Category: Бізнес

Malaysian Ex-PM Slapped with New Charge Over 1MDB Scandal

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak was charged Wednesday with tampering with the final audit report into a defunct state investment fund, adding to a long list of corruption allegations against him since his ouster in May elections. Najib was charged along with Arul Kanda Kandasamy, the former head of the 1MDB fund, which is …

Continue Reading

Avianca Brasil Airline Declares Bankruptcy

Cash-strapped Avianca Brasil, the country’s fourth-largest airline, on Tuesday sought bankruptcy protection from creditors but reassured passengers that flights will continue. “Due to resistance from the lessors (of their aircraft) to reaching a friendly settlement, we have filed seeking protection from creditors, to protect clients and passengers,” a company statement said. Operations are not expected …

Continue Reading

As Finances Improve, Greece Scraps Pension Cuts


Greece’s parliament on Tuesday voted to scrap plans to cut state pensions, in a motion led by the left-led governing coalition hoping to shore up its flagging support ahead of a general election next year. Athens agreed two years ago to cut pensions in 2019, in an attempt to placate lenders and get the International …

Continue Reading

Big Drop Reported in Child Labor in Cambodia Fashion Factories 

While the United Nations says child labor has fallen sharply in Cambodia’s garment factories, many informal subcontractors using children are escaping scrutiny, activists said Tuesday.    Better Factories Cambodia, a U.N. International Labor Organization and World Bank initiative, found just 10 cases of child labor, down from 74 in 2014, in its latest survey of almost 500 …

Continue Reading

Macron’s Concessions Set to Blow Out French Deficit

France will overshoot the European Union’s budget deficit ceiling next year without deeper spending cuts after President Emmanuel Macron caved in to anti-government protests. Macron announced wage increases for the poorest workers and a tax cut for most pensioners on Monday in an effort to quell a near month-long public revolt. But the measures will …

Continue Reading

Disney Again Makes History with Earning Above $7B for 2018

Walt Disney Studios is again ending the year on a high note, posting more than $7 billion in global box office earnings, thanks to hits such as “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War.” “This is only the second time in history any studio has surpassed the $7 billion mark, after Disney’s own industry-record 2016 global …

Continue Reading

China, US Discuss Next Stage of Trade Talks

China and the United States discussed the road map for the next stage of their trade talks on Tuesday, during a telephone call between Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Earlier this month in Argentina, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed …

Continue Reading

Goodyear Halts Tire Production in Venezuela as Economy Slips

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is halting production in Venezuela, making it the latest international corporation to abandon a South American nation in economic crisis, officials said Monday.   Spokesman Eduardo Arguelles told The Associated Press that Goodyear-Venezuela had made the “difficult decision” to no longer produce tires in the country, which has seen an …

Continue Reading

Japanese Economy Experiences the Worst Downturn in Four Years

Japan’s economy contracted 2.5 percent in the third quarter of this year, July-September, which marks the worst downturn in the past four years.  The revised data released Monday was more than double the initial estimate of a 1.2 percent contraction. The slide is in part driven by a series of natural disasters that hit Japan, …

Continue Reading

More Than Half the World’s Population is Using the Internet

The International Telecommunication Union reports that for the first time in history, half of the global population is using the internet. A new report finds by the end of the year, 3.9 billion people worldwide will be online. The report finds access to and use of information and communication technologies around the world is trending …

Continue Reading

US, Western Diplomats See Political Motive Behind OPEC Oil Cut

Despite repeated calls by U.S. President Donald Trump for oil production to remain steady, the Saudi-led Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, along with Russia and its allies, announced Friday they would cut their pumping of crude to reduce oil flows onto the global market by 1.2 million barrels of per day, a bigger-than-expected cut.  …

Continue Reading

IMF Approves $3.7 Billion Loan for Oil-rich Angola

The International Monetary Fund says it has approved a three-year loan of about $3.7 billion for Angola, which seeks to diversify its economy and curb corruption after a new president took office last year. The IMF said Friday that the loan aims to help the southern African country restructure state-owned enterprises and take other measures …

Continue Reading

China Exports, Imports Weaken Ahead of US Talks

China’s export growth slowed in November as global demand weakened, adding to pressure on Beijing ahead of trade talks with Washington. Exports rose 5.4 percent from a year ago to $227.4 billion, a marked decline from the previous month’s 12.6 percent increase, customs data showed Saturday. Imports rose 3 percent to $182.7 billion, a sharp …

Continue Reading

Nissan to Recall 150,000 Cars Due to Dubious Inspections

Nissan announced plans Friday to recall about 150,000 vehicles sold in Japan due to improper inspections.  “Nissan has recently found several non-conformities that may have caused inaccurate pass/fail judgements during the inspection process,” on brakes, speedometers and other systems, the Japanese automaker said in a statement. The recall covers at least 10 models including Note …

Continue Reading

US Stocks Rebound From Early Plunge

U.S. stocks clawed most of their way back from a deep slide Thursday that at one point had wiped out the market’s gains for the year.    An early plunge briefly knocked more than 700 points off the Dow Jones industrial average as the arrest of a senior Chinese technology executive threatened to cause another …

Continue Reading

World Stocks Plunge on Concerns Over US-China Trade Relations

U.S. stocks fell sharply again Thursday, following steep drops on Asian and European markets, with investors worried about the fate of trade negotiations between the United States and China, the world’s two biggest economies. Stock indexes in New York dropped 1.5 percent or more in early trading, following plunging losses on Tuesday. The U.S. markets …

Continue Reading

US Trade Deficit Hits 10-Year High on Record Imports

The US trade deficit hit a 10-year high in October as Americans used a stronger dollar to snap up record imports, the government reported Thursday. The result showed the trade gap has continued to swell despite the punitive tariffs imposed this year on allies and adversaries alike by US President Donald Trump, who has focused …

Continue Reading

OPEC Looks to Cut Oil Production to Support Falling Price

OPEC countries were gathered Thursday to find a way to support the falling price of oil, with analysts predicting the cartel and key ally Russia would agree to cut production by at least 1 million barrels per day. Crude prices have been falling since October because major producers — including the U.S. — are pumping …

Continue Reading

OPEC, Russia Move Closer to Cutting Oil Output

OPEC and Russia moved closer on Wednesday to agreeing cuts in oil production from next year despite pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to reduce the price of crude. OPEC meets on Thursday in Vienna, followed by talks with allies such as Russia on Friday. OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, has indicated a need …

Continue Reading

Growth of Labor Migration Provokes Hostility in Host Communities

A new study estimates 164 million people are migrating to foreign countries in search of work, an increase of 9 percent since 2013. The majority of migrant workers are men between the ages of 25 and 64, according to the International Labor Organization’s second edition of Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers. While the number …

Continue Reading

Trump Tries to Calm Global Markets After Stocks Drop Sharply

U.S. President Donald Trump, who rattled global markets Tuesday after declaring himself “a Tariff Man,” predicted in a series of tweets Wednesday the United States and China would negotiate a new trade deal. Trump said China is planning to resume buying U.S. soybeans and natural gas, which he said confirms his claims that China had …

Continue Reading

Shifting Global Marketplace Leaves US Workers Behind

President Donald Trump insists his new trade agreement with Mexico and Canada will address the exporting of U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas. That pledge, however, comes on the heels of auto giant General Motors’ announcement of the layoff of 14,000 employees in five factories in the United States and Canada. Despite the president’s optimistic pronouncements, the …

Continue Reading

Brazil’s Bolsonaro to Tackle Pension Overhaul Piecemeal

Right-wing President-elect Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday he plans to tackle the overhaul of Brazil’s fiscally burdensome pension system with piecemeal reforms that can pass Congress, starting with an increase in the minimum age of retirement. He said reforms should start with the public social security system and advance gradually to make sure they pass …

Continue Reading

VW May Use Ford’s US Plants to Build Cars

Volkswagen AG’s chief executive said Tuesday after a meeting at the White House that the German automaker was building an alliance with Ford and might use the U.S. automaker’s plants to build cars.  VW CEO Herbert Diess said the company was also “considering building a second car plant” in the United States, adding, “We are in quite advanced negotiations and dialog with …

Continue Reading

World Bank Ups Funds to Tackle ‘Existential Threat’ of Climate Change

The World Bank will give equal weight to curbing emissions and helping poor countries deal with the “disastrous effects” of a warming world as it steps up investments to tackle climate change in the first half of the 2020s, it said on Monday. The bank and its two sister organizations plan to double their investments …

Continue Reading

Trump Boasts of Relations with Xi, New Trade Deal with China

U.S. President Donald Trump boasted Monday of his “very strong and personal relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping, declaring a new U.S.-China trade deal would immediately allow American farmers to sell more of their products to Beijing. Stock markets in Asia and Europe jumped sharply after Trump and Xi, as leaders of the world’s two …

Continue Reading