Miner Xstrata reported a better-than-expected 86 percent jump in annual profit on stronger commodity prices and gave a positive outlook for 2011. The Anglo-Swiss miner said it was still assessing the impact on this year’s results from the recent flooding and cyclones in Queensland – where it has coal, copper and zinc operations – after…
A second wave of commodity price increases and a deteriorating British grocery market will hit profits at cleaning products maker McBride, it said on February 7, sending its shares to a 24-week low. McBride, Europe’s biggest maker of own-brand household cleaning products for retailers, said a surge in the price of plastics and vegetable oils…
President Barack Obama stepped up efforts to woo the US business community on February 7, seeking its help to tackle “burdensome” corporate taxes in a speech to a business group that has long been a fierce critic. Obama, on a drive to win over business and independent voters before the 2012 presidential election, also repeated…
UBS said it expects to win back more money from clients in 2011 and has laid the foundations for a rebound in its investment bank as chief Oswald Gruebel turns around a bank almost felled by the crisis. UBS said it had seen improvement across all its businesses in the fourth quarter – with total…
Plane maker Boeing received unfair subsidies from the US government, a World Trade Organisation report said recently, according to Boeing’s European rival Airbus. The two companies disagreed over the extent of the subsidies outlined in the report, which was delivered to the US government and the EU Commission but not released publicly. Airbus said the…
As Berlin presses its eurozone partners to introduce tough German-style deficit rules, first cracks are emerging in the country’s own commitment to the “debt brake” law it holds up as a model for others. Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing other European countries to enshrine binding rules based on the German legislation in their constitutions as…
Wages, pensions, unemployment insurance, welfare benefits and collective bargaining are under attack in many areas as governments struggle to reduce debts swollen partly by the cost of rescuing banks during the global financial crisis. The EU, which long trumpeted a European social model with a generous welfare state, social partnership between unions and employers and…
European countries must implement the structural reforms that Germany has already carried out over the last couple of decades to ramp up competitiveness, the European Union’s top economic official said recently. Economics and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said Germany’s economy entered the crisis on a stronger footing than others within the EU because it…
Like most other markets, Mexico real estate offers investors a broad range of styles suitable for investment. The style each investor chooses will be determined by purpose, personal taste, etc. The following are a few different styles, and some suggestions.Constant incomeInvestors looking for a constant and steady income, rental properties are the best way to…
Egypt has substantial reserves to avoid an external payments crisis but these could be seriously depleted within weeks if political protests continue, while its banks may struggle to cope with a rush of withdrawals. In the days after the protests erupted, Egyptians and foreign investors transferred hundreds of millions of dollars out of Egypt, currency…
