1 Slowest Chinese growth since 2008 (BBC) China's
industrial output has slowed to its weakest growth since the financial crisis,
prompting concerns over the global recovery. Production rose by 5.4% in January
and February - the worst since 2008. China is trying to refocus its economy
from investment and export-led growth to consumer spending.
UK finance minister George Osborne said China's
slowdown is one of a "dangerous cocktail of risks" hampering recovery
from the 2008 financial crisis. Recent data revealed that Chinese exports fell
25.4% in February compared with the same month last year. It was the biggest
monthly decline since 2009, and ahead of the 11.2% fall recorded in January.
Zhou Hao, an economist at Commerzbank, said the mix
of slower industrial output and retail spending "gives us a worrying
picture". He said: "The overall growth profile remains still
gloomy." However, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China,
said that the government would be able to achieve a target of an average 6.5%
in GDP growth for the next five years without implementing measures to stimulate
the economy.
Writing in the UK's Sun, Mr Osborne said falling oil
prices, interest rate changes elsewhere and political instability in the Middle
East meant "hopes of a strong global recovery have evaporated".
2 Mass anti-government protest in Brazil (Jonathan
Watts in The Guardian) More than a million Brazilians have joined
anti-government rallies across the country, ramping up the pressure on
embattled president Dilma Rousseff. Already struggling with an impeachment
challenge, the worst recession in a century and the biggest corruption scandal
in Brazil’s history, the Workers party leader was given another reason to doubt
she will complete her four-year term.
The demonstrations on Sunday – which reached all 26
states and the federal district – were expected to be bigger than similar
rallies last year. Many protesters wore the canary yellow shirts of the
national football team, or draped themselves in the national flag. Others
carried banners expressing anger at bribery scandals and economic woes.
“She’s a horror,” said Paulo Rodriguez, a
53-year-old businessman who came with his wife and daughter. “The Workers party
is a horror. They’re a criminal organisation that is robbing state resources.
They are destroying our country.”
Rousseff has not been implicated, but several close
aides are either in prison or under investigation. For the protesters, she is
tainted by association. Congress is debating whether the president should be
removed on a separate allegation, of window-dressing government accounts ahead
of the election in 2014. The legal basis for this challenge is weak, however,
and the man leading the charge, speaker Eduardo Cunha, is himself under
investigation for bribery.
3 RBS may replace staff with ‘robo-advisers (Straits
Times) Royal Bank of Scotland plans to cut about 550 jobs as it scales back
in-person advice to certain customers seeking investments and insurance,
according to a person briefed on the moves. Some clients will be directed to a
new online investing platform to keep their business with the bank commercially
viable, the person said.
The shift affects people with less than £250,000 to
invest and will eliminate about 220 workers who helped provide such advice, the
Financial Times Times wrote on Sunday, without saying where it got the
information.
"Our customers increasingly want to bank with
us using digital technology," RBS said. "As a result, we are scaling
back our face-to-face advisers and significantly investing in an online
investing platform that enables us to help a new group of customers with as
little as 500 pounds to invest."
Chief executive officer Ross McEwan has been
eliminating thousands of jobs as he cuts expenses and focuses on consumer
lending in the UK and Ireland to improve earnings after eight straight annual
losses. The bank is scaling back its in-person advice as many younger,
cost-sensitive investors already are flocking to automated services, such as
so-called robo-advisers that use algorithms to make recommendations.
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