Wednesday, 19 June 2013 17:30
Posted by Muhammad Iqbal
BANGKOK: Thailand said on Wednesday that it would slash the price paid to rice farmers under a controversial scheme that caused the kingdom to lose its place as the world's top exporter of the commodity last year.The country has paid its farmers around 50 percent more than the market value for rice since 2011 in an effort to boost incomes in the rural heartlands of the ruling party.The government tries to sell the rice in world markets but faces stiff competition from rival producers such as Vietnam and India, and lost about 137 billion baht ($4.5 billion) from the scheme in the year to January.In an effort to reduce the cost, the price paid will be reduced by 20 percent, to 12,000 baht ($388) per ton, according to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's office."We have to lower the price because this scheme has cost a lot of money," said Varathep Rattanakorn, ...
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BANGKOK: Thailand said on Wednesday that it would slash the price paid to rice farmers under a controversial scheme that caused the kingdom to lose its place as the world's top exporter of the commodity last year.The country has paid its farmers around 50 percent more than the market value for rice since 2011 in an effort to boost incomes in the rural heartlands of the ruling party.The government tries to sell the rice in world markets but faces stiff competition from rival producers such as Vietnam and India, and lost about 137 billion baht ($4.5 billion) from the scheme in the year to January.In an effort to reduce the cost, the price paid will be reduced by 20 percent, to 12,000 baht ($388) per ton, according to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's office."We have to lower the price because this scheme has cost a lot of money," said Varathep Rattanakorn, ...
BERLIN: Germany sold 4.01 billion euros of 10-year bonds on Wednesday, attracting solid demand as investors continue to seek safe-haven assets in which to park their cash against the backdrop of the euro zone crisis.The sale of the 1.50 percent Bund drew bids of 1.5 times the amount on offer, slightly less than 1.6 at an auction on May 22.The average yield for the bonds was 1.55 percent, compared with 1.41 percent at the May ...
WASHINGTON: The World Bank on Wednesday warned that severe hardships from global warming could be felt within a generation, with a new study detailing devastating impacts in Africa and Asia.The report presents "an alarming scenario for the days and years ahead -- what we could face in our lifetime," said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim."The scientists tell us that if the world warms by two degrees Centigrade (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) -- warming which may ...
WASHINGTON: US consumer prices crept higher in May, led by a jump in housing costs, after falling for two months in a row, official data released Tuesday showed.The Labor Department reported its consumer price index rose 0.1 percent in May from April, and was up 1.4 percent over the past 12 months.A 0.3 percent increase in the cost of housing, which includes rent, accounted for more than half of the CPI increase in May, the ...
KUWAIT CITY: Foreign direct investment into Arab states rose by 9.8 percent last year despite unrest in some of them but remained well below its level in 2010, when the Arab Spring erupted, a report said on Tuesday.Arab states attracted FDI worth $47.1 billion (35.4 billion euros) in 2012 compared with $42.9 billion the previous year, the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp said in its annual report.But that was 28.5 percent lower than ...
ENNISKILLEN: The European Union and the United States on Monday launched long-awaited formal negotiations to create what would be the world's biggest ever free trade area.US President Barack Obama said the first round of negotiations on a pact aimed at creating jobs and boosting the fragile global economy would take place in Washington next month.Speaking just before the start of the G8 summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, British Prime Minister David Cameron said: "We ...
FRANKFURT: The German economy will slow this summer after a spring recovery, the central bank predicted in a report on Monday, citing weaker industrial orders and export data."In line with slightly weaker orders in April, expectations for production for the months ahead have been markedly scaled back," it said."The same applies for short-term export prospects." Europe's biggest economy narrowly scraped past a recession in the year's first quarter with 0.1-percent growth, after a contraction of ...
