pryvateer.news : Global online news portal for business success. Provides daily information on economics (and a little politics) necessary to identify and act on global business opportunities.
If you were just to do a "content analysis" of the news one thing would become apparent - economic news is shifting away from the United States and towards the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and China. That is not necessarily bad news as long as this growth is tied to open markets and sound currency. Personally nothing that has happened over the last few years that excites us more than the emergence of India. Why? Because it is an example of what happens when government is removed as an obstacle to freedom and prosperity. Lets hope the same impact will occur in China before their military reaches equivalence with the US - and it will in the next 10 years.
With
over 24 million square feet of commercial office space currently under
development, Dubai has been ranked a close second in the world in terms
of office real estate construction activity by Colliers International.
Colliers International is one of the top three global property service consultants.
According
to its mid-year Global Office Real Estate review, which assesses the
worldwide commercial property markets in 50 countries, only Moscow
ranks higher with the Russian capital boasting an estimated 26.90
million square feet of ongoing commercial property construction.
John Davis, CEO, Colliers International – Middle East, said: “It is
no surprise to see Dubai so close to the top in terms of construction
activity.
“This go-ahead emirate has been making massive progress in recent
years with development steaming ahead at an incredible compound annual
growth rate of 42.5 percent.
Emaar the Economic City (Emaar.E.C),
a consortium led by Dubai realty giant Emaar Properties and a number of
high profile Saudi investors, has secured the approval from the Capital Market Authority (CMA) of Saudi Arabia to be listed on the Tadawul on October 7, 2006.
Emaar.E.C is developing the King Abdullah Economic City, a 55 million sq m development, which will usher in a new era of economic prosperity to the Kingdom.
“The SR100 billion project ( Emaar Economic City)
is inspired by the vision of vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques King Abdullah bin AbdulAziz AlSaud for his Kingdom and people,”
said Mr Mohamed Ali Alabbar, Chairman, Emaar.E.C. Emaar the Economic
City (Emaar.E.C) is a Saudi joint stock company headed by real estate
major Emaar Properties PJSC and a number of high profile investors from
Saudi Arabia.
Seeking to cash in on booming Asian exports, Nicaragua will announce
a $20 billion proposal next week to build a canal between the Pacific
and the Atlantic oceans that would accommodate ships too large to use
the Panama Canal, Nicaraguan officials said Friday.
If
approved by Nicaragua's Congress, the project would be a joint
public-private venture financed by unnamed investors, said Lindolfo
Monjarretz, a spokesman for Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos.
The
Grand Inter-Oceanic Nicaragua Canal would make use of the 60-mile wide
Lake Nicaragua and follow at least part of a route first proposed by
American and European entrepreneurs in the 19th century, officials said.
Stephen Gibbs More than 22,000 Havana's businesses have been checked
and more than half of all the state-run enterprises inspected in Cuba's
capital Havana have cheated their customers, a Cuban communist
newspaper has reported.
More than 11,500 businesses were selling their products
at higher prices than advertised, or delivering lesser quantities, the
Juventud Rebelde said.
The report's tone is unusually frank. The state media tends to be dominated by congratulatory stories about Cuba.
Last week, acting President Raul Castro said corruption was a serious problem.
'Rampant corruption'
The two-page article in the communist youth newspaper reports what for most people living in Havana will be a familiar story.
NAMIBIA'S continued slide down global economic
rankings has sparked concern among the business community as it could
deter investors, the Namibia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NCCI)
has said.
Namibia dropped to 84th position from 79th last year on the WEF Global Competitiveness Report, which was released last week.
Tonderai Katswara
NCCI
Chief Executive Officer Tarah Shaanika said the organisation was
extremely disappointed with the continuing slide in the World Economic
Forum (WEF) economic competitiveness rankings for the past three years.
Shaanika
said this was cause for concern, as it would have negative effect on
those willing to bring investment into the country.
"This
drop clearly indicates that the perception of businesspeople and
investors from different parts of the world may be less positive about
Namibia's competitiveness levels and general business environment than
four years ago.
CREDIT growth climbed higher last month, rising
25% year on year, confirming that consumer spending remains strong, and
strengthening the case for further monetary policy tightening.
Ayanda Shezi
It
is early days yet, and economists expect the effects of the interest
rate hikes so far this year to take effect only in the last few months
of the year.
Data released by the Reserve Bank
on Friday show that private sector credit extension (PSCE) grew 25,03%
in August, up from 24,8% in July.
In turn, M3, the broadest measure of money supply, increased 21,4% year on year, from 21,1% in July.
"The
data indicate that credit demand responded hardly at all from the June
rate hike. It is too early to say whether the August rate hike would
have had an effect," said Absa treasury economist Nyiko Mageza.
The presidents of Liberia, Mozambique and
Tanzania participated in a historic program at the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) this past Friday. The event was organized by the
Corporate Council on Africa and the NYSE to honor the commitment of
each of the presidents' efforts to promote trade and investment
opportunities in their countries.
The program
began with a private meeting between the presidents and the NYSE Chief
Executive Officer, Mr. John Thain. In that meeting the presidents
discussed economic conditions in their respective countries and the
opportunity for a "training program" at the NYSE for traders from
African countries. Mozambique and Tanzania have stock exchanges, while
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said that she hoped to establish a
stock exchange in Liberia in the longer-term. Thain remarked that he
was open to building relationships with African countries. He also said
that he was pleased to be part of the historic meeting. This was the
first time in the exchange's history that three heads of state had
participated in a bell ringing ceremony.
WHEN Waverley Stanley walked through Philip Latham's door two years
ago, he was the first Aborigine the English-born venture capitalist had
ever met.
Glenda Korporaal
The conversation did not initially show much promise. Stanley wanted
Latham to tell him how Aboriginal enterprises could attract venture
capital.
Latham, who founded RMB Capital Partners in Sydney in 1998,
initially put him off. It was hard enough for big-city enterprises to
get venture capital - let alone small struggling Aboriginal businesses,
he explained.
But that was not the end of their work together. During the course
of the meeting, Stanley told Latham about his experience as a child
growing up in Cherbourg, a former Aboriginal settlement 250km northwest
of Brisbane. Stanley explained that his big break had come about
because his white teacher had personally lobbied the headmaster at
Toowoomba Grammar to give him a scholarship.
The energy resource dispute in the East China Sea and
Japan's handling of the Taiwan issue are likely to pose thorny
questions for new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in addition to the already
controversial issue of visits to Yasukuni Shrine, according to U.S.
experts on Sino-Japanese relations.
James Kelly, a former U.S. assistant secretary of
state, and Alan Romberg, director of the China Program at the Henry L.
Stimson Center, address a seminar at New York's Japan Society last
month.
KYODO PHOTO
Speaking during a recent seminar at New York's Japan
Society, James Kelly, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for East
Asian and Pacific affairs, said he believes the energy issue "has a
potential for clashes that can seriously get out of hand."
Tokyo and Beijing have long been at odds over gas
exploration rights in the East China Sea, where Japan is concerned that
Chinese projects might siphon off resources from beneath waters Japan
claims as its own.
The disputed Chunxiao gas field, called Shirakaba by
Japan, is located a few kilometers west of the Japan-designated median
line separating the two countries' 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic
zones
10:20:31 AM comment []
Japanese companies increasingly look to India for
business opportunities, but they have yet to fully tap the potential of
one of the world's fastest-growing economies with its vast pool of
skilled human resources, said participants in a recent symposium in
Tokyo.
Arun Subramaniam (right), India representative of International Risk Ltd., speaks at a
symposium on India at Keidanren Kaikan in Tokyo on Sept. 13 as his copanelists, Masahiko
Kaji (left) and Eiichi Ono, listen.
SATOKO KAWASAKI PHOTOS
At the same time, prospective investors in India still
face a wide range of problems and risks including poor infrastructure,
institutional shortcomings and inadequate information disclosure, they
said.
"While India is making headlines in the last year or
two, it has been growing consistently for the last 25 years," with the
average annual growth rate picking up to 7.5 percent to 8 percent since
2002, Arun Subramaniam, India representative of International Risk
Ltd., told the Sept. 13 symposium organized by Keizai Koho Center under
the theme, "Business opportunities and risks in India."
In contrast to the Chinese development model, India's
growth has been mainly driven by its huge domestic market, Subramaniam
said. Domestic consumption accounts for 66 percent of India's gross
domestic product -- compared with 55 percent in the European Union and
44 percent in China, he added
10:19:25 AM comment []
Japan's crude oil imports fell 4.0 percent in August
from a year earlier to 125.86 million barrels, the fourth straight
monthly decline, the Natural Resources and Energy Agency said Friday.
Imports from the Middle East accounted for 89.7
percent of the total, up 2.6 percentage points from the same month last
year, the agency said in a preliminary report.
Saudi Arabia remained the country's No. 1 oil supplier
in August, with its exports to Japan rising 1.9 percent from the year
before to 37.61 million barrels.
The United Arab Emirates ranked second, with shipments
edging up 1.1 percent to 35.22 million barrels. Qatar was third, with
exports to Japan jumping 46.3 percent to 15.03 million barrels.
Iran came in fourth, with shipments slipping 19.3 percent to 12.33 million barrels. Kuwait ranked fifth.
Japan got a double dose of good economic news Friday
with the release of healthy industrial production and consumer price
figures that underline continued recovery of second-largest economy in
the world.
Optimism was tempered by a drop in household spending
and a report showing that unemployment remained steady at 4.1 percent
in August, but investors still cheered the news.
The overall figures point in the right direction for
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office Tuesday and is under
pressure to continue the economic revival that began under his
predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.
Industrial production rose 1.9 percent in August from
the previous month, while shipments jumped 2.5 percent, the Ministry of
Economy, Trade and Industry said Friday, adding that output is on an
upward trend.
(BEIJING) The central bank says China's economy should grow by 10.5 per
cent this year, state media reported yesterday, even stronger than the
10 per cent predicted recently by the National Bureau of Statistics.
The People's Bank of China also projected growth for the first half of 2007 at 9.5 per cent, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
China's economy grew 10.2 per cent in 2005 and surged by 10.9 per cent in the first half of 2006.
The bank also said that China's high rate of domestic spending will continue to grow.
Growth in domestic investment and exports, however, will ease,
Xinhua reported, blaming a slowing global economy and 'rising trade
frictions' for the impact on exports.
The US has accused China of undervaluing its currency to promote export growth.
The People's Bank report also predicted continuing low Chinese
inflation rates - 1.5 per cent in 2006 and 1.8 per cent for the first
half of 2007.
(NEW YORK) The Federal Reserve
will probably lower its benchmark interest rate in the first quarter of
2007 as slowing economic growth diminishes inflation pressures,
according to economists at Citigroup Inc.
'Moderation in economic growth appears to be continuing,
partly reflecting a cooling of the housing market.'
- Fed policy makers
The biggest US
bank by assets previously forecast the Fed would keep its target rate
for overnight loans between banks at 5.25 per cent through June. The
bank now predicts a quarter-point reduction by March, with the Fed
holding the rate at 5 per cent through September.
Citigroup joins Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Merrill Lynch & Co
in predicting the central bank will cut rates by June as a cooling
housing market reins in economic expansion. The Fed on Aug 8 halted a
two-year campaign of lifting rates, stating that slower growth was
likely to dampen inflation. Treasuries headed for their best quarter in
four years.
CONSUMER prices in Japan rose by 0.3 per cent in August, marking a
third consecutive month of increases and prompting recently appointed
Economic & Fiscal Policy Minister Hiroko Ota to declare last week
that the Japanese economy 'is at the exit of continuous price
declines'. But markets are awaiting the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) latest Tankan survey, due today, to see how solid the economic recovery in Japan really is.
Ms Ota: Japan's economy is at the 'exit' of continuous price declines
The latest rise in consumer prices came
even though the government recently revised its basis of calculation
from 'headline' to 'core' inflation, which reduced the measure of price
rises in the economy. This probably means that the BOJ can raise
short-term interest rates by a further 0.25 per cent this year after
breaking with its long-standing zero interest rates policy in July,
analysts said.
However, Ms Ota quickly moved to quell such
speculation, saying that she expected the BOJ to support the
government's cautious view about whether deflation really has been
defeated after almost a decade of falling prices. 'We need to monitor
(the situation) a little longer to see if outside factors stop the
trend,' she told a news conference.
The Indian economy is booming. The country’s GDP grew a robust 8.9% in
the first quarter of this fiscal, the highest in comparable quarters
since 1999-2000. Inflation dipped for three consecutive weeks to 4.56%
for the week ended September 16.
The GDP spurt was on the back of a very strong 11.3% growth in
manufacturing. Services continued to do well with a 10.6% growth in
output, against 9.8% a year ago.
But
agriculture stayed sluggish with 3.4% growth, the same rate at which it
grew in the corresponding period last year. The GDP growth reported in
the corresponding period last fiscal was 8.5%.
Bank credit has grown 31% so far this fiscal, prompting the RBI to hike the benchmark rate three times.
According to official data released on September 29, within
services, trade, hotels, transport and communications sectors showed
the highest growth of 13.2%, compared with 11.7% in the year-ago
period.
MAHUA VENKATESH NEW DELHI, OCT 1 : Indian companies should be more open to
appointing foreign nationals on board as they try to expand in markets
outside the country. Moreover, appointing foreigners on companies’
boards will help improve corporate governance, according to the
International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of the World
Bank.
“It is important for Indian companies to have non-Indians on
boards to improve understanding of markets outside India and also to
acquire a truly global nature,” Teresa C Barger, director (corporate
governance and capital markets), IFC, told FE.
However,
big companies like Infosys and TCS have already engaged foreigners on
boards. Infosys has three independent directors—Larry Pressler, Claude
Smadja and David L Boyles—while TCS has Clayton M Christensen and Ron
Sommer on board. Even Bharti Airtel has a number of foreign
directors—Chua Sock Koong, Kurt Hellstrom, Donald Cameron and Paul
O’Sullivan—on the board.
10:08:07 AM comment []
BEIJING, OCT 1: Amid festivities to mark China’s 57th national
day, Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to unswervingly pursue more
economic and political reforms to sustain the “historic miracle” the
communist giant has achieved in the past three decades.
“We’ll unswervingly push reform and opening up,” Wen said at his
customary speech at a reception in the great hall of the people,
marking the founding anniversary of the people’s republic of China on
October 1. “This trend is irreversible,” he added.
China
has created a historical miracle by achieving nearly three decades of
rapid, sustainable economic growth and all-round social development, he
said to the over 1,500-strong gathering which included Chinese
President Hu Jintao among other leaders.
China has grown rapidly since 1978, when it began to reform.
Over the past 27 years, it has shifted from a centrally-planned to a
market economy, maintained an average economic growth rate of about 9%
per year, and lifted 400 million people from poverty.
The eurozone's manufacturing base expanded in September, showing
growth for the third consecutive month and beating analysts'
expectations, according to data released Monday.
NTC Economics' eurozone manufacturing sector purchasing managers'
index (PMI) remained steady at 56.6 points, confounding the
expectations of the experts for slight drop to 56.5 points.
A reading above 50 signals that the sector is expanding.
"The manufacturing PMI suggests that growth in the sector has held
up well in the third quarter," said Kevin Gaynor of the Royal Bank of
Scotland.
NTC said the improvement has been driven by good domestic demand and new export orders, backed by employment growth
10:02:21 AM comment []
Economic growth in the eurozone reached an annual rate of 3.4
percent in the first half of the year, the highest level for six years,
the European Commission announced Monday.
"Domestic demand has finally bounced back and has become the main
source of growth. In a context of improving labour market and easing
oil prices, the economic outlook could turn out better than expected in
the near term," according to the commission's quarterly report on the
euro area.
"The recovery of the euro-area economy appears to be on solid
ground, with GDP growing in the first half of the year at a pace not
seen in the last six years," the report said.
Growth over the whole of 2006 in the 12-nation eurozone is now
forecast at 2.5 percent, 0.4 percentage points above a previous
forecast.
In a dramatic accusation which will raise the spectre of a new
stand-off between two nuclear-armed neighbours, India said yesterday
that Pakistani intelligence was behind the July Mumbai bombings in
which at least 186 people were killed.
The Mumbai police accused Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency of
planning and masterminding the attacks, and said they were carried out
by a militant Islamic group based in Pakistan. Islamabad immediately
denied the accusation and demanded that India produce some evidence to
back it up.
"We have solved the 11 July bombings case," the Mumbai police
commissioner, A N Roy, announced to a press conference yesterday. "The
whole attack was planned by Pakistan's ISI and carried out by
Lashkar-e-Toiba and their operatives in India."
Katherine Burton and Jenny Strasburg NEW YORK Amaranth Advisors has suspended redemptions
in order to sell off its remaining assets after losses at its two main
hedge funds continued last week.
The funds were down as much as 70 percent for the month of September,
the firm wrote in a letter to investors. Redemption requests scheduled
for the end of September and the end of October will not be honored,
preventing investors from withdrawing any money for at least another
month.
"Our current intention is to dispose of the remaining positions in the
funds' portfolios in an orderly fashion over time, seeking to maximize
sale proceeds and to make periodic cash distributions to investors on a
pro rata basis," Amaranth's founder, Nicholas Maounis, wrote in the
letter, sent late Friday.
Amaranth is the Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund manager that
imploded almost two weeks ago after making wrong-way bets on the
direction of natural gas prices. The firm, which managed $9.5 billion
of assets as recently as August, now has lost about $6.5 billion in the
biggest hedge fund meltdown in history.
9:55:03 AM comment []
Dorothy Kosich RENO, NV
(Mineweb.com) --Scotiabank has forecast that base metals prices “will
remain at exceptionally high levels” for the balance of this year, as
uranium prices climb higher, and silver and gold continue to
outperform.
Patricia Mohr, Vice President, Industry & Commodity Research
for Scotia Economics, also noted that while nickel prices “may revert
to somewhat lower levels, the strength of global stainless steel demand
should keep prices quite lucrative in 2007.”
9:45:29 AM comment []
Legal advisors are predicting that a wave of
lawsuits larger than the historical campaign against tobacco companies
will soon be launched against employers that provide BlackBerry’s for
their workers, the Independent reports.
Employees
could sue their employers for promoting the overuse of the BlackBerry,
also known as CrackBerry for its addictiveness. A recent study by the
University of Northampton found that one-third of all BlackBerry users
display the behavior of a drug or alcohol addict. Ninety percent of
BlackBerry users show a compulsive need to check their messages.
BlackBerry users blame the device for everything from health problems,
insomnia, and relationship problems to even car accidents.
The
lawsuits have already begun. One woman has filed a lawsuit against her
employer, claiming that her blackberry addiction made her get divorced
and lose custody of her children. Research In Motion, the company that
makes BlackBerry, argues that BlackBerrys can make workers more
efficient and improve productivity. The company has sold more than five
million BlackBerry’s over the last eight years – mostly to business
people that need to have access to email and the Internet on the go.
9:43:40 AM comment []
That $4 pint of Guinness at O'Shea's Irish Pub on Clematis Street may cost you a little more in the coming months.
Owner Maurice Costigan has to pay his property tax bill.
"When I opened that envelope, I nearly fell over," said Costigan,
41. "I've been cutting my margins to the bone. At some stage, you can't
cut anymore or you'll go out of business."
Palm Beach County's 2006 property tax bills went out in August, and
Costigan's climbed 76 percent, from $16,000 to $28,000. The reason: the
appraised value of his 7,000-square-foot building at 529 Clematis St.
in West Palm Beach soared from $672,000 to more than $1.13 million.
"The only people that can afford it are the national chains, the
Gaps of the world," he said. "You're trying to get rid of the small
guy."
Japanese Ambassador to Russia Yasuo Saito told the Sakhalin Oil and Gas Conference in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
on September 27,
that recent Russian actions against the Sakhalin-2 gas venture, were "disappointing," Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe reported.
Saidto said the deal is of key importance to Japan, and that Russia had not taken the interests of
Moscow's partners into consideration, news agencies reported.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov told the conference that Russia has no intention of pushing foreign
businesses out of the energy sector, mosnews.com reported.
He stressed that
unspecified "assertions about 'revisions' of [production-sharing
agreements] PSAs and especially about squeezing foreigners out of the
Russian energy sector have absolutely no basis whatsoever."
But, Japanese international
broadcaster NHK noted that Tokyo is following with concern Lavrov's
plans to visit after the conference some Russian-held islands in the
Kuriles, which are also claimed by Japan.
The islands have been the
subject of much attention by top Russian officials in recent months.
