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World economy 29th December 2011

China’s foreign debt grows by 27% but “it’s safe,” say officials

China’s foreign debt totaled $697.16 billion at the end of September, a rise of 27 percent over the figure at the end of 2010, according to the foreign exchange regulatory officials of the Asian country. The short term debt accounted for 72.81 percent of the total, amounting to $507.63 billion, underlines the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on its official website. In addition, the institution explained that 75.81 percent of…

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World economy 27th December 2011

Shopping in Europe

NEW YORK | While European companies and banks try to forget this annus horribilis, some US financial firms are rubbing their hands: under pressure from regulators, Europeans will have to shed up to $3 trillion in assets over the next 18 months, according to Morgan Stanley. Market dislocation on this side of the Atlantic means also a great occasion for American companies to go shopping. This month the German Commerzbank…

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World economy 26th December 2011

Spain, a solar energy world leader

MADRID | According to data published by the Spanish Association of the Solar Power Industry, and published today by the digital newspaper El Confidencial, once again in 2011 Spain is the country with the most thermosolar energy power installed in the world. “Spain has 1,100 MW installed, just over twice the amount installed in the US, the second market in the world where some national companies, such as Abengoa, are…

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World economy 22nd December 2011

China leads patent filing, but US and EU companies are more innovative

LONDON | By tracking published patent applications, examining real-world trademark and copyright infringement issues and comparing the government policies and long-term innovation strategies of China to other world leaders, Thomson Reuters research suggests that although China leads the world in patent and trademark filings, its status as a global player still faces challenges. The following are some of the key findings of the new research: China Now Leads World in…

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World economy 20th December 2011

Japan, Asian real estate private equity funds’ favourite destination

Although the first signs of uncertainty have begun to emerge on the Asian continent with listed real estate companies trading at discounts, real estate fundamentals remain largely trusted. From the macro-economic perspective, Asian giants, China and India, continue to enjoy GDP growth rates of 9.1% and 7.7% respectively in Q3 2011, while other significant markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong also witnessed GDP growth of 6.1% and 4.3% respectively…

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World economy 16th December 2011

Asian universities outpace Europe in science and engineering student numbers

Asian countries train twice as many scientists compared to European member states, and three times as many engineers. This training gap is threatening the future of Europe’s economic recovery due to the lack of qualified scientific and technical human resources. Although the number of graduates in the fields is now increasing slowly, their academic achievement falls well behind that of their Asian counterparts. Unless this gap is addressed, companies operating in Europe…

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World economy 13th December 2011

China suppliers forced to seek business beyond Western Europe

China suppliers are boosting overseas shipments to emerging markets amid slowing orders from the EU as the region tackles its debt crisis. This is according to a survey of 581 exporters by Global Sources. In the months ahead, 42 pc of survey respondents expect to strengthen their footholds in South and Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Craig Pepples, Global Sources’ President of Corporate Affairs, said: “China suppliers are already taking proactive measures to…

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World economy 9th December 2011

UK vs EU, and Australia, China, Japan, US right now

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index®(LEI) for the UK decreased 0.4 percent in both October and September, after decreasing 0.5 percent in August. Jean-Claude Manini, The Conference Board Senior Economist for Europe, said: “The slight improvement in stock prices did not offset the further and broad based deterioration of confidence measures. Coupled with the persistent weakness in the LEI, current economic conditions suggest that the British economy is at risk…