Record high for Spanish unemployment

Spain’s unemployment rate has risen once again to 24.6 percent in the three months to June, despite a small decline at the beginning of the summer attributed to temporary positions linked to the holiday trade, according to the National Statistic Institute. Half of those under the age of 26 and available for work are unemployed,…

Weak ore prices hit Vale profit

Brazilian iron ore giant Vale has reported a quarterly drop in net income of 59 percent as slow growth in China has affected iron ore prices. Further foreign exchange losses were triggered by a weak Brazilian real. The world’s largest iron ore miner has recorded a second quarter net income of $2.66bn, equivalent to 52…

New rules help South Korea’s housing market

Policy makers have stepped up plans to stimulate the real estate market and entice more buyers after the country registered tentative demands and want to prevent further wavering domestic growth. The debt-to income ratio, which monitors the type of mortgage loan imposed by banks, is due to be incremented to meet the needs of borrowers,…

World braced for global food shortages

In the last five months, the US has lost around 100m tonnes of crops, predominately in South America and the US grain belt, an area which has been struggling with over 37.C degree (100F) temperatures. Maize prices have risen by 40 percent and soya bean by 25 percent. These crops are then converted into other…

Shakeup at Singapore Stock Exchange

The change comes after the Hong Kong market watchdog, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), threatened to move in on investment banks if they allowed any false information about the companies to float on the exchange. Recent difficulties with companies like KXD Digital Entertainment, which had breached a string of rules including failure to disclose…

Bernanke panics

In his opening statement to a committee in Congress yesterday, Bernanke said the bleak issues must be dealt with “sooner rather than later.” “We are looking very carefully at the economy, trying to judge whether or not the loss of momentum we’ve seen recently is enduring, and whether or not the economy is likely to…

Chinese growth slows to three year low

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) found China’s growth fell to 7.6 percent, down from 8.1 percent in the first quarter. The world’s second-biggest economy has been plagued with a sluggish property market and enervated exports from Europe, its biggest trade partner, as well as a too-heavy reliance on domestic consumption. According to the WSJ,…