South Korea’s exports lost one-third of their value in January from a year ago. The exports is said to be the biggest engine of the country’s economy has seen a sharper drop than expected.
According to a preliminary government data showed Sunday, the fall of 32.8% is far more than drops of 19% in November and 17.9% in December.
With exports accounting for nearly half of South Korea’s economic output, the plunge represents the biggest challenge that South Korea has faced so far in the global economic downturn that began more than a year ago with the housing crisis in the U.S.
The latest export data appeared on the Web site of the Korea Customs Service on Sunday. Reuters first reported the news. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy officially released the data on Monday morning Asia time.
The magnitude of the drop in demand for South Korean products outside the country started to become apparent two weeks ago when the customs agency reported that the value of exports through the first 20 days of January fell by nearly 29%.
The House passed an $819 billion economic stimulus package. It was passed on a 244-188 vote.
The House stimulus package includes aid to states and localities to help them avoid cuts in Medicaid coverage and school funding.
Businesses would get $20 billion in tax cuts under the legislation. The bill would extend provisions enacted for 2008 that allow businesses of all sizes to depreciate 50 percent of investments in new equipment immediately.
The bill also would extend unemployment benefits and give unemployed workers subsidies for health care coverage. The legislation also would fund infrastructure improvements and investments in energy efficiency and alternative energy projects.
Most of the tax relief in the bill would go to individuals, including a $500 refundable tax credit for low- and middle-income workers.
British government has given $3.2 billion to its carmakers. the business secretary, Peter Mandelson, told Parliament on Tuesday that the government offered automakers and suppliers access to £1.3 billion in loan guarantees from the European Investment Bank, topped off with another £1 billion from the Treasury.
The plan came a month after the United States pumped billions of dollars into General Motors and Chrysler, and France and Germany announced aid packages to support their automakers.
He said the government would also increase the amount that it spent on the training of employees. “There is no blank check on offer, no operating subsidies,” Mr. Mandelson said.
The opposition Conservative Party criticized the measures are “too little, too late” and accused the government of dithering while other nations moved swiftly to support their automakers.
Any aid to auto manufacturers in Britain is potentially more controversial than in those other countries. Though the industry adds about £10 billion to Britain’s economy and employs more than 800,000, most of the British manufacturers are owned by foreign companies.
Oil prices dropped below $42 a barrel in Asia as rising US crude inventories.
The US House of Representatives passed an $819-billion stimulus plan last night aimed at spurring growth amid the worst recession in decades.
Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 54 cents to $41.64 a barrel by midday in Singapore in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 58 cents overnight to settle at $42.16.
The US Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration on Wednesday said commercial crude oil inventories jumped 6.2 million barrels from the previous week, almost twice what was expected.
Crude inventories have grown by more than 20 million barrels in the last month, stoking investor fear that consumer demand is suffering amid huge job losses in recent months.
It’s time of layoff in the IBM. The IT giant began a series of layoffs across the company in North America on Wednesday. However, a spokesperson declined to provide specific numbers or to identify what IBM locations were affected by the cuts.
There have been rumors of layoffs hitting as many as 16,000 – a number predicted by one Wall Street analyst. An unknown number of layoffs were at IBM’s Research Triangle Park campus, which is Big Blue’s largest with more than 11,000 employees.
Despite a global economic slowdown, IBM beat Wall Street expectations with a quarterly profit of $3.28 per share, the company said after the markets closed Tuesday.
Before this, Russia was set to resume gas supply to the European countries. It would ease a crisis that has hit a swathe of countries and highlighted their dependence on Moscow.
The announcement came after Russia, Ukraine and the EU signed an agreement on monitoring the movement of gas through the transit network, the workings of which are notorious for being untransparent and corrupt.
EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs had said that “it will take some time to reach our consumers, between 24 and 40 hours,” while other EU officials have said it might take as much as three days.
Russia says all such gas must be paid for by Kiev as part of its transit contract with Moscow.
The donations came from three alumni who said they were motivated by the desire to protect the environment from greenhouse gases.
The institute will expand Stanford’s role in energy research and national energy policy. It will consolidate Stanford’s existing energy-focused efforts onto one site — and allow the hiring of new faculty.
The new institute will be directed by Lynn Orr, professor of energy resources engineering and director of Stanford’s Global Climate and Energy Project. He plans to pull together 136 faculty members in 21 departments to create interdisciplinary projects.
The announcement came after Russia, Ukraine and the EU signed an agreement on monitoring the movement of gas through the transit network, the workings of which are notorious for being untransparent and corrupt.
EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said that “it will take some time to reach our consumers, between 24 and 40 hours,” while other EU officials have said it might take as much as three days.
Russia says all such gas must be paid for by Kiev as part of its transit contract with Moscow.
“The president awaits talks between Prime Minister Tymoshenko and Russian Prime Minister Putin, during which all political problems will be removed,” his spokeswoman of the Ukraine government told reporters on Monday.
In the mean time, Russia’s gas export company Gazprom says Ukraine has signed a fresh copy of a gas transit monitoring agreement, without any added conditions.
Monday’s signing should allow the resumption of gas supplies to much of Europe, shut down because of a contractual dispute between the two countries.
