May, 2016

• 12 May

  Toshiba posts $4.4bn loss on nuclear writedown

    Taipei / AFP Toshiba said on Thursday that it suffered a $4.4 billion full-year net loss as the troubled conglomerate booked a massive write-down of its US nuclear unit, but said the worst was over as it forecast profits for the current business year. A once proud pillar of corporate Japan, Toshiba has been besieged by problems, most notably ...

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• 12 May

  Sharp suffers $2.3bn loss

  

    Tokyo / AFP Japanese electronics maker Sharp said on Thursday it suffered a $2.3 billion annual loss and released no forecast for the current business year as it assesses the impact of its acquisition by Taiwan’s Hon Hai. The Osaka-based also said an executive of Hon Hai, the world’s biggest electronics supplier, will take over as president. In March, ...

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• 12 May

  Japan’s coal spending risks stranding $57bn of assets

  

    Tokyo/ Bloomberg Utilities and other companies in Japan pushing ahead with new investments in coal-power plants risk creating 6.22 trillion yen ($57 billion) of stranded assets amid shifts in energy policy and the economics of power generation, according to a study by Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. The amount of coal-fired generating capacity planned or ...

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• 12 May

  Bank of England warns Brexit would damage UK growth

  

    Bloomberg The Bank of England cut its growth forecasts and issued its strongest warning yet that a vote to leave the European Union would hurt the economy. With just six weeks to go until Britain’s referendum, the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Mark Carney, said there were more signs it was weighing on growth and clouding the ...

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• 12 May

  British banks face money laundering crackdown

  

    Bloomberg Prime Minister David Cameron said the U.K. plans to make financial services companies liable for their employees’ complicity in money laundering and fraud, in an extension of proposed laws against tax evasion. Announced to coincide with an anti-corruption summit in London on Thursday, Cameron said the developed world must “get its house in order” and gave further details ...

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• 12 May

  Pound halts decline before BOE decision, inflation forecasts

  

    Bloomberg The pound halted a decline versus the euro before the Bank of England announces its latest policy decision and economic forecasts. Sterling has weakened 0.8 percent versus the 19-nation shared currency this month, after strengthening in April in its first monthly gain since November. Its drop resumed as data from construction to manufacturing added to evidence that growth ...

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• 12 May

  EU’s East loses economic impetus as funds ebb, new surveys show

    Bloomberg Growth in the European Union’s biggest eastern economies probably slowed last quarter, as household spending failed to offset ebbing aid funds and weakening export demand, surveys show. Romania will probably be alone in reporting faster annual growth in January-March among five countries in the region preparing to release fresh statistics, according to Bloomberg surveys of economists for each. ...

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• 12 May

  Greeks leery of debt-relief talks as they brace for tax wave

  

    Bloomberg Ioannis Plotas doesn’t share his prime minister’s belief that the start of debt-relief discussions on Monday is a step forward for Greece. Rather, the 52-year-old is worried that the latest hikes in income tax and social security contributions passed by Greek lawmakers on Sunday to appease creditors will drive the dry cleaning shop he runs with his sister ...

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• 12 May

  Fed faces 2015 deja vu as markets discount rate-increase chances

  

    Bloomberg For Janet Yellen’s Fed, 2016 is beginning to look all too familiar — another saga of disappointment and downgrade. Last year, Federal Reserve officials started off signaling two interest-rate increases but those plans didn’t work out: Weak first-quarter U.S. growth delayed action in June, international concerns took September off the table and liftoff finally happened in December. This ...

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• 12 May

  Bird flu egg boom goes bust as US farms quick to replace flock

  

    Bloomberg America’s egg crisis is over. Not only have shortages disappeared, but there are signs of an emerging glut. U.S. prices have tumbled 75 percent from a record in August, after the biggest bird-flu outbreak ever forced farmers to destroy flocks. Since then, the laying-hen population has rebounded faster than expected while demand languished from home chefs to food ...

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