LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Once a central bank becomes involved
in fiscal policy, it eventually loses its
independence and its credibility as an inflation-fighter.This is the story told not only by economic theory but also by historical experience.”
Jens Weidmann,
head of Germany’s Bundesbank Article, 1D
British economy shrinks 0.3 percent
LONDON - Britain’s economy shrank more than expected in the final three months of 2011, but some economists said improving conditions in Europe could keep the country from falling back into a recession.
The economy shrank 0.3 percent from the previous quarter, more than the expected 0.2 percent decline, because companies held back on investment amid concern about consumer demand, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday.
While another recession was an imminent threat at the end of last year, some economists have revised their views recently and now expect the British economy to return to growth during the first three months of 2012.
Daniel Solomon, an economist at the Center for Economics and Business Research in London, said positive data from the private sector combined with European monetary policy to create “an upward push on the economy.”
Britain’s interest rates, which have stayed at a record low for the past three years and slowed inflation, and a fiscal stimulus package from the Bank of England helped offset some of the impact of the government’s far-reaching spending cuts.
EU reaches mobile-roaming fee deal
BRUSSELS - The European Union is clamping down on mobile network providers charging consumers high prices for using their phones and tablet computers abroad.
The European Parliament said Wednesday that it had reached a deal with governments on significantly lower caps for making phone calls or surfing the Internet from a smart phone or tablet in EU countries as of July 1.
The agreement, reached late Tuesday, will also allow consumers to sign on for a separate roaming contract as of July 1, 2014, if another network offers a better deal.
It’s the first time the EU has capped the price of mobile data roaming within its 27 member states.
As of July 1 this year, downloading one megabyte of data will cost consumers no more than 93 cents.
Toyota to add 400 jobs in Canada
DETROIT - Toyota Motor Corp. expects auto sales in North America to rebound, so it’s investing $80 million in a Canadian factory to build more of the popular RAV4 small sport utility vehicles.
The investment in Woodstock, Ontario, near Toronto, will create 400 new jobs early next year when the added factory capacity comes on line. Toyota plans to raise the plant’s output by one third to 200,000 vehicles per year, the company said in a statement Wednesday.
“We are optimistic that the market is coming back and we’re grateful for the strong sales of the RAV4 in the North American market,” Ray Tanguay, chairman of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, said in the statement.
RAV4 sales in the U.S. are down 5 percent through February at nearly 22,500. It ranked 20th among the best-selling vehicles in the U.S. last year at just more than 132,000.
But sales last year were down almost 23 percent, due largely to the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan that slowed Toyota’s factories and caused dealers to run short of models.
3 Olympus execs face new charges
TOKYO - Japanese prosecutors have pressed fresh charges against the former chairman of Olympus Corp.
and two other executives over the cover-up of huge investment losses.
Tokyo prosecutors said Wednesday that Tsuyoshi Kikukawa and executives Hideo Yamada and Hisashi Mori face new charges of violating securities and financial laws for covering up losses between 2009 and 2011.
Olympus has said it hid $1.5 billion in investment losses dating to the 1990s. The scandal surfaced last year.
The three Olympus executives were already charged for their role in the deception in 2007 and 2008.
Olympus as a corporation and two consultants at companies linked to Olympus were also charged Wednesday.
Burma currency changes set Sunday
RANGOON, Burma - Burma’s currency will be largely unshackled from government controls next week in a significant step toward overhauling the impoverished country’s economy, state media reported Wednesday.
The value of the kyat currency will be determined by a managed floating exchange rate system that will become effective Sunday, the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
The International Monetary Fund says the change could lift a major constraint on growth in one of Asia’s least developed countries.
The move is part of a sweeping wave of changes instituted by the government of President Thein Sein, which inherited power in 2011 from a military junta that ruled for 49 years.
For decades, the kyat has been held at an artificially high level based on a notional currency that is managed by the IMF. The kyat’s official rate is about 125 times stronger than the roughly 800 kyat to the dollar rate it changes hands at on the black market, which is used for most transactions.
The official rate is used by the government to calculate the budget and revenue of state enterprises. Only state banks can conduct transactions with overseas banks, forcing many transactions underground.
Nokia to debut smart phone in China
BEIJING - Cell-phone maker Nokia introduced its first smart-phone design for sale in China on Wednesday, looking to the world’s biggest mobile market to help drive a turnaround.
Nokia said its new Lumia 800C is designed to run on China’s CDMA networks and will be supported by China Telecom, one of the country’s three major state-owned carriers.
Finland-based Nokia launched a corporate turnaround effort one year ago after falling far behind Apple Inc. and other competitors in tapping into the new popularity of smart phones.
China is the world’s biggest mobile phone market with about 900 million accounts, and is Nokia’s biggest market.
The Lumia 800C will go on sale in early April for about $570, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said.
Business, Pages 22 on 03/29/2012