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<p>German December Retail Sales Unexpectedly Decline (Update2) Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- German retail sales unexpectedly fell for a second month in December, as concerns over health-care, pensions and employment overshadowed the prospect of income-tax reductions in Europe's biggest economy.</p> <p>Sales slipped 2.3 percent from November, when they fell a revised 3.4 percent, the Federal Statistics Office said in Wiesbaden. Economists had expected an increase of 0.5 percent, the median of 16 forecasts showed in a Bloomberg News survey. Sales declined 2.5 percent from the year-earlier period.</p>

GENEVA — The number of jobless people worldwide has reached a record of almost 186 million, while hundreds of millions more are employed but make so little money they can barely survive, the United Nations labor agency said Thursday.The SARS outbreak in Asia and Canada, the war in Iraq and the continuing slump in global tourism due to terrorism fears combined last year to add an extra 500,000 to the worldwide unemployment totals, the International Labor Organization said.The slight economic recovery in many regions late in 2003 had little effect on the number of jobless, the agency said in its...

S Koreans despair at debt crisis By Charles Scanlon BBC correspondent in Seoul South Korea's largest credit card company has been bailed out at the last minute, but the near-collapse has put the country's giant debt problem into sharp focus. The firm in question - LG Card - needed a $4bn bailout to cover its bad debts, and its acute difficulties are sadly indicative of a nation that over the past few years has been on the biggest credit-fuelled spending binge in its history. With four million South Koreans now defaulting on their credit card bills to the tune of...

Alex Izurieta SLOW RECOVERY FABLE IN GROWTH-RECESSION TIMES ? AN APPRAISAL OF U.S. MAIN IMBALANCES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WORLD ECONOMY  Paper prepared for XXVII TECHNICAL GROUP MEETING INTERGOVERNMENTAL GROUP OF TWENTY-FOUR Geneva, September 15-16, 2003  [ SECOND DRAFT ] © 2003Alex Izurieta Comments and suggestions are welcome. e-mail: a.izurieta@cerf.cam.ac.uk  Abstract  This study challenges the conventional story of an U.S. economy experiencing the longest expansion and shortest recession in the post-war period, now advancing through a slow, sturdy recovery. It characterizes the present state of the world economy as a growthrecession and draws plausible scenarios for the U.S. economy and their implications for the rest...

Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 31 October 2003 2024 hrs Unemployment rises in France, casting clouds over economic outlook PARIS : France's jobless rate edged higher in September, data released by the Labour Ministry showed, confirming an upward trend that bodes ill for the French economy and government hopes to cut the number of people out of work. The ministry reported France's unemployment rate rose from 9.6 percent of the workforce in August to 9.7 percent in September, when 25,300 people joined the jobless roles. Advertisement The number of people looking for work in France now comes to...

Drive down Berlin's Unter den Linden these days, and it's easy to imagine you're in the capital of a vibrant new Europe. The rebuilt, buffed-up avenue now rivals the Champs-Elysées as the Continent's most majestic thoroughfare. Daringly designed buildings are everywhere, the Berlin Wall a fading memory. The Brandenburg Gate is freshly cleaned and polished. Nearby, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder governs from a new, grandiose, nine-story residence and office complex that makes the White House look like a summer cottage. The refurbished Reichstag is a paean to the power and prosperity of unified Germany, the linchpin of the European Union. That's...

International Perspective, by Marshall Auerback Is China Starting To Slow? October 21, 2003  "I would stake my reputation on employment growth happening before Christmas. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that we're going to see a pickup in jobs in the next few months." - US Treasury Secretary John Snow, Times of London, Oct. 20, 2003While the industrialised world has been mired in stagnation, China and emerging Asia continue to be conspicuous beacons of growth.  Emerging Asia ex China suffered a steep recession in the year and a half post the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis, but China's comparative resilience during...

Just as the German government seeks to expedite passage of one of the most ambitious reform packages in the post-World War II era, it admitted just how badly Europe's largest economy is suffering on Thursday. Following the recent downward growth forecast revisions of the country's leading economics institutes, the Economics Ministry on Thursday said the German economy would stagnate this year. Minutes later, the Finance Ministry jumped on the bad news bandwagon, announcing that deficit spending for the year would reach a previously unsurpassed €43.4 billion ($53.1 billion.) Though Economics Minister Wolfgang Clement shaved estimated growth from 0.75 to zero...

Everybody knows Europe's sluggish economy is recovering from three years of recession and stagnation far more slowly than America's. So why is the euro climbing against the dollar and threatening to douse the faint spark of recovery? After fluctuating between $1.11 and $1.15 for most of the summer, the single currency surged back above its 1999 launch value of $1.17. By Oct. 8, it was hovering around $1.18. That's 20% more than a year ago. Most economists and traders believe it's not done rising: They expect the euro to continue gaining on the dollar, albeit sporadically, for the foreseeable future....

<p>Germany's Schlauch Says Euro Above $1.20 `Danger' to Recovery Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- German Deputy Economics Minister Rezzo Schlauch said the euro's exchange rate against the dollar would threaten the economy's efforts to pull out of recession if the dozen-nation currency exceeds $1.20.</p>

<p>German Retail Sales Decline for Third Month in Four (Update2) Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- German retail sales unexpectedly slipped for the third month in four in August as unemployment close to the highest in 4 1/2 years and record temperatures kept consumers away from stores in Europe's largest economy.</p>

Germany sinks deeper in the red 26 September 2003 WIESBADEN - Germany's public sector continued to go deeper into the red in the first half of 2003, boosting the total national debt to nearly EUR 1.29 trillion, officials said Friday. The Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said the figure as of June 30 was 5.1 percent higher than that 12 months earlier. The increase in the debt came as expenditures continued to rise while income nearly stagnated in the first six months, the office reported. It said that while spending increased by 2.3 percent to EUR 501.5 billion, revenues were...

<p>European Economies: Solbes Says Europe Won't Muster 2% Growth Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- European Union Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pedro Solbes said the dozen countries that use the euro won't muster the 2 percent economic growth he predicted for next year after a weaker-than-forecast pace of expansion in 2003.</p>

Germany and France open their coffers Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels (Filed: 19/09/2003) France and Germany yesterday unveiled a Keynesian spending blitz to pull their economies out of slump and halt the "de-industrialisation" of Europe, deftly side-stepping the spending constraints of the Growth & Stability Pact. Jacques Chirac: side-stepping stability pact In a return to the dirigiste policies of the 1970s, France's Jacques Chirac and Germany's Gerhard Schröder outlined a 10-point list of headline projects, including high-speed railway lines, the Galileo satellite navigation programme, digital television, and broadband internet links. Paris and Berlin already face possible sanctions for running budget deficits...

STRESA, Italy, Sep 12, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- France and Germany faced mounting pressure Friday to cut their budget deficits as their smaller euro-zone partners feared the big two's expanding debt risks destabilizing the currency bloc. "We cannot have divisions whereby some obey the rules and others don't, because in the end we'll all have to pay a price for that," said Austrian Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser. The worsening dispute over deficits and more gloomy data on the European economy were expected to dominate two days of talks among European Union finance ministers opening in this picturesque lakeside...

<p>BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The economy of the 12-nation euro zone shrank in the second quarter of this year for the first time since the final quarter of 2001, but it's expected to gradually recover in coming months, reports showed Tuesday.</p>

Euro slumps against the dollar The euro is heading for its biggest weekly fall against the dollar in two years, as investors fret about the state of the European economy. The euro's fall was made worse by a string of upbeat economic data coming from the US, which helped the dollar. In early morning trade on Friday, the euro stood at $1.092, down nearly 2% from the start of trade on Thursday. The euro has lost 9% of its value against the dollar since June, partially reversing a sustained 33% increase since early last year. Of the world's three major...

UPDATE - S.Korea economy in recession, H2 rebound seen Friday August 22, 3:12 am ET By Kim Kyoung-wha (Adds regional comparisons, updates markets in paras 8 and 9)SEOUL, Aug 22 (Reuters) - South Korea's economy, the envy of most Asian neighbours last year, contracted in the second quarter on flagging consumption, sliding into its first recession since the 1998 Asian crisis, the central bank said on Friday. A central bank forecast for the third quarter implied a strong rebound was now under way, although officials remained cautious and analysts pointed to ballooning consumer debt defaults and labour unrest sapping private...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Harland and Wolff, the shipyard that built the Titanic, confirmed Monday that it will cut more than two-thirds of its work force by mid-January. The shipyard employed more than 30,000 people 50 years ago, but the 265 new job cuts will reduce employment to 121. The company blamed the reductions on the poor economy, which has affected other shipyards in Britain and Europe. Founded in 1861, Harland and Wolff produced 1,700 ships, including nearly 300 naval and merchant vessels during World War II. Its two giant...