Source: Financial Times
Growth in Asia’s developing economies should ease to 7.6 percent in 2007 from last year’s 11-year peak as expansion in industrialised nations slows, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.
Regional powerhouses are set to lead the pack with China’s economy seen expanding by 10.0 percent this year and India recording 8.0 percent growth, the Manila-based multilateral institution said in its annual economic outlook. The region’s growth is expected to nudge up to 7.7 percent in 2008 even as China’s expansion is seen slowing slightly to 9.8 percent, it said. India is likely to grow 8.3 percent next year. The ADB said last year’s regional growth of 8.3 percent was the strongest in 11 years, with China and India accounting for about 70 percent of the expansion.
Softer external demand and policy curbs will cool China’s growth this year from 10.7 percent in 2006, the ADB said. It said Chinese industrial output growth would slow to 11 percent from about 12 percent in the last two years, reflecting significant oversupply in some sectors. Investment growth also slowed as a result of tightening measures and slower growth of exports caused by weaker foreign demand for Chinese goods, the bank said. In contrast, expansion should pick up in the service sector to 10.4-10.5 percent from 10.3 percent because of government efforts to promote consumption as well as spending related to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
South Korea’s export-led economy is likely to cool this year with growth slowing to 4.5 percent from 5.0 percent because of a moderate slowdown in the United States, the ADB said. But it predicted an uptick in growth next year. "As 2007 progresses, the external environment could turn more favourable with the global downturn bottoming in the second half,” it said.
The ADB said inflation in India, seen at 5.5 percent in the current financial year to March 31, was causing concern after two years of above-trend economic growth. ”Steps taken by the Reserve Bank of India to cool inflation are seen slowing India’s pace of investment and consumption spending in 2007,” it said. ”But if inflation proves stubborn, further tightening by the central bank is likely to follow.” Inflation is seen at an annual 5.0 percent in both 2007/08 and 2008/09 in India, and growth is seen slowing to 8.0 percent in 2007/2008 from 9.2 percent before picking up to 8.3 percent in the following year.
In Southeast Asia, growth should broadly maintain its pace from 2006, the ADB said.
Indonesia, the region’s largest economy, was expected to grow 6.0 percent this year and 6.3 percent next year, accelerating from 5.5 percent in 2006, as lower interest rates and slower inflation boost domestic spending. Malaysia was set to cool, stung by the U.S. slowdown while the Philippines were seen growing at a steady rate of 5.4 percent this year before picking up in 2008.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Mini-Blogs!!??
Source: Financial Times
Silicon Valley is abuzz over a new mini-blogging service for mobile phones that some predict will be a mass-market hit with the reach of a YouTube or MySpace.
Over the past two weeks, Twitter has attracted the sort of hyperbole the Valley reserves for its next internet darling.
Users of Twitter post short messages – up to 140 characters – that can be viewed either on a website or on mobile phones. Though launched publicly last summer, use of Twitter started to take off in the middle of March after it was adopted by technology bloggers attending the South by Southwest conference in Texas. As people lauded the service on their blogs, interest spread quickly among the Valley’s key opinion-formers.
The sudden popularity of Twitter has seen the number of messages posted on its site jump from 20,000 to 70,000 a day, said Biz Stone of Obvious, the internet company which started the service. According to HitWise, which measures web traffic, use of the service jumped by 55 per cent the week after the conference, though it said Twitter was “still very niche” and had yet to reach the mass market.
The sudden jump in use has put a strain on Twitter’s servers, and the service has become “sluggish” as a result, said Mr Stone. That could point to the sort of difficulties that accompanied the sudden popularity four years ago of Friendster, the first widely used online social networking service. As it struggled to build the technological infrastructure capable of keeping up with demand, users tired of its patchy service and eventually turned to other sites like MySpace.
Silicon Valley is abuzz over a new mini-blogging service for mobile phones that some predict will be a mass-market hit with the reach of a YouTube or MySpace.
Over the past two weeks, Twitter has attracted the sort of hyperbole the Valley reserves for its next internet darling.
Users of Twitter post short messages – up to 140 characters – that can be viewed either on a website or on mobile phones. Though launched publicly last summer, use of Twitter started to take off in the middle of March after it was adopted by technology bloggers attending the South by Southwest conference in Texas. As people lauded the service on their blogs, interest spread quickly among the Valley’s key opinion-formers.
The sudden popularity of Twitter has seen the number of messages posted on its site jump from 20,000 to 70,000 a day, said Biz Stone of Obvious, the internet company which started the service. According to HitWise, which measures web traffic, use of the service jumped by 55 per cent the week after the conference, though it said Twitter was “still very niche” and had yet to reach the mass market.
The sudden jump in use has put a strain on Twitter’s servers, and the service has become “sluggish” as a result, said Mr Stone. That could point to the sort of difficulties that accompanied the sudden popularity four years ago of Friendster, the first widely used online social networking service. As it struggled to build the technological infrastructure capable of keeping up with demand, users tired of its patchy service and eventually turned to other sites like MySpace.
Can Porsche do it, where BMW failed?
Porsche is to become Europe’s largest car and truck manufacturer after it increases its stake in Volkswagen above 30 per cent on Monday and prepares to launch a low-ball €35bn ($47bn) takeover offer. The sports car manufacturer will raise its stake in VW by 3.7 per cent to 31 per cent, triggering a mandatory takeover offer. VW sells 60 times more cars than Porsche and has sales of €100bn against its smaller rival’s €6bn.
Porsche’s investment in VW now totals about €5bn but gives it control over an empire ranging from small cars such as the VW Golf and Beetle, through the Skoda and Seat marques, to luxury brands such as Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini. It also gives Porsche a say over the creation of what would be Europe’s largest truckmaker as VW is the biggest shareholder in both Germany’s MAN and Sweden’s Scania, who should enter friendly merger talks later this year.
The move underlines the control of Ferdinand Piëch, who is simultaneously VW’s supervisory board chairman and a controlling shareholder in Porsche. He is also the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who created the VW Beetle and founded Porsche.
But it also takes Porsche on a different tack to the rest of the German car industry after BMW failed in its foray into the mass-market by selling Rover and with DaimlerChrysler in the middle of potentially separating itself from its ill-fated investment in the volume US manufacturer, Chrysler.
Porsche has secured €35bn in financing for the takeover. But officials insisted its low-ball offer would mean it was unlikely to pick up many shares. Instead, it would allow Porsche to increase its stake in the future without having to launch another mandatory offer, or to inform regulators until it owned more than 50 per cent of the shares.
In spite of Porsche talking down its own takeover offer, it is still a relatively generous price, given that VW’s share price has surged in recent months on speculation of a Porsche takeover. Porsche’s intentions to VW were made clear by a restructuring of its own business, which will see the creation of a new holding company above the sports carmaker’s operational business. This will be a European Company, or Societas Europaea, allowing Porsche to remain independent and keep a small superviso
Porsche’s investment in VW now totals about €5bn but gives it control over an empire ranging from small cars such as the VW Golf and Beetle, through the Skoda and Seat marques, to luxury brands such as Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini. It also gives Porsche a say over the creation of what would be Europe’s largest truckmaker as VW is the biggest shareholder in both Germany’s MAN and Sweden’s Scania, who should enter friendly merger talks later this year.
The move underlines the control of Ferdinand Piëch, who is simultaneously VW’s supervisory board chairman and a controlling shareholder in Porsche. He is also the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who created the VW Beetle and founded Porsche.
But it also takes Porsche on a different tack to the rest of the German car industry after BMW failed in its foray into the mass-market by selling Rover and with DaimlerChrysler in the middle of potentially separating itself from its ill-fated investment in the volume US manufacturer, Chrysler.
Porsche has secured €35bn in financing for the takeover. But officials insisted its low-ball offer would mean it was unlikely to pick up many shares. Instead, it would allow Porsche to increase its stake in the future without having to launch another mandatory offer, or to inform regulators until it owned more than 50 per cent of the shares.
In spite of Porsche talking down its own takeover offer, it is still a relatively generous price, given that VW’s share price has surged in recent months on speculation of a Porsche takeover. Porsche’s intentions to VW were made clear by a restructuring of its own business, which will see the creation of a new holding company above the sports carmaker’s operational business. This will be a European Company, or Societas Europaea, allowing Porsche to remain independent and keep a small superviso
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