Direct Line with Vladimir Putin: The weird tradition of the Russian President’s annual phone-in April 16, 2015 If you're into Russian politics, tonight is one of the highlights of the political year: Direct Line with Vladimir Putin will air on Russian TV – the Russian President's annual marathon chat show, during which he takes questions put to him by the Russian public for the 13th time. It's an annual tradition dating back [...]
Weak euro helps Unilever deliver better-than-expected sales growth April 16, 2015 The figures The slowdown in emerging markets hasn't stopped Unilever from recording a 12.3 per cent increase in turnover to €12.8bn (£9.22bn) in the first quarter of 2015. Even when your economy isn't growing as rapidly as it once did – looking good still remains a priority. Shares rose by over three per cent in [...]
Japan Inc remains a man’s world – but that might finally be changing April 15, 2015 Learners of Japanese soon run into the phrase “shou ga nai”. Roughly translated as “it can’t be helped”, it neatly sums up a fatalistic philosophy in tune with a nation beset by earthquakes, tsunami, volcanoes and typhoons. Until recently, Japan’s record on gender equality also fell into the “shou ga nai” category. Even with a [...]
IMF: “Complex forces” drive mature market growth, dampen emerging markets in 2015-2016 April 14, 2015 There are “complex forces” across the world that could lead to “uneven” growth over the next year, the IMF has warned. Overall global growth is forecast at 3.5 per cent in 2015 and 3.8 per cent in 2016 – but beneath these top line figures there will be a huge variety. The two biggest [...]
Flour-miller Carr’s sees raised profits despite sliding revenue April 13, 2015 RISING sales and food production pushed profits for Carr’s Group upwards, despite a decline in revenue, the company reported yesterday. The agriculture, food and engineering firm posted a modest profit before tax of £10.6m for the six months ending 28 February, up by more than 5.4 per cent on the same period last year. Revenue, [...]
Russia has started sending S-300 missiles to Iran again April 13, 2015 Iran is already seeing the benefits of coming to a tentative agreement with world powers over its nuclear programme – the Kremlin has just lifted a ban on providing it with S-300 missiles. Russia originally signed a multi-million dollar contract with Tehran to deliver the weapons in 2007, but the US and Israel voiced concerned [...]
The Eurozone will remain mired in crisis unless it faces up to the facts April 12, 2015 During my years in the trenches in Washington, my staff christened one of my favourite analytical canaries in the coalmine the “we are where we are moment”. That is, you can determine whether a crisis is actually being dealt with simply by looking at the rhetoric of the opposing forces involved. If they hadn’t moved [...]
Investec Comment: How cheap oil is boosting small businesses April 12, 2015 THE extraordinary decline in the price of oil has been one of the most important economic stories of the past year. Brent Crude fell from over $110 per barrel in June 2014 to below $50 in January 2015, slumping to multi-year lows. Prices have increased marginally since then, but with factors like the interim deal [...]
From Hatton Garden heist to Eric Pickles in a pickle: Here’s what got us talking this week April 10, 2015 There was a jewel heist. There was plenty of oil. And somewhere in California, there was the world's first gathering of micronations. Here's what got us talking this week 1. There's oil in them there hills A huge oil well, thought to contain more of the black stuff than has been produced by [...]
Secret plans are being drawn up to kick Greece out of the Eurozone April 10, 2015 Eurozone countries are formulating plans to boot Greece out of the single currency, as expectations grow that Athens may default on its debts next month. A memo put together by the Finnish Finance Ministry, a close Berlin ally, talks of “very difficult political decisions” as the currency bloc braces itself for Greece’s cash flow to [...]