1 Russian rouble takes a tumble (Larry Elliott in
The Guardian) Russia’s central bank has been forced to step in to defend the
ruble on the foreign exchanges after fears over the economy’s vulnerability to
a weak oil price sent the currency to a record low against the dollar. Moscow
was forced to abandon its hands-off policy towards the ruble amid heavy
selling, unmatched since the Russian debt default of 1998.
The Russian central bank intervened when the ruble
was down 6.5% on the day against the US dollar, and by the close of trading on
Monday the currency had recouped more than half its earlier losses. A bounce in
the oil price from a fresh five-year low and a sense that the sell-off since
last week’s meeting of the Opec cartel has been overdone helped sentiment
towards the Russian currency, which has been badly buffeted by a plunge of
almost 40% in the cost of crude since the summer.
Oil is denominated in dollars, so when the US
currency falls oil becomes cheaper and more attractive for holders of other
currencies. With Moscow fearful that the drop in the value of the ruble makes
Russia vulnerable to capital flight, Ksenia Yudaeva, the Russian central bank’s
deputy chairwoman, said households should not panic. She said the rise in
interest rates to 9.5% should encourage them not to convert savings into euros
or dollars.
At one stage on Monday, Brent crude was trading at
$67.50 a barrel, a fresh five year low, before recovering to $71.90. Oil is
still down about 10% since producer group Opec’s decision last Thursday not to
cut output despite fears of a supply glut.
2 China manufacturing slows (BBC) China's factory
activity slowed by more than expected in November, highlighting how a cooling
economy is impacting its vast manufacturing sector. The official purchasing
managers' index (PMI) dipped to 50.3 in November from October's 50.8, closer to
the 50 point mark that separates growth from contraction. It was below the 50.6
level expected by economists.
Rising costs and falling demand were blamed for the
downturn in activity. Meanwhile, a private survey from from HSBC showed that
growth in Chinese factories in November stalled as output shrank for the first
time in six months.
Growth in the world's second largest economy fell to
7.3% in the third quarter, which was the slowest pace since the global
financial crisis. The risk that China might miss its official growth target of
7.5% this year for the first time in 15 years is growing because economic data
is weaker than expected, economists said. A struggling property market, uneven
export growth and cooling domestic demand and investment are some of the major
factors weighing on overall growth.
3 Teens move away from Facebook (Khaleej Times) A
study involving 170,000 internet users across 32 countries has found that more
and more teenagers are spending more time on instant messaging apps than on
Facebook. Nearly 66 per cent of
teenagers (aged 16-19) in the US and Britain said they were using Facebook less
frequently.
While the teenagers are not off the social
networking site completely, the interactions have dropped and the group is more
passive about the site as a whole, revealed the new “Social Summary for Q3
2014” from market research firm GlobalWebIndex (GWI). Nearly 30 per cent of teenagers said they are
not on Facebook as often because their friends have gone on Instagram and other
messaging apps, StreetInsider.com reported.
The report found that although Facebook has a drop
in active users, its Messanger is not very popular among teenagers, even
leaving WhatsApp behind as the most used messaging app. Snapchat turns out to be the real winner among
teenagers. “Snapchat has the youngest audience of any social app and usage
ranges from 25 per cent to 40 per cent of all online teenagers in key markets
such as the US, Britain and Canada,” the report added.
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