Business confidence among major Japanese manufacturers has improved for the first time in two-and-a-half years, the central bank’s quarterly Tankan survey has shown.
The sentiment index rose to minus 48 in June from a record low of minus 58 in March. Market forecasts had been for a figure of about minus 43.
The increase was the biggest [...]
Siemens (NYSE: SI) expects to win new orders of around $21 billion in the next three fiscal years (2010-2012), generated by government stimulus programs already announced around the world.
Green technologies are expected to account for 40% or about $8 billion of this total, which would significantly increase the share of the company’s revenues from its [...]
LONDON (AP) – Average asking prices for houses in the United Kingdom fell 0.4 percent during the five weeks to June 13, but were still up compared with January after a four-month run of increases, property Web site Rightmove said Monday.
The average asking price, which measures sellers’ hopes rather than actual selling prices, was 6 [...]
By YURI KAGEYAMA
AP Business Writer
TOYOTA, Japan (AP) – The statues of Toyota’s founder and the mayor who brought the automaker to this rural area stand side by side in front of city hall – a clear symbol of this city’s intimate and longtime ties with Japan’s biggest manufacturer.
And so it’s little wonder the residents here [...]
By DEBBY WU
Associated Press Writer
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – The producer of a strategically important Taiwanese jet fighter said Monday it was discussing a deal on commercial aircraft manufacture with a Chinese company, despite concern from the island’s military.
Li Shih-chang of the government-held Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation told The Associated Press his company met with China’s [...]
By PABLO GORONDI
Associated Press Writer
Oil prices fell to near $68 a barrel Monday on concerns over a weak U.S. economy and the dollar’s rise, which tends to pull investors away from commodities.
Benchmark crude for July delivery fell $1.42 to $68.13 a barrel by mid-afternoon in Europe in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. [...]
By AOIFE WHITE
AP Business Writer
BRUSSELS (AP) – Lufthansa AG won EU regulators’ permission Monday to take a large stake in Brussels Airlines – but must give up slots at Belgian, German and Swiss airports to eliminate antitrust concerns.
Lufthansa plans to spend euro65 million on a 45 percent stake in the holding company that owns the [...]
By TAREK EL-TABLAWY
AP Business Writer
CAIRO (AP) – Political uncertainty and unrest in the wake of Iran’s disputed presidential elections are casting a deeper pall on the country’s prospects of a near-term economic recovery, with the vital oil sector likely to witness a stasis it can ill afford amid faltering production and investments.
Under the best of [...]
By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press Writer
BEIRUT (AP) – Direct foreign investments to the Arab worldincreased 20 percent in 2008 compared to the previous year, even as the region grappled with the impact of the global economic meltdown, the head of an Arab investment body said Monday.
The gains, which came even as regional and global equity markets [...]
BERLIN (AP) – Germany’s financial regulator has lifted a freeze on accounts at the German branch of Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank enacted last year to keep it from collapsing.
The regulator, BaFin, said Monday it had received a letter from Iceland’s economy minister stating that the deposits of nearly 31,000 Kaupthing customers in Germany met Icelandic and [...]
