Saturday, 18 May 2013 03:12
Posted by Abdul Ahad
MEXICO CITY: Mexico cut its 2013 growth forecast on Friday after the economy expanded less than expected in the first quarter due to slumping industrial production and near stagnant exports.Latin America's second biggest economy after Brazil is now expected to grow by 3.1 percent this year instead of 3.5 percent, the finance ministry said.The forecast was revised after Mexico posted growth of just 0.8 percent in the first quarter compared to the same January-to-March period ...
22 
TOKYO: Japan's earnings season has drawn to a close with the sharply weaker yen helping inflate profits at some of the nation's top exporters, but, warn some commentators, the drop is not all good news.Sony booked its first annual profit in five years, Toyota more than tripled its earnings in the fiscal year to March and the head of rival automaker Nissan hailed the taming of the currency."I have been talking about the unbelievable strength of the yen for many years," Carlos Ghosn said after the firm released its earnings this month."I'm very happy to see that finally we are getting in neutral territory by having the yen at 100 yen to the dollar."In late 2011, the dollar hit a low around 75 yen, partially as a result of its safe-haven status when the euro area crisis and global uncertainty sent investors piling into the currency.Japanese firms wailed, bemoaning the ...
MEXICO CITY: Mexico cut its 2013 growth forecast on Friday after the economy expanded less than expected in the first quarter due to slumping industrial production and near stagnant exports.Latin America's second biggest economy after Brazil is now expected to grow by 3.1 percent this year instead of 3.5 percent, the finance ministry said.The forecast was revised after Mexico posted growth of just 0.8 percent in the first quarter compared to the same January-to-March period ...
GENEVA: Indonesia could overtake Egypt as the world's top wheat importer within five years, an executive at Australia's largest grain co-operative CBH Group said on Friday."Indonesia could overtake Egypt due to its large population, strong GDP growth and changing diets," said Jason Craig, general manager of marketing and trading, speaking on the sidelines of the Grain and Feed Trade Association (Gafta) conference in Geneva.Indonesia, the most populous South-East Asian country, consumes around 19 kg of ...
MOSCOW: Russia's economy expanded by 1.6 percent in the first quarter, faster than initially expected, but still at its slowest pace since the final quarter of 2009, preliminary data from the Federal Statistics Service showed on Friday.Earlier, the Economy Ministry had said that gross domestic product growth was at around 1 percent in the first three months of the year.The ministry also revised in April its GDP growth forecast for the year to 2.4 percent ...
DHAKA: Troubled Bangladesh's economy is forecast to have grown at a four-year low of 6.03 percent in the fiscal year to June, more than a percentage point below the government target, officials said on Friday.Analysts have said that a crisis in the disaster-strewn garment sector and a series of strikes could do lasting damage to the economy but Friday's forecast by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) showed it is already in trouble.The government had ...
TOKYO: Japan's finance minister trumpeted bright economic news on Friday as figures showed firms were ramping up investment in a possible sign that government stimulus was working."Capital spending will increase from now on," Taro Aso told reporters after official data showed core machinery orders soared 14.2 percent on-month in March.The jump is the highest increase since April 2005 when comparable data started to be collected.Core orders are regarded as a leading indicator of corporate capital ...
WARSAW: Hit by drag from the eurozone crisis, growth in Central European heavyweight Poland will slow to 1.2 percent this year before an uptick to 2.2 percent in 2014, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday. "We do expect the economy to recover in the second half of the year, as Europe itself begins to recover and as the effects of monetary policy begin to be felt," IMF official Julie Kozack said, urging "monetary easing ...
