1 Hollande sounds alarm on Grexit (BBC) French
President Francois Hollande said there was "little time" to prevent
Greece from leaving the eurozone. He said the ball was firmly in Greece's
court. "It's not France's position to impose on Greece further cuts to
smaller pensions, but rather to ask that they propose alternatives," he
said.
Talks with Greek and EU officials in Brussels on
Sunday failed to reach an agreement that would release bailout funds to Greece.
Eurozone finance minister will meet on Thursday, but Greece's Yanis Varoufakis
said he did not plan to present new proposals at the meeting. The prospects of
a Greek default in just over two weeks' time has worried investors.
Europe wants Greece to make spending cuts worth €2bn
(£1.44bn) to secure a deal that will unlock bailout funds. Greece must repay
more than €1.5bn of loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the end
of June and promise further economic reforms to receive about €7bn of bailout
funds. The funds have been delayed by three months amid growing fears the
government will soon run out of money.
Sticking points between Greece and the IMF and EU
remain reforms to VAT, pensions and a primary budget surplus target for this
year and next year. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras warned Athens would
stand its ground until its creditors become "realistic". He called on
the IMF and EU to "meditate" on the idea that: "We are not only
the heirs of a long history of struggle. We are also carrying on our shoulders
the dignity of a people, and the hope of the peoples of Europe."
2 News outlets losing control to Apple, Facebook and
Google (Mark Sweney in The Guardian) Traditional news outlets face an
increasingly uphill struggle to make money as readers move to mobile devices,
giving Facebook, Google and Apple increasing control, according to a new
international survey.
The use of mobile devices to access news on a weekly
basis surged in the last year from 37% of respondents to almost half (46%),
according to a 12-country report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of
Journalism (RISJ). As smartphones and tablets become the devices of choice for
accessing content, traditional news brands are being dis-intermediated by the
Silicon Valley giants.
The US firms are in a battle to be the top platform
for news, with Facebook recently unveiling its Instant Articles service, and
Apple announcing a revamp of Newsstand as Apple News. The report shows a 42%
increase year-on-year in referrals from Facebook to the top 20 global news
organisations, showing the increasing importance of social media in driving
traffic and revenue.
“The reality is that only the most loyal users are
downloading and using apps,” said Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of research at
the RISJ. “For others, social media, messaging apps, email and mobile
notifications are becoming an increasingly important route to news”.
Nielsen says the relative difficulty in monetising
content on mobile devices compared to traditional desktop websites, and the
rise of ad-blocking technology, means that news brands will find it increasingly
hard to make money.
3 India inflation negative for seventh month (Times
of India) Inflation in India remained in negative territory for the seventh
month in May, registering a decline of 2.36% on account of subdued prices of
food items, fuel and manufactured goods. In the coming months, however, the
price situation will depend on the progress of monsoon, experts said.
The wholesale price index- (WPI) based inflation was
-2.65% in April. It has been in the negative zone since November. Inflation in
May 2014 was 6.18%. The lower inflation
comes amid a forecast of deficient monsoon this year. The Consumer Price Index inflation
had inched up marginally in May to over 5% from 4.87% in the previous month.
Overall, food inflation was 3.8% — much lower than
the previous few months. The May inflation in manufactured items (food
products, sugar, edible oils, beverages) declined by 0.64% — lowest in past
many months. Inflation in fuel and power basket was at -10.51% on annual basis,
though slightly up from April.
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