News That Matters

Ft.com
The Spanish government called for investor calm on Thursday as shares in Bankia, the country’s second-largest bank by domestic deposits, tumbled nearly 30 per cent and Moody’s conducted a sweeping downgrade of other lenders. Further fuelling the sense of unease among eurozone banks, the government in Cyprus announced it would underwrite a €1.8bn capital raising by Popular Bank of Cyprus that analysts said could force the tiny island nation to seek bailout assistance from Brussels. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1c0fd102-a046-11e1-90f3-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1vC4kvAGM

Facebook set the share price for its initial public offering at $38, giving the social-networking company a $104bn valuation and propelling it into the ranks of the top 25 US public companies. Mark Zuckerberg, the 28-year old founder and chief executive, raised $1.1bn, leaving him with a stake valued at $19bn, firmly establishing him as one of the richest men in the world.http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e7b43504-a051-11e1-88e6-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1vC4kvAGM

An oil tanker belonging to Iran’s state-owned shipping line has been switching flags and using multiple companies to transport crude from Syria to Iran, illustrating how Tehran is helping to sidestep international efforts to choke the finances of Bashar al-Assad, Syrian president. Documents obtained by the Financial Times show the vessel, operated by the Islamic Republic International Shipping Lines, sailed from Syria to the Gulf of Oman and then Iran, using different flags and changing owners. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9704c760-9abe-11e1-9c98-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1vC4kvAGM

The US said it “welcomed” the evolution” of debate in Europe towards growth on the eve of a G8 summit that could see Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, isolated as other world leaders push her to help stimulate the economy in Europe. In a move to make the G8 less formal and more productive, Barack Obama will host the group – whose economic policies could sway his re-election prospects this autumn – away from the media at the presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0668fb34-a038-11e1-90f3-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1vC4kvAGM

All news below.

The UK sold £1.5bn of two-year gilts with the lowest yields at a conventional auction since at least 1998, according to analysts, underlining the strong demand for safer assets in the European debt crisis.  The “mini-tender” sold at a yield of just 0.351 per cent and also saw a record level of demand with the UK’s Debt Management Office reporting that the auction was covered 3.67 times.  Composite 10-year gilt yields fell 3 basis points to a record low of 1.85 per cent on Thursday while the two-year yield edged down 3bp to 0.34 per cent. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/654c5b9c-a037-11e1-88e6-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1vC4kvAGM

As India’s battered currency fell to new lows this week, local television news talked of “carnage” on Dalal Street, the home of the Bombay Stock Exchange.  But worried investors had a more pressing concern: just how much lower might the rupee fall?  After a week of declines the currency dropped again on Thursday, hitting its lowest ever mark of Rs54.58 against the dollar, beating the previous low set the day before. This happened in spite of interventions from the Reserve Bank of India. India is far from alone in seeing its currency fall as international investors pull back to safer assets. Other Asian currencies, including Indonesia’s rupiah, have gone down too, while declines in Brazil’s real have been greeted with undisguised enthusiasm in the country. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/382214d4-a02a-11e1-94ba-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1vC4kvAGM

Wsj.com
Asian markets fell heavily Friday, with Japan’s stock index slumping to the lowest level in four months, as poor U.S. manufacturing data added to rising worries over Europe with Moody’s downgrading 16 Spanish banks. The Nikkei fell 2.2% as the dollar slumped against the yen, hitting 79.28. A stronger yen hurts Japanese exporters by making the value of their goods more expensive to overseas buyers. The dollar later recovered slightly, up 0.2% early in Asia to 79.42, on fears that the Japanese Ministry of Finance may intervene to weaken the local currency.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303360504577410970159527662.html?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_LEFTTopWhatNews

Greece’s new caretaker government was sworn in Thursday at a ceremony at the presidential palace, putting in place a technocratic cabinet that will lead the country to fresh polls in mid-June. The swearing-in follows the appointment of senior judge Panagiotis Pikrammenos as prime minister a day earlier after Greek party leaders failed to agree on a compromise candidate in the wake of inconclusive elections earlier this month that resulted in a hung parliament. George Zannias, who has served as chief economist at the finance ministry since the start of the Greek crisis, was sworn in as finance minister, bringing a welcome element of continuity to the country’s economic management. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303360504577409703576389634.html?mod=WSJEurope_hpp_LEFTTopStories

The U.K. is unlikely to need another dose of central bank stimulus unless “worrying” tensions in the euro zone threaten to plunge its economy back into a deep recession, a senior Bank of England official said Thursday. Paul Fisher, the BOE’s executive director for markets and a rate setter on its Monetary Policy Committee, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview that the £325 billion ($517.08 billion) of quantitative easing—the purchase of government bonds with new money—that the central bank concluded earlier this month should be sufficient to underpin a recovery, barring any economic storms from across the English Channel. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303448404577410012275811148.html?mod=WSJEurope_hpp_LEFTTopStories

The head of Greece’s radical left party—throwing down a gauntlet that could increase tensions between Greece and its frustrated European creditors—said he sees little chance Europe will cut off funding to the country but that if it does, Athens will stop paying its debts. A financial collapse in Greece would drag down the rest of the euro zone, said Alexis Tsipras, the 37-year-old head of the Coalition of the Radical Left, known as Syriza, and potentially the country’s next prime minister. Instead, he said, Europe must consider a more growth-oriented policy to arrest Greece’s spiraling recession and address what he called a growing “humanitarian crisis” facing the country. “Our first choice is to convince our European partners that, in their own interest, financing must not be stopped,” Mr. Tsipras said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. He said Greece doesn’t intend to take any unilateral action, “but if they proc eed with unilateral action on their side, in other words they cut off our funding, then we will be forced to stop paying our creditors, to go to a suspension in payments to our creditors.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303879604577410301931020894.html?mod=WSJEurope_hpp_LEFTTopStories

Marketwatch.com
HSBC Holdings PLC has raised the prospect of selling its British retail banking operation if new regulations prove too demanding, The Times in the U.K. reported Friday. Stuart Gulliver, chief executive of the global banking group, told analysts the British retail bank would have to meet strict internal targets when the new rules came in–and if it did not, it would be sold, according to The Times.http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hsbc-raises-prospect-of-uk-retail-operations-sale-2012-05-17

Reuters.com
Greek voters are returning to the establishment parties that negotiated its bailout, a poll showed on Thursday, offering potential salvation for European leaders who say a snap Greek election next month will decide whether it must quit the euro. The poll, the first conducted since talks to form a government collapsed and a new election was called for June 17, showed the conservative New Democracy party in first place, several points ahead of the radical leftist SYRIZA which has pledged to tear up the bailout. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-greece-idUSBRE84D07X20120517

China’s annual economic growth could slow to 7.5 percent in the second quarter, largely due to curbs on the property sector and headwinds from external demand, the State Information Center, a government think-tank, said in a report published on Friday. If the GDP forecast is accurate, growth in the second three months of 2012 would be the slowest since the first quarter of 2009, when the global economy was in the grip of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The forecast is in line with the government’s official 2012 growth target of 7.5 percent which was set in March.http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/18/us-china-economy-gdp-idUSBRE84H04O20120518

Bloomberg.com
Facebook Inc. (FB) raised $16 billion in the biggest initial public offering by a technology company in history, pricing the shares at the top end of an increased range.  The social network sold 421.2 million shares at $38 each, a statement today shows. That values Facebook at $104.2 billion, making it the largest company to go public in the U.S. by market capitalization, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Dealogic. Facebook, led by 28-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, this week expanded the IPO to meet demand, allowing investors Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Accel Partners to reap more gains. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/facebook-raises-16-billion-in-biggest-technology-ipo-on-record.html

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and funds managed by the firm raised $1.09 billion selling stock in Facebook Inc. (FB)’s initial public offering, cashing out almost half their stake in the social network. The investment bank and its funds offered 28.7 million of the 65.9 million shares they own at $38 apiece, the top of the price range. Goldman Sachs sold 6.18 million of its own holdings, raising $235 million. The number of shares being offered by Goldman Sachs was included in a filing yesterday by Menlo Park, California-based Facebook. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/goldman-to-cash-out-1-billion-of-facebook-holding-in-ipo.html

Chinese dealers are struggling with the rising number of unsold cars that’s threatening to deepen price cuts, according to the nation’s biggest automobile dealers’ association.  Dealerships for Honda Motor Co. (7267), Chery Automobile Co., BYD Co. (002594) and Geely (175) Automobile Holdings Ltd. carried more than 45 days of inventory as of the end of April, exceeding the threshold that foreshadows debilitating price cuts, Su Hui, vice president of the auto market division at the state-backed China Automobile Dealers Association, said in an interview yesterday. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-17/china-car-dealerships-struggle-as-stockpiles-increase.html

Surging food costs offer the most visible sign of India’s inability to contain price pressures, threatening spending in the world’s second-most populous nation. Even as the nation’s benchmark wholesale-price inflation has eased to below 9 percent after breaching that level most of last year, a recently introduced consumer-price gauge shows how little room the central bank has cut to cut interest rates and spur growth. India’s consumer-price index climbed 9.47 percent from a year earlier in March as the cost of egg, vegetables, fish and meat products rose, after an 8.83 percent advance in February. Wholesale-price inflation in April was 7.23 percent, with food prices jumping 10.5 percent. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-18/shoppers-skipping-pomegranates-show-india-rate-dilemma-economy.html

Cnbc.com
With stocks in Asia dropping to near their 2012 lows and investors fleeing risk assets on growing worries about Europe’s debt crisis, several market watchers say it’s time for Europe’s central bank to step up bond purchases and ease monetary policy further. “The bottom-line is Europe needs to slow up on the austerity front and ease up on the monetary front,” Shane Oliver, Head of Investment Strategy and Chief Economist, AMP Capital Investors in Sydney told CNBC Asia’s “Cash Flow”. “If they did that, then it would make it a lot easier for Europe to go through this adjustment, much like what America is doing.” http://www.cnbc.com/id/47471501

Europe could strengthen its monetary union by giving European politicians the power to declare a sovereign state bankrupt and take over its fiscal policy, the former head of the European Central Bank said on Thursday in unveiling a bold proposal to salvage the euro. The plan offered by Jean-Claude Trichet, who stepped down last November as ECB president, would address a fundamental weakness of the 13-year-old single currency , the survival of which is threatened by the Greek crisis. http://www.cnbc.com/id/47471171

Jim Rogers, the chairman of Rogers Holdings, says he expects more turmoil in the global financial markets after several Asian stock markets on Friday fell to four-month lows.  “The world’s got serious problems facing it, I don’t particularly like saying it, but it’s true,” Rogers told CNBC.com on Friday morning in Singapore. “Unfortunately there will be more debt and currency turmoil to come.” Markets across Asia fell on Friday morning after Moody’s cut credit ratings of 16 Spanish banks and the country’s government had to pay over 5 percent for four-year bonds in a debt auction. Investors are growing increasingly worried that Greece’s debt problems are spreading to Spain, Europe’s fourth-largest economy. http://www.cnbc.com/id/47470339

Cnn.com
Newly appointed Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said Thursday that France would not ratify a European pact on budget discipline if it does not include measures to boost growth. Moscovici said an “ambitious” strategy for growth was needed, in an interview with CNN affiliate BFM-TV. The fiscal pact was signed by most European leaders late last year, and Germany, the economic powerhouse of the region, has said it is not up for renegotiation. Moscovici said French President Francois Hollande, sworn into office two days ago, was well aware of the gravity of the crisis facing Europe.http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/17/world/europe/france-politics/index.html?hpt=ibu_c2

Foxbusiness.com
Chile’s central bank late Thursday held the country’s key rate steady at 5%, meeting the expectations of analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires. The rate has been at that level since January. Analysts expected the rate to remain unchanged as Chilean policy makers monitored Europe’s debt crisis and its impact on domestic and global growth, as well as developments on local inflation. In a statement, Banco Central de Chile said economic activity and demand are evolving as forecast in its last monetary policy report. Year-over-year consumer price inflation “with volatility, is in the upper level of the tolerance range,” while core inflation measures are around 3%. Chile’s inflation target is 3%, plus or minus 1 percentage point. The bank also said euro-zone figures “confirm its weak growth,” and U.S. economic indicators have been mixed in the past month. http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2012/05/17/chile-holds-key-interest-rate-at-5-as-expected/#ixzz1vC8OIAvM

BBC.co.uk
Japan’s economy grew 1.0% between January and March compared with the previous three months, as government spending helped fuel a gradual recovery from last year’s earthquake and tsunami. That translates to annualised growth of 4.1%, the Cabinet Office said.  A recovery in private consumption has also helped boost the economy. However, analysts were still cautious about the future, as growth slowed in the US, Europe and China. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18099349

The US has said it will impose tariffs of about 30% on imports of solar panels from China. The Commerce Department sided with US-based solar panel companies, ruling their Chinese competitors were flooding the US market with government-subsidised products. The US had already set customs duties on Chinese manufacturers of between 2.9% and 4.73% in March. It was the latest escalation of trade tensions between the two countries. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18112983

China has allowed more companies to export rare earths, increasing the quotas set by the government, after they met environment standards. It has increased rare earth export quotas by 10,680 tonnes, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday. The announcement brings the total quotas issued so far this year to 21,226 tonnes. Rare earths are a collection of 17 elements used in products from smartphones to hybrid cars. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18112986

Telegraph.co.uk
British taxpayers could suffer a £2bn loss on Northern Rock, but it should be seen as the cost of securing financial stability according to the National Audit Office. The Government’s spending watchdog said the Coalition was correct to seek an early sale of the nationalised lender, which resulted in the sale last year of Northern Rock’s so-called “good bank” to Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Money for an initial sum of £747m. The NAO expects the taxpayer to lose £480m of its original £1.4bn investment in Northern Rock, but said the figure could rise to as much £2bn in real terms by the time the assets are fully wound down. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9273044/Northern-Rock-could-cost-taxpayers-2bn-National-Audit-Office-warns.html

Commercial property developers are backing David Cameron’s call to get Britain building again, according to a new report. The construction of new offices in London has increased by 44pc compared with last year, aided by lower build costs, and is now three times greater than its lowest level three years ago. The rise in construction has been identified in the latest crane survey by property services group Drivers Jonas Deloitte, which measures the amount of space under construction through the number of cranes on the skyline. The Coalition sees construction and investment in infrastructure as a key path to economic growth for the UK. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/constructionandproperty/9273158/Lower-building-costs-lift-office-starts.html

Independent.co.uk
The Bank of England has slashed its 2012 growth forecasts for the UK economy, raised its near-term inflation outlook and issued a warning about the potential economic damage the eurozone sovereign debt crisis could inflict. In its quarterly Inflation Report yesterday the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee lowered its estimate of economic growth over this year from 1.2 per cent to 0.8 per cent, bringing it slightly closer to the consensus of private sector economists. The MPC also forecast that consumer price inflation will remain well above the Bank’s 2 per cent target until the middle of next year. But the MPC lowered its estimate of the rate of inflation at the end of its two-year horizon period to 1.6 per cent. This leaves the door open for more monetary stimulus to assist the economy in the coming months if it judges that to be necessary. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bank-of-england-sees-inflation-up-and-growth-falling-7758153.html

Smh.com.au
Gold for immediate delivery gained as much as 0.2 per cent to $US1576.68 an ounce and was at $US1575.80. The metal climbed 2.3 per cent yesterday, paring this week’s loss to 0.2 per cent. June-delivery bullion was little changed at $US1575.90 on the Comex in New York. Holdings in bullion-backed exchange-traded products rose to 2,381.769 metric tons yesterday, data tracked by Bloomberg show. Spot silver climbed as much as 0.4 per cent to $US28.1375 an ounce, after dropping 0.5 per cent. It traded at $US28.0625, set to drop 2.9 per cent this week, the fourth straight weekly decline http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/gold-moves-higher-on-fed-stimulus-speculation-20120518-1yu8v.html#ixzz1vCARNJ7L

Amidst the petty local political noise, the really big message in the speeches by BHP’s chairman and CEO this week was entirely missed: implicit in the iron ore demand projections is that India isn’t going to do a China, that India won’t spectacularly industrialise in the East Asian manner. The Goldilocks scenario for the Australian economy is that growing commodities demand continues to underwrite our economic growth for decades to come thanks to India picking up the slack as the Chinese economy matures and the surge in its steel intensity comes off the boil. It has been assumed that India’s inevitable industrialisation was running a neat 15 or 17 years behind China and then would be turbo-powered by a population that continues to grow strongly, overtaking C hina soon enough on its way to 1.6 billion in 2050. http://www.smh.com.au/business/bhps-big-message-india-isnt-making-it-20120518-1yv1h.html#ixzz1vCAbkyLg

Theglobeandmail.com
It’s almost a cliché that neither advanced nations nor emerging markets are doing all they can to fulfill all the commitments they’ve made at Group of 20 summits to close yawning imbalances in the global economy, preventing a smoother, faster recovery. Few economic forecasting shops, though, have anything like the highly sophisticated models the Bank of Canada uses to map out all kinds of scenarios and predict the future, which helps policy makers assess what to do with interest rates. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/daily-mix/bank-of-canada-fears-weak-growth-in-global-economy/article2435853/

Xinhuanet.com
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of Hong Kong was 3.3 percent in the February-April quarter, down from 3.4 percent in the January-March period, the city’s Census & Statistics Department announced Thursday. Hong Kong’s total employment was 3,649,300, similar to the previous quarter, the department said, adding the underemployment rate decreased from 1.6 percent to 1.5 percent.http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-05/17/c_131594580.htm

The number of Americans initially applying for unemployment aid last week remained unchanged, a sign that the labor market was losing momentum, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday. The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits was 370,000 in the week ending May 12, and the four-week moving average, which helps smooth out week-to-week volatilit y, continued to tick down to 375,000, a decrease of 4,750 from the previous week’s revised figure. The number of jobless claims below 375,000 indicated a sustained drop in the unemployment rate. But the surge in applications in the first three weeks of April raised fears that the job market was sputtering after a strong winter. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-05/17/c_131594831.htm

Ukraine’s industrial output dipped 3.4 percent in April from the previous month mainly because of contractions in key sectors, Ukraine’s State Statistics Service said Thursday. The electric power, gas and water industry saw a monthly decline of 20.2 percent. The oil-refining industry fell 9.3 percent percent and the light industry dropped 2.9 percent, the service said in a report. The full-year figure remained unchanged in April, driven by the mining industry and manufacturing, whose outputs rose by 2.5 percent and 0.2 percent year-on-year respectively, it said.http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-05/17/c_131594694.htm

Singapore’s economy grew by 1.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012, slower than 3. 6 percent growth in the preceding quarter, Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry announced on Thursday. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the economy expanded by 10.0 percent, reversing the 2.5 percent contraction in the previous quarter, it said. The improved growth momentum was largely attributable to the upturn in the manufacturing sector. On a sequential basis, the manufacturing sector expanded by an annualised rate of 19.8 percent, reversing the 11.1 percent contraction in the previous quarter. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2012-05/17/c_131594502.htm

Thehindu.com
Amid continued bad news on the economic front and the drubbing of the rupee, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma will meet Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to discuss issues such as rupee depreciation, cost of credit and eurozone crisis that could seriously impact exports in the coming months. The meeting is likely to take place before the announcement of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) in the first week of June that is likely to spell out the blueprint prepared by the government to counter the serious challenges faced on the foreign trade front.http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/article3429246.ece

It was a lacklustre first quarter for gold in the country with World Gold Council figures, released on Thursday, showing a decline in demand by 29 per cent in volume and 3 per cent in value terms over the corresponding period of 2011. Total demand in the January-March 2012 period was 207.6 tonnes, which was 83 tonnes less than the consumption during the corresponding quarter last year, according to the Gold Demand Trends (First Quarter 2012) report of the Council. In value terms, the demand was Rs.56,650 crore, whereas, in the first quarter of last year, it was Rs.58,630 crore.http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/article3429418.ece

In a bid to beef up regional co-operation in economic and financial spheres, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to set up a $2 billion swap facility for SAARC (South-Asian Association for Regional Co-operation) member-nations. This facility will be available in foreign currency and Indian rupee. The swap will be offered in U.S. dollar, euro or Indian rupee against the domestic currency or domestic currency-denominated government securities of the requesting country. The swap amount available to various member-central banks is arrived at broadly based on two months import cover, subject to a floor of $100 million and a maximum of $400 million per country. http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/article3425845.ece

Economictimes.com
As the mercury rises and the summer heat peaks, Indians may be in for sweaty days with long power cuts in some regions as several plants have been forced to shut down due to scarcity of fuel and transmission facilities and equipment failure.  Almost 20% of India’s total installed power generation capacity has been shut down due to various reasons, forcing utilities to cut supplies to factories and households.  Analysts warned that the situation would deteriorate as demand for power peaks in the next four weeks. The shutdowns have wiped out the expected benefits of the record capacity addition of 20,000 mw in 2011-12. Southern states such as Tamil Nadu, where the power deficit is as high as 23.5%, are facing prolonged blackouts. Haryana, where 1,200 mw of capacity is shut due to equipment failure, and Madhya Pradesh faced a deficit of 15-24% in April, well before the peak summer demand. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/energy/power/power-paralysis-20-of-capacity-shut-down-for-lack-of-fuel-equipment-failure/articleshow/13230991.cms

India made a strong case for higher ratings from global agency Fitch, citing good foreign direct investment inflow and commitment to keep fiscal deficit under control.   The finance ministry is keen to avoid a repeat of the embarrassing rating cut by the Standard & Poor’s that lowered India’s rating outlook to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ because of poor fiscal health and deteriorating economic indicators.
“We told them to look at the FDI inflows and market returns that India has to offer. We told them that India is committed to cap subsidy at 2%,” said a finance ministry official after a meeting with Fitch representatives on Thursday. The US-based rating agency is likely to come out with its assessment within a month. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/india-pushes-for-higher-fitch-ratings-cites-good-fdi-inflows-fiscal-commitment/articleshow/13237992.cms

An expert panel constituted by the Planning Commission has cautioned the government over its burgeoning current account deficit, saying the country cannot sustain a deficit in excess of 3% for the next five years. The panel has also warned against relying too much on foreign savings to make up for the shortfall in capital inflows. “Considering the baseline scenario for capital inflows, anything above 3% CAD will be unsustainable,” the panel said. Current account deficit, or CAD, occurs when a country’s imports are greater than its exports.http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/current-account-deficit-of-over-3-unsustainable-for-next-five-years-panel/articleshow/13237542.cms

Yonhapnews.co.kr
South Korean households’ monthly income grew 6.9 percent on-year in the first quarter of this year thanks to improved employment conditions, a government report showed Friday. According to the report by Statistics Korea, households’ monthly income averaged 4.12 million won (US$3,540) in the January-March period, compared with 3.85 million won a year earlier.  Inflation-adjusted household income gained 3.8 percent from a year earlier, an improvement from a 3.2 percent increase in the fourth quarter of last year. The disposable income of local households grew 6.8 percent on-year to a monthly average of 3.33 million won  The gain in households’ monthly income was attributed to expanded employment and overall improvements in the job market.http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2012/05/18/99/0502000000AEN20120518002300320F.HTML

Themoscowtimes.com
Payment of wages in cash would be forbidden and stores would be forced to install credit-card terminals if legislation being developed by the Finance Ministry is implemented, Vedomosti reported. A Finance Ministry working group has now prepared legislation that will require employers and stores to phase out cash transactions. In January, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov proposed to implement the “regulatory legal framework” for noncash payments. Exceptions would be made in the law for small businesses with less than 35 employees and businesses in remote locations. Legislation requiring stores to accept credit cards would exclude those that don’t use cash registers and those with annual revenues of less than 2 million rubles ($65,000). http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/cash-salary-payments-could-be-eliminated/458730.html#ixzz1vCD359yv
Tehrantimes.com
Iran has rejected claims in a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that say the country has stored up to 30 million barrels of unsold crude on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.  National Iranian Oil Company Director for International Affairs Mohsen Qamsari said Iran is not storing the unsold oil.  “The storage of crude oil does not mean that Iran’s crude oil does not have customer,” Qamsari told the Mehr News Agency.  Qamsari added, “Iran’s has no oil without customer in the Persian Gulf.” He said that 12 new tankers which were recently purchased by an Iranian tanker company were not for storing crude oil. http://www.tehrantimes.com/economy-and-business/97957-iran-rejects-claims-30-million-barrels-sit-unsold