1 World Bank cuts China, East Asia forecasts
(Khaleej Times) The World Bank has trimmed its growth forecasts for developing
East Asian economies this year and next, as China’s economic expansion loses
momentum and policymakers face tighter global monetary conditions. Developing
countries in East Asia and the Pacific are likely to see a growth of 6.9 per
cent this year and in 2015, slower than the 7.1 per cent the bank had forecast
in April.
China’s economy is forecast to grow 7.4 per cent
this year and 7.2 per cent next year, compared with 7.6 per cent and 7.5 per
cent projected in April as the government addresses financial vulnerabilities
and structural constraints. China’s economy expanded 7.7 per cent in 2013. But
the bank’s chief Asia economist Suhdir Shetty said China’s slowdown is unlikely
to be “dramatic” enough to have a major impact on the region.
Developing East Asian countries, excluding China,
are expected to grow 4.8 per cent this year and 5.3 per cent in 2015 from 5.2
per cent in 2013. Growth in Southeast Asia’s five biggest economies —
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam — is forecast to
slow down to 4.5 per cent this year from five per cent in 2013, but is likely
to pick up and expand 5 per cent next year as demand for exports grow.
2 UK new car sales at 10-year high (The Guardian) Almost
430,000 new cars were sold last month, the biggest September total for a
decade, taking the total number of cars sold this year to almost two million. September
sales reached 425,861, 5.6% higher than a year ago. It was the 31st consecutive
monthly increase, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
(SMMT).
SMMT’s chief executive, Mike Hawes, said:
“September’s strong performance underlined the continuing robustness of the UK
new car market. In the months since March – which saw an 18% jump in
registrations – the growth has shown signs of levelling off as the market
starts to find its natural running rate.”
The UK switched to a twice-yearly plate change 15
years ago and number plates now change in March and September, with consumer
demand for the latest plate meaning that these months typically account for a
third of the entire year’s registrations. Richard Lowe, head of retail and
wholesale at Barclays, said: “The heady cocktail of a new plate change, great
finance deals and the appeal of increasingly fuel-efficient cars resulted in
September being another strong month for new car sales.”
3 Facebook drivers push to unionize (Kristen V Brown
in San Francisco Chronicle) Some bus drivers who ferry Facebook employees to
and from Silicon Valley want to unionize, saying they are underpaid, overworked
and unfairly compensated for time on the job. The drivers enlisted the
Teamsters, a powerful labor union, to pressure their employer, Loop
Transportation, to allow them to organize.
The Teamsters are also putting pressure on Facebook,
which contracts Loop Transportation to manage its shuttle operations. The top
Teamsters official for Northern California has sent a letter to Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg urging him to throw the social network’s support behind a union
for the drivers.
“While your employees earn extraordinary wages and
are able to live and enjoy life in some of the most exclusive neighborhoods in
the Bay Area, these drivers can’t afford to support a family, send their
children to school, or, least of all, afford to even dream of buying a house
anywhere near where they work,” Rome Aloise, the Teamsters official, said in
the letter.
In December 2012, a driver filed a class-action
lawsuit alleging Google’s shuttle management contractor, WeDriveU, failed to
pay drivers for time between split shifts, provide legally required rest
breaks, and compensate them for time spent performing required inspections on
vehicles before and after shifts. An August draft of a settlement in that case
awarded 89 drivers a combined total of $125,000, amounting to just $730 per
driver on average after expenses such as attorney’s fees.
Bus drivers aren’t the only low-wage workers
contracted by tech companies, which often hire outside providers for services
ranging from security to food preparation. Last week, under pressure to offer
better pay and working conditions for such workers, Google announced that it
will create its own in-house security force and end its relationship with
Security Industry Specialists — a company that contracts security services for
many tech companies and has long been a target of union activists.
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