The Korea Herald

Eurozone crisis hits unemployed, sends rate to record 11%

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― The eurozone debt crisis has hit workers hard, with grim data showing Friday a manufacturing freefall and unemployment at a record 11 percent, piling pressure on EU leaders to restore growth.The unemployment rate in March and April was the highest since the eurozone was created in 1999, and analysts warned it would likely rise further.More than 17.4 million people were jobless in the 17-nation single currency area in April, as 110,000 more men and women joined unemployment queue

June 3, 2012

Eurozone crisis hits unemployed, sends rate to record 11%

ECB may cut rates as eurozone crisis deepens

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― The European Central Bank may cut interest rates again soon as the eurozone debt crisis deepens, but it will continue to insist that it is up to governments to find a lasting solution, analysts say.ECB watchers predict the central bank ― which will hold its regular policy-setting meeting this week on Wednesday instead of Thursday owing to a public holiday ― will not alter borrowing costs just yet this month.But it could act in July as deepening fears about Greece and possible c

June 3, 2012

ECB may cut rates as eurozone crisis deepens

Greece’s rating cut by Moody’s

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Moody’s rating agency said it was lowering Greece’s highest possible credit rating because there was an increased risk that the country would exit the eurozone.Moody’s said it “has lowered its assessment of the highest rating that can be assigned to a domestic debt issuer in Greece to ‘Caa2’ based on the increasing risk of a exit by the country from the euro area.”The highest rating “on any Greek security is currently “B1,” which is rating assigned to certain covered bonds. Any

June 3, 2012

Oracle gets another setback in dispute

NEW YORK (AP) ― Oracle Corp. received another setback Thursday as a federal judge in San Francisco undermined a central part of the company’s multimillion dollar case against Google Inc. over its Android software for mobile devices. Oracle had accused Google of copyright infringement in using “application programming interfaces,” or APIs, that help Oracle’s Java software work effectively. A jury found Google infringed on those APIs on May 7, but it couldn’t agree on whether Google was covered un

June 1, 2012

IMF: No bailout plans for Spain

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The International Monetary Fund says it has not been asked by Spain for a bailout and has not begun preparing one.IMF spokesman Gerry Rice spoke Thursday as Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria flew into Washington for talks with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The officials were discussing how Spain can finance an overhaul of its banking sector.Saenz de Santamaria said that it was coincidental that she w

June 1, 2012

IMF says no loan talks with Spain

The IMF and Spain both denied Thursday any talks on a bailout loan program for Madrid, as Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria met the global lender's chief Christine Lagarde."There is no such plan. We have not received any request to that effect and we are not doing any work in relation to any financial support," Lagarde said after the two met.And Spanish Economy Minister Luis

June 1, 2012

Lufthansa may slash 1,000 jobs

Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it may cut as many as 1,000 jobs at LSG Sky Chefs, the world’s biggest inflight caterer, as part of a plan to shave 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) from group-wide expenses through 2014. The number of posts to be scrapped has yet to be determined and Lufthansa will initially seek to eliminate headcount by not replacing people who leave, spokeswoman Josefine Corsten said by telephone from Frankfurt, where the company has its main hub. Europe’s second-biggest airline,

May 31, 2012

WTO warns of Asian protectionism threat

BANGKOK (AFP) -- The head of the World Trade Organisation on Thursday warned against growing Asian protectionism and said the region would not escape the impact of economic woes across the globe.WTO Director General Pascal Lamy acknowledged the region‘s relative resilience so far to economic turbulence in the eurozone and and continued uncertainty in the U.S. economic outlook.But he told the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Bangkok that it was increasingly “interconnected with the rest of th

May 31, 2012

Moody’s cuts 9 Denmark banks

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the ratings of nine Danish financial institutions, including the country’s biggest bank, Danske Bank, saying loan books have deteriorated and debt refinancing has become harder. Danish banks suffer from “a weak operating environment, pressurized asset quality and poor profitability,” the rating company said late Wednesday in a statement published out of London. Danske Bank’s deposit rating was cut two steps to “Baa1” from “A2,” after Standard & Poor’s earlie

May 31, 2012

Eurozone economic confidence slides

BRUSSELS (AP) ― Economic confidence across Europe fell sharply in May, the European Union’s executive branch said Wednesday, in a further sign that the recent escalation in the region’s debt crisis is being felt across the continent. The European Commission said its economic sentiment indicator for the 17 countries that use the euro fell by 2.3 points in May to 90.6 ― its lowest level in around two and a half years. That’s a bigger fall than expected and may be a sign that rising concerns over G

May 31, 2012

Olympus eyes tie-up with Sony or Panasonic: report

TOKYO (AFP) ― Scandal-hit Japanese camera maker Olympus is in separate talks with Sony and Panasonic for a possible tie-up as it looks to rescue itself after a huge losses cover-up, a report said Wednesday.In a revamp, the company, which also manufactures medical equipment, is also looking to slash 2,500 jobs, the Asahi Shimbun said, without naming its sources.Olympus will pick its new partner, which will take at least 10 percent of the firm and is likely to become the top shareholder, next mont

May 30, 2012

Facebook smartphone could come by next year

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Facebook hopes to release its own smartphone by next year, as the newly public social networking giant looks to boost its revenue in the mobile Internet market, the New York Times reported Monday.The company has hired more than half a dozen software and hardware engineers who have worked on Apple’s bestselling iPhone and one engineer who has iPad experience, the paper said, citing employees and other unnamed sources.It has also expanded a group working on a partnership with Taiw

May 29, 2012

Prius escapes niche, surges into global top three

Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius, a niche oddity when it went on sale 15 years ago, jumped to the world’s third best-selling car line in the first quarter as U.S. demand and incentives in Japan turned the hybrid into a mainstream hit. Prius sales more than doubled as Toyota extended the name to a four-model “family” of vehicles at the same time that rebates and tax breaks in Japan are saving buyers the equivalent of $2,500 or more. In the quarter, sales soared to 247,230, trailing only Toyota’s Coroll

May 29, 2012

Prius escapes niche, surges into global top three

Japan, China to start direct currency trading

TOKYO (AFP) ― Tokyo said Tuesday it will start direct currency trading with China for the first time, scrapping the dollar as an intermediary unit to push business between the two Asian economic giants.Japan’s Finance Minister Jun Azumi said the deal between China and Japan, the world’s second- and third-largest economies respectively, will see the system of setting yen-yuan rates via their U.S. dollar values set aside.The move is aimed at boosting trade and investment between the traditional ri

May 29, 2012

Ireland could face cut if EU treaty rejected

DUBLIN (AFP) ― Prime Minister Enda Kenny warned Monday that Ireland’s sovereign debt could be downgraded by rating agencies if the country rejects the EU’s fiscal pact in a referendum on Thursday.Kenny’s comments came as the first votes in Ireland’s referendum were cast on five remote islands off the northwest coast ahead of the mainland ballot.“We have had a number rating agencies already indicate that if the people were to turn down the fiscal stability treaty, that a downgrading of the countr

May 29, 2012

Ireland could face cut if EU treaty rejected

Greek banks given $22.6b in fresh funds: official

ATHENS (AFP) ― The four biggest Greek banks received 18 billion euros ($22.6 billion) in rescue funds Monday to help reinforce their capital bases, a Hellenic financial stability fund source said.“The order to pay the banks has been made, this completes the process,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.The banks needed to recapitalize after they took hits as part of a deal to cut Greece’s privately-owned debt by 107 billion euros.National Bank, the biggest Greek lender, has received

May 29, 2012

Japan and China to start direct currency trading

Tokyo said Tuesday it will start direct currency trading with China for the first time, scrapping the dollar as an intermediary unit for the first time to push business between the two Asian economic giants.Japan's Finance Minister Jun Azumi said the deal between China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest economies respectively, will see the system of setting yen-yuan rates via their U

May 29, 2012

Turbulence ahead for airlines despite oil price drop

PARIS (AFP) ― Airlines are still in for financial turbulence despite a recent fall in oil prices, with many at risk of posting major losses as the cost of their top input remains historically high.“If fuel prices remain at a reasonably low and stable level, of course it’ll be favorable to operations of the company,” Wang Jian, board secretary of China Eastern Airlines, told AFP.But “despite the recent reduction in oil price, it remains at historically high levels and a significant challenge to t

May 28, 2012

Chinese industrial firms’ profits fall 2.2%

Chinese industrial companies’ profits fell in April, a government report showed, as the nation’s slowing economy curbed demand. Earnings declined 2.2 percent from a year earlier to 407.6 billion yuan ($64.2 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics said on its website Sunday. That compared with a 4.5 percent gain in March. The deceleration in corporate profit growth underscores concerns that the slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy is deepening. China’s State Council said on May 23 t

May 28, 2012

France criticizes IMF chief’s view on Greece

The French government spoke out on Sunday against comments by International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde suggesting that Greeks were dodging taxes.“I find (Lagarde’s comments) rather simplistic and stereotypical,” government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told French television after the IMF managing director’s comments last week outraged Greece.Lagarde told Britain’s Guardian newspaper in an interview published Friday that Greeks must “help themselves” by all paying their taxes, sa

May 28, 2012