Business & Financial News

Japanese gross domestic product increased by 1% from January to March compared with the previous quarter, helped by a rebound increase in consumption, for reconstruction after the earthquake of March 11, 2011 and some improvement in exports, according to government statistics released Thursday.

On an annualized basis, GDP was up 4.1%, above economists' expectations (3.5%), against 2.2% for the U.S. over the same pe riod.

First announced in fall of 0.2%, the economy finally stagnated between October and December.

Consumption, which the Japanese economy depends to 60%, increased 1.1%, while economists expected a 0.8% increase, thanks to subsidies the purchase of fuel efficient cars. 

Consumption contributed 0.7 percentage points to quarterly growth and public investment to 0.3 points.

Economists expect a Japanese GDP growth of around 2% during the fiscal year that began in April, with a gradual recovery of the U.S. economy and the work reconstruction in the northeast of the archipelago devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.

"Consumer spending and public investment have brought the economy, with demand for automobiles supported by government incentives and investment supported by supplementary budgets that followed the earthquake , "said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at Itochu Economic Research Institute. 

"So if they are government policies that are behind this quarterly growth, can not have say it reflects a strong economy."

The yen, which remains a strong currency poses risks in the medium and long-term competitiveness of Japanese products and hinders exports.

Europe, one of the major markets of Japan, parallel to continue mired in crisis and the European consumer behavior does not bode well for Japanese exports.

"I monitor the situation in Europe carefully, because it interferes with the movements of foreign exchange market. We will take strong decisions against excessive movements on the foreign exchange market, "said Japanese Economy Minister Motohisa Furukawa

…. ….. Economists expect growth of 1.0% in the first quarter is a peak in 2012. Their median forecast of growth shows an increase of 0 , 5% early in the second and third quarters and 0.4% during the last three months of the year

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Wall Street opened slightly lower Monday, threatening to end a streak of four consecutive sessions of gains in a context of renewed tensions in Europe and mixed U.S. data es.

In early trade, the Dow dropped 0.07% to 13,218.93 points. The Standard & Poor's, wider, yielding 0.27% to 1,399.59 points points while the Nasdaq composite lost 0.22% to 3062.58 points.

The announcement on Monday's return to recession in Spain has revived fears about the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone.

"The market took a break while a busy week looms in statistics," said Andre Bakhos at Lek Securities.

The U.S. household spending rose less than expected 0.3% in March while their incomes have emerged up 0.4%, according to statistics released by the De ; Department of Commerce.

Investors will also monitor the publication in the afternoon of the index of purchasing managers in manufacturing PMI in the Chicago area. 

Last week, the S & P has aligned four sessions in a row in the green due to good earnings reports of companies, who brought the index close to balance in April. He declined, however, still 0.4% on the month, poised to sign a fifth consecutive month of decline.

Values, Apple fell by 1.3% and Google was down slightly from 0.06%. Both groups could include the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the context of a revision of the index, joining the elite 30 companies at the expense of more traditional companies like Alcoa Inc. (-0.7%), Barron's said Sunday.

The title of Barnes & Noble jumped over 11% in early trade after Microsoft announced it would invest $ 300 million in university activities and digital chain libraries.

Labor costs in Germany rose at the slowest rate of any European Union over the past decade, said Tuesday the Federal Office of Statistics , emphasizing the positive effect of wage moderation.

The cost of one hour of work in the private sector rose 19.4% between 2001 and 2011 in Germany, which is half that in France, where the cost jumped 39.2 % over the same period, well above the European average of 36.1%.

The moderate wage growth, which started from a high base, helped Germany to remain among the top exporting economies in the world and to remain competitive . 

"The moderate wage growth in recent years has made possible a positive development (…). Many new jobs were created and existing jobs are been protected, supporting consumption, "said the director of the Chamber of Commerce, Martin Wansleben.

In 2011, German employers paid an average of 30.10 euros for each full hour of work in the private sector, well above the average for the EU to 22.80 euros.

Belgium shows labor costs the highest in the region at 39.30 euros per hour while Bulgaria has the lowest, to 3.50 euros.

Executive Director International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde said Wednesday that member countries pledged to provide a total of at least $ 316 billion of priesthood ts to the fund to hold the debt crisis in the euro area.

"We have promises for more than $ 316 billion and I have more in the bag," said Lagarde.

The IMF said in January will increase its financial resources of $ 600 billion to guard against any spillover of the crisis of European debt. But obtaining firm commitments at meetings of the IMF, World Bank and G20 at the end of this week in Washington, might be difficult.

The United States including that they would not participate in these efforts. Canada has estimated that Europe had sufficient funds. Other countries, including China, Brazil and Russia expressed readiness to contribute to the financial effort but if they get in return more of the voting rights in IMF.

Christine Lagarde said last week that it was possible that the IMF has required fewer resources than he thought a few months ago, the economic and financial risks are being mitigated ; s. These resources could be increased from 400 to 500 billion dollars, an amount less than $ 600 billion initially cited, told Reuters several G20 leaders.

Audi, the premium brand of Volkswagen sold 143,500 vehicles in March, a record, or 14.1% from a year earlier, thanks to solid demand from the States U.S. and China.

Over the quarter, the manufacturer sold 346,100 vehicles, representing an increase of 10.8%.

"We started the year 2012 successfully and we anticipate continued growth in the coming months," said in a statement Peter Schwarzenbauer, responsible for sales of Audi.

The Supreme Court could reverse the conviction of Total over 12 years near the wreck of the tanker Erika off the Brittany coast in 1999, reported Friday Liberation and Ouest-France.

The highest French court, which must rule on May 24, could simply cancel the entire procedure conducted since the disaster in December 1999, according to two dailies.

Senior judges make this recommendation in their conclusions with the main argument that the wreck, which caused the pollution of 400 km of coastline, has not occurred in French waters, writes Libération ration and Ouest-France.

The Erika disaster led to two trials in 2007 at trial and on appeal in 2009. The judgment established each time the liability of defendants, which the charterer Total.

The oil company could not be contacted immediately to make a comment.

This is a Rupert Murdoch angry that went against the attack Thursday against the "enemies" who accuse his media group News Corp. to have hacked his rivals, calling them "aristos and conservatives "finding their privileges of the last century.

Already weakened by the scandal of illegal wiretapping in Britain, News Corp. is in the center of new allegations made in Britain and Australia that a subsidiary of would have had the mission of promoting piracy of pay TV channels competing.

The Australian Financial Review reported Wednesday that News Corp. had made use of Operational Security, a subsidiary established in the mid 1990s, to sabotage its competitors. The Panorama program, broadcast earlier this week in Britain by the BBC, had already reported similar suspicions.

Operational Security was a branch of NDS, a subsidiary of News Corps specializes in signal encryption, a crucial activity for pay-TV channels.

News Corp. as NDS, exit from the orbit of the Murdoch group, pitted categorical denials to the allegations.

"It seems that each of our competitors and enemies accumulate lies and slander," wrote Rupert Murdoch on his Twitter account Thursday, adding that the response was being prepared and would be severe. 

News Corp., whose activities span the spectrum of media and whose power is said to be able to make or break political careers, is subjected to very high criticism since the scandal broke wiretaps in Britain who notably led to the closure of the tabloid News of the World last summer.

But faced with these new charges, Murdoch, who confessed last July to a parliamentary committee having lived "the most humiliating day of his life", seems to have opted for a response from any other type .

Always on the microblogging site, he believes his "enemies have different aims" but they are "the worst old aristocrats and conservatives who want to preserve the status quo of the last century with their monopolies ". For a staunch Republican such as Murdoch, "aristo" comes under heavy insult.

THE BBC AND MAINTAIN THEIR AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW INFORMATION

But the BBC, which was repeatedly in trouble with BSkyB, whose News Corp. owns 39% stake, maintained Thursday the revelations of the magazine Panorama.

"We received the letter and have knowledge of NDS by News Corp's rejection of the revelations of Panorama. However, emails released this issue have not been manipulated, contrary to claims that NDS, and nothing (…) does not minimize the evidence released es in this issue, "said the public channel

. At the opposite, the Australian Financial Review, property group Fairfax Media, chief rival of Murdoch in the Australian press, has also maintained its information

. "Fully secured to the extraordinary investigation Neil Chenoweth, "the journalist who released the information, Michael Stutchbury, editor of the Australian Financial Review, said the newspaper was" in no way motivated by any desire either to harm a rival financial group that manages the Financial Review ". "We only cover a case and publish what we found," he said.

No evidence uncovered by the BBC as the Australian Financial Review to suggest that Murdoch or any senior executive of News Corp were not aware of practices lent to NDS.

According to the Australian Financial Review, Operational Security reportedly recruited hackers to decipher codes or access cards provided by pay TV competitors to their subscribers. These codes were then distributed on the black market via "yes cards" to monitor programs encrypted channels without paying a penny.

The Australian Financial Review, which suggests a shortfall amounting to millions of dollars, said particular rely on 14,400 emails retrieved from the hard drive of a laptop that used it Ray Adams, responsible for Europe NDS Operational Security from January 1996 to May 2002.

Monday, a report broadcast by the BBC as part of its documentary program Panorama has ensured that NDS hired a consultant to broadcast via its website access codes to ITV Digital, a competitor to Sky TV , chain that belonged to Murdoch. 

ITV Digital, which has accumulated difficulties at launch (rivalry between shareholders, lack of flagship programs, price war with BSkyB), disappeared in 2002.

The gas leak on a Total deposits in the North Sea will be expensive to French oil group, but the situation seems out of proportion to the oil spill in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico after the explosion of a BP platform.

Analysts polled by Reuters, the cost for Total could be limited to $ 150 million (113 million) if the leak was quickly clogged, or otherwise be at least $ 10 billion if the platform of the Elgin-Franklin field eventually explode.

Total has not ruled on Tuesday that the repair takes several weeks or up to six months, and keen Wednesday the exact cause of the leak. 

The prospect of a distant deadline for resolving the industrial crisis, the worst that Total has seen since the sinking of the Erika in 1999 and the explosion at the AZF factory in 2001, brutally brought down the stock market as Tuesday. The stock has lost 5.96%, leading to the Group's market capitalization plunge of about six billion euros.

Total lost the title still nearly 1% to 38.23 euros on Wednesday afternoon.

"Although it is far too early to make a reliable assessment of the impact of the leak (…) for Total, one can estimate a minimum cost of 150 to 200 million dollars in the best case (limited to two weeks off) or even more if the current situation was to last several months, "CM-CIC Securities.

While the field of Elgin-Franklin alone accounted for 2.5% of total production in 2011, the intermediary also assesses the shortfall for the group between 3 , 6 and 5 million per day shutdown of operations. 

LESS STRICT LAWS IN THE UK

Drilling a relief well could cost him only $ 44 million, assesses his side Exane BNP Paribas.

Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, if an explosion had finally held, "the impact could reach $ 10 billion" for Total.

This amount includes the loss of deposits and the platform and nearly deus billion to clean up environmental damage, but excludes any fines.

Most observers point out however that the situation on the Elgin-Franklin field is not nearly as critical as that of the Deepwater Horizon, in the Gulf of Mexico, including the explosion and sinking had made eleven dead in April 2010 and resulted in a serious oil spill. 

In total, the British BP has had to make provision for $ 37.2 billion deal with the consequences of this accident.

While nine million barrels of crude oil escaped from the Macondo well drilled on behalf of BP after the accident, analysts point out that only gas and products "light" is e ; chappent the Elgin wells, which should significantly reduce pollution.

Some further notes that the economic activity of the British coast is less important than the U.S. states bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the United Kingdom has not yet introduced legislation involving sanctions as severe as those imposed by the United States in case of water pollution.

"We do not expect major Total incur fines or provisions that must pass (…) As important as those of BP in the case of Macondo, "estimated the Exane BNP Paribas analysts

." This kind of accident is often unpredictable and difficult to resolve. Nevertheless, we think the probability is low to see the leak reach crisis proportions comparable to Deepwater Horizon, "he wrote on his side Fitch ……. According

.. rating agency, Total should maintain its AA credit rating even in the event of complete closure of the deposit of Elgin.

India has formally followed the lead of China Thursday asking its airlines to refuse to participate in the program of the European Union to tax carbon emissions in the air transport, confirming what was said a senior Indian official told Reuters.

"While the European Union ordered the Indian carriers to submit the details of their aircraft emissions by 31 March, no company due to the fact the government's position" , said Ajit Singh, Minister of Civil Aviation.

"Therefore, the imposition of a carbon tax is not an issue," he said in a letter.

The European Commission was not immediately available for comment information. 

The opposition of India in the exchange system of emission quotas for greenhouse gas (ETS) could jeopardize the chances of New Delhi to reach an agreement, being born in ; negotiation, free trade with Brussels.

China first allowed its air transport sector to participate in this program.

Since 1 January, all airlines flying from airports in the EU are subject to a trading system of emission quotas for greenhouse gas (ETS).

A company failing to observe these rules is liable to a tax of 100 euros per tonne of carbon emitted quota allowed. The EU ban of up to serve European airports.

China has suspended the purchase of Airbus representing $ 14 billion because of the dispute with Brussels over the carbon tax. India is also a major customer of Airbus.

Airbus officials, airlines and European engine wrote last week in the Old Continent's political leaders urging them to resolve the dispute caused by the introduction of this carbon tax.

Boeing has supported Airbus in this matter, despite the bitter legal battle being waged for years the two aircraft manufacturers about the legality of state aid received to develop their planes. 

"It is no Airbus and Boeing, this is what is most beneficial to our customers and how the industry as a whole can reduce its carbon footprint," said ; Reuters Jim Albaugh, CEO of the Civil Aviation Division of the U.S. group.

"In my opinion, the European ETS is not the right approach. It must be suspended and we must work with the ICAO (aviation agency of the United Nations) to establish regu international rules that everyone can see. "

General Motors announced Monday it will pay 320 million euros to take 7% of French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen.

The manufacturer also says that the partnership plans to build at least four common models by 2016.

In a regulatory document sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Constable of the American Stock Exchange, General Motors said that the alliance is expected to last 10 years and will be renewed ; unless either party has an objection to this extension. 

Peugeot unveiled last week its strategic alliance with General Motors through which it hopes to save on purchase costs and development , with an entry of U.S. giant in its capital up to 7%.

The alliance will go off if a competitor of GM captured 10% or more of Peugeot, directly or indirectly, the U.S. group says in a statement.

Meanwhile, the partnership may be terminated if the share held by the Peugeot family falls below 15% and a competitor amounts to 5% or more in the French manufacturer.

A clause further provides for an end to the partnership if another automaker acquires 3% of PSA following an agreement with PSA Peugeot or with family.