Category: Бізнес

Globalization, Climate Change Top Agenda of World Economic Forum

More than 3,200 government, business, academics and civil society leaders will address issues of globalization, climate change and other matters of world importance next week at the annual World Economic Forum in the plush Swiss Alpine village of Davos. The list of participants reads like the Who’s Who of the most powerful, successful and inventive …

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‘Made in China 2025’ Feels Trade War Pinch

Although it is unclear if the United States and China will be able to meet a 90-day deadline and strike a deal on trade by March 2, the tussle is clearly adding to uncertainty about the future fate of the Chinese government’s strategic plan named “Made in China 2025.” The plan itself is much like …

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China Reports Record Trade Surplus with US, Amid Signs of Slowing Economy

China’s trade surplus with the United States rose dramatically in 2018, despite a tit-for-tat tariff war with the U.S. that has roiled global markets. The surplus stood at a record-high $323.3 billion, compared to $275.8 billion recorded the year before.  Data released Monday by China’s customs bureau shows the country’s exports to the U.S. grew …

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Detroit Auto Show, and Industry, Prepare for Transition

The auto industry gathered in Detroit on Sunday, on the eve of the last winter edition of North America’s premiere auto show, as carmakers grapple with a contracting market and uncertainty in the year ahead. Concerns over the health of the global economy and a US-China trade war loomed over the North American International Auto …

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Saudi Energy Minister Concerned About Oil Price Volatility

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Sunday that major oil producers need to do better to narrow swings in prices that dip below $60 a barrel and rise above $86. “I think what we need to do is narrow the range… of volatility,” Khalid al-Falih said.   “We need to do better and the more producers …

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Zimbabwe Promises New Currency as Dollar Shortage Bites

Zimbabwe will introduce a new currency in the next 12 months, the finance minister said, as a shortage of U.S. dollars has plunged the financial system into disarray and forced businesses to close. In the past two months, the southern African nation has suffered acute shortages of imported goods, including fuel whose price was increased …

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SpaceX Reportedly to Lay Off About 10 Percent of Workforce 

Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX will reduce its workforce by about 10 percent of the company’s more than 6,000 employees, it said on Friday. The company said it will “part ways” with some of its manpower, citing “extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead.” “To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and …

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U.S. to Seek Comprehensive Agriculture Access in EU Trade Talks

The United States on Friday signaled it would not bow to the European Union’s request to keep agriculture out of planned U.S.-EU trade talks, publishing negotiating objectives that seek comprehensive EU access for American farm products. The objectives, required by Congress under the “fast-track” trade negotiating authority law, seek to reduce or eliminate EU tariffs …

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Uganda Not Worried China Will Seize Assets Over Rising Debt

Uganda’s growing debt is sustainable, and the country is not at risk of losing state assets to China, the country’s finance minister, Matia Kasaija, said this week. Uganda’s auditor-general warned in a report released this month that public debt from June 2017 to 2018 had increased from $9.1 billion to $11.1 billion. The report — …

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Despite Volatility in Retail Stocks, US Officials Predict Continued Growth

Despite the U.S. stock market recovery, Macy’s and American Airlines’ revised revenue forecasts for 2018 have sent their stock prices spiraling. Other retail stocks fell, too, including J.C. Penney, Nordstrom and Kohl’s. The reports come amid news of another iconic department store, Sears, fighting for survival. But U.S. trade and financial officials say the U.S. …

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Government Shutdown Hurts Small Businesses

The 800,000 federal workers who are not being paid or are working without pay during the partial government shutdown were the first to feel its impact. But as Anna Kook reports, other segments of the economy are also being hurt, especially in Washington, home to the largest number of federal workers in the country. …

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Building Boom Turning to Bust as Turkey’s Economy Slows

Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage — hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle. Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairy tale for …

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Cuba Cabinet Chiefs Ousted Amid Cash Crunch, Transportation Woes

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel replaced his transport and finance ministers this week in his first Cabinet reshuffle since forming his own government in July and amid a cash crunch and growing discontent with the island’s transport sector. Cuban state media said Wednesday that Transport Minister Adel Yzquierdo, 73, and Finance Minister Lina Pedraza, 63, had …

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Au Pairs Win $65.5M Settlement in Denver Lawsuit 

Young people from around the world who provided low-cost child care for American families will share in a proposed $65.5 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by a dozen former au pairs against the companies that bring the workers to the United States.    Nearly 100,000 au pairs, mostly women, who worked in American homes …

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China Gives Long-awaited GM Crop Approvals Amid US Trade Talks

China approved five genetically modified (GM) crops for import on Tuesday, the first in about 18 months in a move that could boost its overseas grains purchases and ease pressure from the United States to open its markets to more farm goods. The United States is the world’s biggest producer of GM crops, while China …

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Venezuela Congress Slams Oil Deals with US, French Companies

Venezuela’s opposition-run congress on Tuesday issued a resolution calling deals between state-run oil company PDVSA and U.S. and French companies announced this week illegal, since they had not been sent to lawmakers for approval. The body said the oilfield deals with France’s Maurel & Prom and little-known U.S. company Erepla violated article 150 of Venezuela’s constitution, …

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World Bank Cuts Forecast for World Economic Growth in 2019

The World Bank is downgrading its outlook for the global economy this year, citing rising trade tension, weakening manufacturing activity and growing financial stress in emerging-market countries. In a report titled “Darkening Skies,” the anti-poverty agency said Tuesday that it expects the world economy to grow 2.9 percent in 2019, down from the 3 percent …

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Zimbabwe’s Hospitals Turn Away Patients as Doctors’ Strike Drags On

Hospitals in Zimbabwe are turning away patients as a strike by doctors enters its sixth week. There is no end in sight to the strike, as President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government says it cannot meet the doctors’ demands. The Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, Zimbabwe’s largest treatment center, is largely empty as a doctors’ strike that began …

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US Expresses Optimism About Trade Talks with China

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said there is “a very good chance” that the United States and China will reach a trade agreement.  Ross told CNBC he is hopeful such a deal would address “all the key issues.” Working-level trade talks between the United States and China began Monday in Beijing with negotiators for the …

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Mexico Fuel Theft Crackdown Sparks Shortages, Puts Govt. on Defensive

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday that his crackdown against fuel theft was yielding positive results, even as the intervention sparked severe fuel shortages in parts of the country and long lines of angry motorists. In a bid to eliminate years of mounting theft, state oil firm Pemex has changed its distribution, …

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Modi Plans Job Quotas for Less Well-Off Indians as Election Nears

India’s cabinet on Monday backed proposals to reserve 10 percent of government jobs for Indians outside the higher income brackets, a plan the main opposition party suggested was an attempt by the government to lure back voters as an election nears. The initiative is expected to mainly benefit the upper echelons of India’s centuries-old Hindu …

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US Commerce Secretary: US, China Can Reach Trade Deal ‘We Can Live With’

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross predicted on Monday that Beijing and Washington could reach a trade deal that “we can live with” as officials from the world’s two largest economies resumed talks in a bid to end their trade dispute. Ross told CNBC the immediate trade issues would be easiest to tackle while enforcement issues …

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One More Sign K-Pop Is Here to Stay, a Contract With Mattel

The trappings of success continue to arrive for K-pop sensation BTS, the latest a contract with the toy company Mattel which secured rights to produce dolls of the boy band. And Mattel is not beyond riding those K-pop coattails. Shares of Mattel Inc. spiked almost 9 percent Monday, a day after the toymaker announced a …

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US Delegation Arrives in Beijing for Trade Talks

A U.S. trade delegation has arrived in Beijing. The group is in China to hold two days of talks, beginning Monday, focusing on how best to carry out an agreement reached by U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to postpone new tariff hikes. On December 1, the two leaders agreed to complete …

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China Upbeat Ahead of US Trade Talks, But Differences Large

China has sounded a positive note ahead of trade talks this week with Washington, but the two sides face potentially lengthy wrangling over technology and the future of their economic relationship. Both sides have expressed an interest in settling their tariff fight over Beijing’s technology ambitions. Yet neither has indicated its stance has changed since …

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Surge in US Job Creation, Fed Reassurance Boosts Stocks

A surge in U.S. job creation and some reassuring words from the head of the U.S. central bank sent U.S. stocks soaring Friday.   The Labor Department reported a net gain of 312,000 jobs in December, far more than economists predicted. The unemployment rate, however, rose slightly, to 3.9 percent. Many analysts said the rising unemployment …

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