Electricity prices and the 2 percentage point increase in VAT helped to push the consumer price inflation rate up to 3.4% in March, from 3.1% in February. Prices in the category of “Housing, water, electricity and gas” rose by 14.2% over the year earlier, thanks to a toxic combination of high oil prices, EU-related tariff
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Sony Corp forecast a record $6.4 billion net loss for the business year just ended, double earlier forecasts and a fourth straight year of losses, inflated by writing off deferred tax assets in the United States. In a bid to ease investor concerns over its deteriorating bottom line, the Japanese consumer electronics giant
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The turnover value index of wholesale and retail trade, including repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, rose by 2.9% compared with the previous three-month period. For the whole of 2011, the turnover index fell by 8.2% compared with the corresponding period of 2010. Motor repairs seem to have held up the overall index, since the
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Electricity prices and the 2 percentage point increase in VAT helped to push the consumer price inflation rate up to 3.4% in March, from 3.1% in February. Prices in the category of “Housing, water, electricity and gas” rose by 14.2% over the year earlier, thanks to a toxic combination of high oil prices, EU-related tariff
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Facebook will pay $1 billion in cash and stock for Instagram, a 2-year-old photo-sharing application developer, in its largest-ever acquisition just months before the No. 1 social media website is expected to go public. The price was stunning for an apps-maker without any significant revenue, even when measured by the lofty standards of Silicon Valley,
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The pace of increase in jobless accelerated in March, rising by 31.8% over the year earlier, compared with an increase of 27.1% in February. The total number of number of registered unemployed in February was 37,443, compared with 28,401 in March 2011. The main increases by sector were in construction (an increase of 1,987), wholesale
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Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co on Tuesday said it will spend $200 million to build a new hatchback at its UK plant as British Prime Minister David Cameron began a tour of Japan and Southeast Asia aimed at boosting trade and investment ties. The investment, announced hours before Cameron's plane touched down at Tokyo's Haneda
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President Barack Obama's healthcare law could sharply exceed its cost-savings targets and add up to $530 billion to the federal budget deficit, a leading authority on U.S. government benefit programs said on Tuesday. A study by Charles Blahous, a George Mason University research fellow and the Republican trustee for the Medicare and Social Security entitlement
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German exports rose for the second month in a row in February, data showed on Tuesday, as Europe's largest economy fended off the euro zone debt crisis better than others and found buyers for its goods and services. Exports rose a seasonally adjusted 1.6% and imports increased by 3.9%, narrowing the trade surplus, data from
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Brent crude futures slipped towards $122 on Tuesday as a steeper than expected fall in China's overall imports in March raised concerns about oil demand growth in the world's second-biggest consumer. Investors are watching for signs that China can avoid a hard landing as it tweaks monetary and fiscal policies to cut rising costs and
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