March, 2016

• 14 March

  Toyota to make wind-power hydrogen for fuel cells

  YOKOHAMA / AP Toyota Motor Corp. is responding to the main criticism of fuel cell cars, that making the hydrogen for the fuel is not clean, with plans to help make the hydrogen using wind power. Fuel cells are zero-emission, running on the power created when hydrogen combines with oxygen in the air to make water. But to have a ...

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• 14 March

  Thailand, Vietnam spar over ‘Mekong’

  

  Luke Hunt / The Diplomat It’s hardly a secret that much of Southeast Asia is in drought, that Laos has bitterly upset its neighbours with its overly-ambitious dam construction plans, or that the once Western-backed Mekong River Commission (MRC) has been reduced to a shell of its former self. It’s a difficult situation, pushed along by a robust social debate ...

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• 14 March

  Bangladesh slams ‘incompetent’ Central Bank post hack theft

  Dhaka / Bloomberg Bangladesh’s government lashed out at the central bank in a rare public split as tensions escalate after hackers stole about $101 million from its foreign reserves. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith vowed to take action against Bangladesh Bank after it failed to inform the government immediately when the funds went missing from an account with the ...

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• 14 March

  Thailand proposes US$53.78mn budget for cancer vaccine

  

  Bangkok / DPA The National Health Security Office (NHSO) has planned a budget of 1.89 billion baht (US$53.78 million) for vaccination purposes in the coming fiscal year. If the budget gets the green light, hundreds of thousand girls will get human papillomavirus vaccines (HPV) to boost their protection against cervical cancer, one of the nation’s major killers. “We have planned ...

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• 14 March

  Osborne looks to Carney to do the heavy economic lifting

  

  Bloomberg Back in 2010, when U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was kicking off his fiscal squeeze, he rarely tired of saying how his “credible’’ plans gave the Bank of England flexibility on policy. Six years later and the story hasn’t changed much. Cornered by his own pledge to post surpluses from 2020, Osborne must keep tightening the purse ...

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• 14 March

  Euro-area industrial production surges most since 2009

  

  Bloomberg Industrial production in the euro area opened 2016 with its strongest monthly performance in more than six years, boosted by energy and capital goods. Output jumped 2.1 percent in January from December, helped by growth in Germany, France and Italy, the Eurostat statistics office in Luxembourg said on Monday. From a year earlier, production rose 2.8 percent, the biggest ...

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• 14 March

  Norway’s overlooked fact: Rate seen going deeper below zero

  

  Bloomberg Here’s a little known fact: Norwegian banks may soon need to contend with interest rates even deeper below zero. While the key policy rate is at 0.75 percent, the rate on excess reserves fell below zero in September and is now at minus 0.25 percent. With 18 out of 20 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicting another cut in the ...

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• 14 March

  Amid protests, EU promises relief for crisis-hit farmers

  

  Brussels / AFP The EU said on Monday it was looking for support from the European Investment Bank at crisis talks in Brussels aimed at helping dairy and other farmers hit hard by plunging prices. Around 100 farmers protested as agriculture ministers gathered just six months after Brussels announced a €500-million emergency package to tackle a crisis partly blamed on ...

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• 14 March

  Here’s what’s at stake for London’s trading share in a ‘Brexit’

  

  Bloomberg A British exit from the European Union may not be an immediate shock to London’s standing as a global financial hub. The City, after all, just got a vote of confidence from Europe’s biggest exchange operators, who are considering a 20 billion pound tie-up that would place its holding company in London. Deutsche Boerse AG and London Stock Exchange ...

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• 14 March

  Bond traders can’t sleep as Fed policy becomes a foreign affair

  

  Bloomberg Even in the mighty U.S. Treasury market, bond traders are taking their cues from central bankers in Europe and Japan. With Mario Draghi and Haruhiko Kuroda pressing ahead with their grand monetary experiments, negative yields in Germany and Japan are exerting greater and greater influence over U.S. Treasuries. Overnight trading of Treasury futures has exploded, reaching levels not seen ...

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