August, 2016

• 14 August

  UK assures funding for farmers, universities after Brexit

  

    London / Bloomberg The UK pledged to support British businesses and universities that receive billions of pounds a year from the European Union after the country leaves the 28-nation bloc. Projects approved before the government’s autumn budget statement will receive full funding, while the Treasury will make arrangements to assess guarantees for projects signed later, according to a statement …

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• 14 August

  Denmark warns UK not to expect any Brexit favours

    Bloomberg The UK may be a key ally of Denmark, but that doesn’t mean it should expect any favors from the government in Copenhagen when it negotiates its departure from the European Union. “Our objective is to make the best possible deal for Denmark,” Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen told Bloomberg when asked about future Brexit talks. The small …

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• 14 August

  Italy seeks new EU deal to keep economy on track

  

    Rome / AFP Italy is to seek a new deal with the European Union to allow it to kickstart its stalling economy with an expansionary 2017 budget, a government minister said. Economic Development Minister Carlo Calenda’s comments came three months after Rome was granted “unprecedented” leeway over its 2016 budget and warned by the European Commission that it should …

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• 14 August

  Brazilian currency drops again

    La Paz / Bloomberg Brazil’s real weakened after the central bank intervened amid comments by acting President Michel Temer that signaled he’s worried about the currency’s world-beating rally this year. Temer said Brazil needs to maintain a balanced exchange rate, neither too weak nor too strong, Valor Economico newspaper reported. The monetary authority offered 15,000 of reverse currency swaps, …

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• 14 August

  VW gets approval to fix 460,000 diesel autos

    Berlin / Bloomberg Volkswagen AG got German regulatory approval to carry out technical fixes on 460,000 diesel cars fitted with software that cheats emissions tests. The approval from the Federal Motor Transport Authority applies to models with 1.2-liter EA189 engines including Volkswagen Polo and Seat Ibiza, the German carmaker said in a statement on Sunday. Germany’s approval is valid …

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• 14 August

  World’s biggest shipping firm warns over US protectionism

  

    Washington / Bloomberg A. P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, a Danish conglomerate that owns the world’s largest container shipping company, is voicing concern as a potential shift in U.S. policy threatens to reduce global trade. While Maersk assumes that no matter how the U.S. presidential election ends, it probably “won’t have an effect on the contracts we have and the employment …

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• 14 August

  Can the private sector save us?

  

    A great mystery of our time — one that should frame the campaign debate — is why the economic recovery has been so sluggish. Consider this comparison. After the brutal recession of the early 1980s (peak unemployment: 10.8 percent), it took only 11 months for employment to regain its pre-recession level. By contrast, it required 51 months after the …

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• 14 August

  High-tech manufacturing isn’t worth much

  

    These are the world’s five largest technology companies, ranked by revenue: How about that Hon Hai!?! The full name is Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., but you probably know it as Foxconn, the main name it does business under. It’s the Taiwan-based contract manufacturer with hundreds of thousands of employees in mainland China, several of whom probably put your …

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• 14 August

  EU’s broken budget rules

  

    Rules are there to be broken — and that’s official. Spain and Portugal have just escaped punishment for breaking the European Union’s budget-deficit limits. In the EU, such lapses without consequences are not exactly uncommon. In the case of the budget rules, that’s a good thing, because the rules are widely acknowledged to be no good. But here’s a …

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• 14 August

  China focuses on stable job market to maintain growth

    International Monetary Fund had predicted that China’s economy would grow by 6.6% in 2016. And the economists polled by Reuters had anticipated a growth rate of 6.6 percent. But China’s economy narrowly beat estimates with a 6.7 percent expansion on-year in the three months through June, as a string of stimulus measures from the government and the central bank …

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