Soaring Gas Price Pinches, US Consumer’s Behavior Changes

By ETHAN Markoff

WORLD/BUSINESS NEWS - US in the last three months have witnessed a steady job growth, and moreover, this year’s federal payroll tax cut respites Americans from the tedious energy cost cutting. But the larger picture does sometimes conceal the smaller shades. Economy is gaining its momentum but for Americans they are still digging their way out of the rapid increase of fuel prices.

For example Mark Hauser (name changed on request), a marketing executive in the Hudson Valley of New York admitted the small comfort from economic recovery, but moved to a rental house much closer to his workplace. At $4 a gallon, Mark thought it’s too expensive to commute about 100-mile round-trip five days a week.

The daily commutation by cars has suddenly dropped in many places across US, while people now prefer to travel on buses and ferries.

“If all your customers are paying $50 for a tank of gas that they used to pay $25 for, somebody is not getting that $25,” said William Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Business.

In recent weeks, gas prices eased a little, but they are, on average, up about 30 percent over a year earlier. High fuel price amplifies in food price, airfares, taxi fares in some regions, making American consumers conscious in their approach.

The high oil prices have also affected retail and other business. For example, the nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart lamented that high fuel price had restrained consumers to involve in shopping, hampering their business. Sales of the retail giant fell 1.1 percent in the first quarter.

Lowe’s one of the largest home improvement chains in US suffered 5.7 downslide in quarterly profit, as customers made less trips. According to Lowe’s chief executive, Robert A. Niblock, chief reason of fewer footfalls is because of rising gas and energy prices, followed by overall inflation.

In a research on consumer spending by MasterCard Advisors’ SpendingPulse, it disclosed 1 percent downslide in many gas pumps in the country over a year earlier.

Some companies have already invested in cloud computing so employees can access all docs and work from home. Even company like Topical BioMedics hands out gas cards as bonuses and birthday gifts and conducts seminar on the importance of energy efficient cars.

The economy of the United States is slowly mending, creating more than 750,000 jobs, which means addition of money into the nation’s economy in the form of more paychecks. But the rising gas price roughly translates into a loss of $75 billion to $100 billion.

There are also some sectors get benefited from the price rise of gasoline. E-commerce sales have risen to 19.2 percent in April over a year earlier. Car sales have also risen as people prefer to buy small cars as compared to old preferred trucks. They are now more inclined toward compact and fuel-efficient cars like Chevrolet Cruze, Ford Fiesta and Focus models and electric driven cars as well.

Nissan Witnesses Record Annual Sales In 2010-11

By STAFF Writer

Nissan Record Annual Sales 2010-11

The Japanese carmaker company Nissan has reported record annual sales in its history, rocketing its profit to astounding height. A report says.

The company has crafted a hefty profit of 319.2bn yen ($3.7bn; £2.4bn) in the year to 31 March 2011, up from just 42bn yen a year earlier. The global sales have also climbed up to 19% to 4.2 million vehicles, which impelled the company to raise its turnover by 17% to 8.8 trillion yen.

It is a surprising fact for other companies to witness such growth in Japan after the earthquake almost devastated nation’s economy. Nissan also admitted that the natural calamity had an adversely affected on many companies turnover and profit gain, but the recent figure showed its “resilience” against unfavorable conditions. It is reported the earthquake and consequently nuclear debacle had disrupted many operations in Japan.

This year Nissan have launched ten new models in the market and it is believed that the positive sales figure is because of this.

The growth curve shows highest in neighboring China where the company saw sales rise 36%. In Europe it has been reported 19% and 17% in the United States.

Incidentally, Japan saw the lowest growth of 5%.

Global Inflation Soaring, Essential Food Prices Rise To Record High

By ETHAN Markoff

In a figurative language, inflation resemblances a pregnant woman as the adage says, 'having a little bit of inflation is like being a little bit pregnant.' It seems in the economic sector the adage holds water as the global food prices rise 4.4 percent to a record by the end of the year, increasing the demand of essential commodities like meat, oilseeds, grains, oils etc. In Europe inflation is still lower than U.S and Asia, running at 3.1%, though in its fastest pace since euro currency began circulating. China, the rapid developing country in the world, suffering from a high inflation temperature, driving at 6.9%, the highest in 11 years.

Food Price Index of the United Nation climbs to 240 points from 229.84 last month, which is certainly a concern for economists. In a recent study revealed by Goldman Sachs, global inflation has accelerated in 80% of the countries, and rose two percentage since November last year.

However, history says, this is all small beer. Even inflation at the rate of 5% could hardly affect on double-digit price rise, which was witnessed in the 1970s when the rich countries terrified by the sudden increase of food prices. It is not surprising that in even late 90s, the average inflation rate in poor nations was 50%!

Nevertheless, the upswing has posed significant questions such as weak retail sales, joblessness and American recession. Some analysts believe that the inflation is stagnated and heading for stagflation-lite.

Now, a question that raises eyebrows of some curious 'economical minds' is whether the rising inflation creates a pressure even as economic slow. In the recent times, due to concern over inflation, Beijing has kept tightening monetary policy and as a result it further raises concern over the recovery in the global economy, which is already slow. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon and primarily responsibility of central banks. The cheap price of Chinese goods may be abating and at the same time increasing demand for resources causes commodity prices higher.

There is partial truth in all those reasons and explanations. For example, in Gulf countries monetary laxness causes inflation and in China different aspects of social unrest have made the inflation soaring. The Chinese government has made several efforts to curb the increasing price of essential commodities. In last one year, China has considerably accumulated foreign-exchange reserves that has ignited domestic money growth and as a result, the inflation is tripled in last one year. National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's planning body created much furor, telling people to avoid price rises by frying noodles in cheaper oil.

It is believed that American imports from China in the recent years exponentially increased because of Chinese production cost, but the reality is, it has more because of weakness of the dollar rather than cheap Chinese products. And the situation is now like this, if the China increase the price rise of its products, it would still dampen inflation in developed nations.

Now, the economy is globalized and mostly governed by the emerging economic states like China and India, who are more energetic and commodity intensive. From last one decade, China is responsible for about half of the increase in the world's demand for metals, and two-fifths of oil demand in the world.

There are other reasons for global inflation - a much overlooked one is the social unrest in northern Africa and the Middle East that have witnessed toppled thrones in Egypt and Tunisia. The incidents also caused 44 million people into poverty in the past year. Because of a long time gap of production process by the farmers, consumers have to pay more for essential commodities.

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Unbridled Inflation Hits Below The Belt Of Poor Asians


* Illustration courtesy to Satoshi Kambayashi

Internal Auditors Blame World Bank For Slow Progress In East Timor

East Timor Family

By ONE liners Agency

INDONESIA/ EAST TIMOR NEWS - A recent draft, yet to be released publicly revealed a candid evaluation by the World Bank’s internal auditors, saying World Bank has be deficient in helping international organizations trying to help struggling nations. The draft, which particularly blames World Bank for its slow development in East Timor, which freed in 1999 after a long fought independence struggle from Indonesia.

However, the draft also exemplifies the problems caused to international organizations to meet the urgent needs of the nation while ensuring a proper utilization of donor’s money. This took a long and tedious process of evaluation of money, ensuring it is not misspent.

The review is done by the Independent Evaluation Group, which reports directly to the World Bank directors, covers the period from 2000 to 2010. The report also says due to bank own stiff procurement rules, it delayed the opening of four desperately needed hospitals for a year. It is reported that the mortality rate of children in East Timor is highest in Southeast Asia.

The report also blames the bank for not supporting the educational system and postponed to build and repair schools. The bank was also biased about the new government who requested to distribute the teaching materials in Portuguese because it had been the primary language before the Indonesian occupation, when East Timor was a Portuguese colony. The report has stressed on the importance of English or indigenous textbook, which could be more functional.

The report also asserts that the bank overlooked its explicit goal of fighting poverty, providing loan to needy nations for their social projects. In East Timor, the government saved money from its petroleum revenue rather than investing on its social development. As a result it contributed to high levels of poverty.

An estimated 70 percent of East Timor’s economic wealth had been destroyed in years of fighting for independence. At present the poverty in the country as double of Indonesia’s level.

Ferid Belhaj, the World Bank’s director for East Timor declined to comment on the report, saying the evaluation was not final. However, he said that the nation has tremendously improved economically and socially in the past decades.

Tokyo Businesses Struggle after Quake
Mar 19 - Tourists stay away from the Japanese capital leaving local businesses to struggle. Andrew Raven reports

Brunei Darussalam Wished to Buy Indonesian Built Battle Vehicles

Minister/State Secretary Sudi Silalahi said Brunei Darussalam wished to buy Indonesian built battle vehicles and other arms.

"They will be using our products including battle cars and arms," Sudi Silalahi told newsmen after accompanying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a working visit to Riau Islands province Sunday.

He said the defense cooperation with Brunei was one of the outcome of the President’s state visit to Brunei Darussalam on February 24, 2011, on the day before visiting Riau Islands. Sudi also said that the defense cooperation with Brunei had been stated in an MoU that had been signed.

However, Sudi did not specify the defense equipment for export to Brunei. He also did not mention the time of the cooperation.

The written joint statement between President Yudhoyono and Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said that the two countries also agreed to form and increase the role of a defense joint committee. The two heads of state believed that the committee will increase and strengthen and cooperation and friendship between Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam.

Besides in defense, the two countries also agreed to promote cooperation in agriculture, culture and tourism, manpower, and education. In education and manpower, Brunei is also willing to help Indonesian migrant workers and their children get better education, Sudi Silalahi said.

PT Palindo Marine Industri (PMI) Based in Batam has Produced a Warship

National ship-building company PT Palindo Marine Industri (PMI) based in Batam has produced a warship, the KRI Clurit-641, that will soon reinforce the Indonesian Navy’s fleet.

"We now have something to be proud of because we prove to have human resources capable of making a warship," Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said when visiting PMI’s ship-building yard here Sunday.

KRI Celurit-641 which was built with the help of graduates from the Surabaya Institute of Technology is equipped with a Sensor Weapon Control (Sewaco) system, 6 caliber 30 canons forming a Close in Weapon System (CIWS) and missiles.

Some 44 meters long, 8 meters wide and 3.4 meters high, the ship can develop a maximum speed of 30 knots and fire C-705 guided missiles over a distance of several hundred meters.

Its engine powers a five-blade propulsion propeller. Rear Admiral Marsatio, commander of the Indonesian Navy’s Western Fleet, said KRI Clurit-641 featured technological devices that were not second to those used on foreign warships.

"We have reason to be proud because we can now make our own warships, he said.

Indonesia cannot meet its daily crude oil

A PT Pertamina worker opens a gauge near crude oil tanks on Bunyu island, Indonesias East Kalimantan province February 8, 2011. Indonesian state energy firm Pertamina plans to spend USD1 billion in 2011 for acquisitions of oil and gas blocks, as the country seeks to boost declining production. Pertamina has said it expects crude and condensate production of 132,000 barrels per day for this year, up just 1 percent from last year, though the former OPEC member country has often missed production targets because of declining output at ageing fields.

Indonesia cannot meet its daily crude oil production target of 970,000 barrels due to various problems hampering production so there is a shortfall of 70,000 barrels per day, according to the Upstream Oil and Gas Executive Agency (BP Migas).

BP Migas spokesperson Elan Biantoro told media here, on Thursday, that crude production in the period of January 1 to February 22 amounted to 905,000 barrels per day. The potential crude loss caused by the problems have reached 37,850 barrels per day.

The daily production figure of 905,000 barrels per day falls short of the targeted 970,000 barrels per day as set in the state revenue and expenditure budget for 2011, he added. Biantoro said that there are 105 causes which have caused the potential loss ranging from unplanned shutdowns, off-takings to delays in project implementation.

He explained the unplanned shutdowns have been due to natural disturbances such as excessive rainfalls, lightning strikes, high waves and floods. Production disturbance outside planning, he said, has been related to the breakdowns of production facilities that shutting down production operations that causing a potential loss of 8,000 barrels per day.

Other problems registered as being production non-loss potentials but remaining to have posed as reasons for production disturbances, including land overlapping that impacting on the delays in well drilling schedules that happening at Chevron Pacific Indonesia, Petrochina Jabung, Pertamina EP and JOB Talisman Jambi Merang.

Biantoro said BP Migas will launch a more intensive control over the five biggest contractors whose production have significantly dwindled, namely Chevron Pacific Indonesia, Pertamina EP, Total E&P Indonesia, ConocoPhillips and Kodeco Energy whose production has totally decreased about 10,000 barrels per day.

However, for liquefied natural gas, production up to February 22 has indicated a satisfactory performance with a daily production of 8.66 million cubic meters, so that total combined production of oil and gas amounting to 2.45 million barrels equivalent of oil per day, surmounting the state budget target of 2.36 million barrels per day.

"The shortfall in crude production is compensated by the performance of gas production," he said.

Google Instant Becomes Instant Hit

Google Instant, Instant Search By Google

By ONE Liners Agency

Google speeds up with its new product Google Instant. Announced Wednesday by CEO Eric Schmidt at the IFA show in Berlin, Google Instant is the new definition of its search engine.

Google shifts the fundamental of searching with Google Instant. Instead of thinking search as an outcome, Google tries to make people think search to be a process. In Google Instant you constantly refine your query without 'searching' actually, or hitting the 'enter' button.

Google bets that this is the world of instant communication, so why not the search engine be instant. The Google Instant will produce a search with every keystroke. Not only this, even the sponsored links will change with every keystroke.

Schmidt said in his keynote address in Berlin, "We're trying very hard to get you something fast... Never underestimate the power of fast. Quick, quick, quick-we want to help you right now." Later in the speech, he also spoke of Google understanding what users want before they've even asked for it, in almost psychic-like fashion: "We can understand things like what you really meant."

Google Instant is surely the biggest change in Google. The moment one types anything, the page produces information and the button of "I'm Feeling Lucky" vanishes. The Instant, technically speaking, is something unquestionably amazing.

Google Instant tries to understand what is in your mind and show suggestions accordingly. So, no need to finish typing and no need to hit the enter button with Google Instant.

Video: Sergy Brin, Co-founder of Google Inc., says Instant to Draw More Users

IT Giant Lenova Plans To Launch Gaming Console

By ETHAN Markoff

To compete in the booming video game industry, China's IT stalwart Lenova will soon come up with a gaming console. The company will surely face a tough competition from Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's XBox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.

The Chinese company has already developed a prototype of eBox console and branched a new organization in Beijing known as Beijing eedoo Technology Ltd..

One of the exciting features in the gaming console is controller-free operation. It means the console can be operated by gestures. The eBox can be connected to high-definition television set and the internet.

The company said the gaming console will be targeted to 120 million Chinese urban households. The launch would probably be by the end of the year.

Initially the company targets only domestic market but plans to move it to other Asia Pacific region and other overseas markets.

The motion-sensor technology is not the new innovation in gaming console, last month Microsoft announced that it would launch its kinect system for the XBox 360 November 4.

The largest Chinese IT company is yet to disclose the financial details of the gaming system. It is reported that Lenovo is expanding its business into new product types such as smartphones and tablet computers, and the gaming console is a part of this diversification.

Earlier this year the company launched LePhone, its first mobile phone.

Japan Airlines Cuts Manpower

By MALILA Harris

The struggling Japan Airline (JAL) has announced that it will slash workforce to compensate the unprofitable business. The airline is believed to restructure after filing for bankruptcy protection 19 January.

The Airlines for many years fighting unprofitable business and forced to cut manpower twice. This is the third time when more than 16,000 jobs are in a hanging position. The flight has been suffering from unprofitable domestic and international routes.

Some of the job cut is indirect, retiring early and the sale of subsidiaries.

The company is also planning to curtail by 103 aircraft. JAL is a member of the One World alliance, which includes some renowned airlines like American Airlines and British Airways.

The fall of passenger list hit in the time of global economic downturn where most of the airlines suffered from similar fate. In addition, the rival Nippon Airways considerably does well in recent times that also poses threat to the JAL.

"By fully implementing these measures, the JAL Group will aim to become profitable from the first fiscal year of the plan and thus rehabilitate quickly," the airline said in a statement.

It is reported that workforce cut from 48,714 at the end of 2009 to 32,600 by the end of this year.

The Japan government also helps out the airlines after JAL's bankruptcy in January and caught in debt of $25bn.

The analysts have said that the fall of Japan Airlines was the countries one of the worst corporate failures.

Return of Age Of Empires, Microsoft Announces At Gamescom

Microsoft's Age of Empires Online Game

The famous PC game, Age of Empires, makes a return, as announced by Microsoft at Gamescom, a large conference held in Cologne, Germany. It is now re-named, Age of Empires Online, and of course it is to be played through the Internet.

Microsoft heralds the Age of Empires Online will be different from other games that they have developed earlier. Moreover, the company has never created Internet based game ever before and that too a socially connected game.

Apart from being a real-time gameplay, the Age of Empires Online also includes some twists such as persistent gameplay, levelling up, new multiplayer features and also quests. The cartoony art style will be seen for the first time in Microsoft's game.

Developed by Robot Entertainment, the Age of Empires will be free-to-play and it will be run through Games for Windows Live.

It is learned that this game will take over the Facebook phenomenon Farmville with all new twists in it. Gamers will enjoy creating a living in it and growing online world, which will be shared with friends across the world and also with some friendly rivals.

Microsoft says, "Begin the journey with your own Greek civilisation, and watch as it progresses from a village to an empire. Embark on quests along the way, alone or with friends, and immerse yourself in epic tales, quirky characters, adventure, history and strategy."

Manufacturing Process Slows Down In China, Record 17-Month Low

China - Despite China's remarkable manpower efficiency and tremendous manufacturing process growth, showing a grim picture in recent months when the manufacturing output has been recorded its slowest rate for 17 months. The effort of Chinese government to accelerate the economic growth proves to be less effective, and the index of manufacturing output fell to 51.2 in July from 52.1 in June. Reported China Federation of Logistic and Purchasing.

Economic analysts have asserted the reason behind the slowdown is because of banks strict policies to lend money to firms. It has been reported that the Chinese economy is a major concern for the government and contemplated as it could be overheating.

Analysts have pointed the consolidation of property prices in China triggered banks to limit the credit.

Meanwhile, the government has taken damage control steps by reducing stimulus on construction projects, and kept a tab on high energy consuming and polluting factories.

"We know Chinese growth is slowing and this number provides confirmation of this," said Brian Jackson, a strategist with Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong.

Mr. Jackson further added that the export of Chinese goods could have been a major stimulus to check the slowdown. However, if the export fall to expectations then Beijing would likely to deliver a renewed surge in investment spending.

The Chinese economy grew by 10.3% and still higher than government's 8% target.