, citing a slow recovery of its mainstay consumer electronics businesses.The agency downgraded its long-term corporate credit ratings on the Japanese electronics giant and its subsidiaries from “BBB+” to “BBB.” The move keeps them two steps above junk status.However, the outlook on long-term corporate credit ratings is negative.“The pace of recovery in earnings of Sony's mainstay c

Sept. 25, 2012

World Bank’s Kim: Emerging nation growth not zero-sum

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said global economic growth isn’t a “zero-sum game” pitting nations against each other and the world has a “huge stake” in ensuring that developing countries succeed. “Having fragile states, having conflict-affected states, this is not good for the entire world economy,” Kim said in an interview airing this afternoon on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart” with Trish Regan. Developing economies “have been the drivers of growth that we have seen in the last five

Sept. 25, 2012

IMF urges Europe, U.S. to boost growth

Lagarde says IMF likely to cut global growth estimatesWASHINGTON (AFP) ― The head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, called Monday for urgent action from policy makers in Europe and the United States to turn around a slowing global economy.“My main message today” is “the urgent need to implement the policy actions required to secure the global recovery,” Lagarde said in a speech at a Washington think tank.The global economy “is still fraught with uncertainty” after the U.S.-c

Sept. 25, 2012

French P.M. says give Greece more time to pull through

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in an interview aired Sunday that he was in favor of giving Greece more time to pull through the eurozone crisis as long as it was sincere in taking on reforms.He said in the interview with the French Mediapart website that “the solution cannot be Greece’s exit from the eurozone,” adding that “We can already give it more time to pull through.”Asked whether he was in favor of granting the debt-ridden country more time, he said, “Yes. On one condition,

Sept. 24, 2012

French P.M. says give Greece more time to pull through

EADS-BAE tie-up hampered by France

BERLIN (AFP) ― European aerospace groups EADS and Britain’s BAE Systems are facing obstacles in their proposed tie-up from the French government, the German economic daily Handelsblatt reported in its edition to appear Monday.The newspaper, citing a source in the French president’s cabinet, said the obstacles included the fact that France “does not want in any case to give up part” of its stake in the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company.The governments of Germany and France each have a

Sept. 24, 2012

Merkel, Hollande rift on banking union deepens

ASBERG, Germany (AFP) ― The leaders of Germany and France clashed over plans to monitor Europe’s crisis-hit banks Saturday, overshadowing anniversary celebrations of a symbolic step in their post-war reconciliation.German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande had gathered at the Baroque palace in Ludwigsburg, southwestern Germany, where Charles de Gaulle gave a watershed speech to German youth in 1962.But despite affirmations that European unity was the only way out of

Sept. 23, 2012

Merkel, Hollande rift on banking union deepens

Farmers resist WHO’s tobacco regulation policy

The Korea Tobacco Growers Organization reacted with outrage to the publication of new proposals to regulate tobacco farming by World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.KTGO said on Thursday that it has requested the government to oppose the WHO’s proposal saying that it will threaten tens of thousands of jobs in the farming sector.The organization announced its opposition against the new proposal in Articles 17 and 18 in the FCTC, saying that reducing the number of tob

Sept. 20, 2012

China's protests to have limited impact on Japanese firms: Moody's

A recent wave of anti-Japanese protests in China will likely have a limited short-term impact on Japanese firms that are likely to recover easily from the losses inflicted so far, Moody's Investors Service said Thursday.Protesting Japan's claim over disputed islands between the two countries, tens of thousands of angry Chinese vandalized a number of Japanese factories and stores in China over the

Sept. 20, 2012

AMR expects about 4,400 job cuts

DALLAS (AP) ― American Airlines is sending layoff warning notices to more than 11,000 employees although a spokesman says the company expects job losses to be closer to 4,400.The notices went out to mechanics and ground workers whose jobs will be affected as American goes through a bankruptcy restructuring.American Airlines spokesman Bruce Hicks said Tuesday that fewer than 40 percent of those getting notices will lose their jobs. Hicks said federal law requires the company to notify anyone whos

Sept. 19, 2012

Ford Motor leads European car sales drop as German demand falls

Ford Motor Co. led the steepest decline in European car sales in six months as the region’s economic woes hurt demand in Germany. Industrywide car registrations fell 8.5 percent from a year earlier to 722,483 vehicles in August, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, said Tuesay in a statement. Ford’s European sales dropped 29 percent, and the company accounted for 6 percent of the region’s deliveries compared with 7.7 percent in August 2011. The European car

Sept. 19, 2012

Ford Motor leads European car sales drop as German demand falls

Bank of Japan announces additional monetary easing

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday announced additional monetary easing saying it was boosting an asset-purchasing fund by 10 trillion yen ($128 billion) to 80 trillion yen.The BoJ also kept interest rates at between zero and 0.1 percent in a unanimous decision, a statement said.Following the announcement of the fresh measure, the dollar edged up against the yen, trading at 78.95 yen, from about 78.78

Sept. 19, 2012

More than 180 arrested at Occupy protest

NEW YORK (AP) ― Occupy Wall Street protesters celebrated the movement’s anniversary on Monday by clogging intersections in the city’s financial district, marching to the beat of drums that were a familiar refrain last year.Protesters roamed around the lower Manhattan financial district all morning in groups of a few dozen each, from one intersection to another and back again, chanting loudly about the ills of Wall Street. In total, there were a few hundred protesters scattered throughout the cit

Sept. 18, 2012

More than 180 arrested at Occupy protest

China files trade case against Washington

China challenges U.S. anti-dumping measures in WTO, adding to growing trade disputesBEIJING (AP) ― China filed a World Trade Organization case Monday challenging U.S. anti-dumping measures on billions of dollars of kitchen appliances, paper and other goods, adding to worsening trade strains as global demand weakens. Beijing’s move came shortly before the Obama administration filed its own WTO case accusing China of improperly subsidizing exports of automobiles and auto parts. China and the U.S.

Sept. 18, 2012