1 Canada emerges from slump with 2.3% growth (Gulf
News) Canada’s economy grew for the first time in three quarters with gains in
automotive exports and consumer spending overtaking the damage from lower oil
prices. Gross domestic product expanded at a 2.3 per cent annualised pace from
July to September, Statistics Canada said, matching the median of a Bloomberg
economist survey with 26 responses.
Canada’s “two-speed” economy — defined by low oil
prices and momentum outside of the energy sector — needs until the middle of
2017 to get back to full capacity, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz
predicts.
Poloz cut interest rates in January and July to
counteract the oil price shock, which led to a depreciation of the country’s
currency and is providing a boon to automakers and other goods makers. The pace
of growth was slowed by a 3 per cent decline in business investment, the third
drop in a row. Government expenditures also declined by 1.6 per cent.
Third-quarter growth almost matches the Bank of
Canada’s most recent forecast for a 2.5 per cent increase. The central bank
also said output growth would slow to a 1.5 per cent pace between October and
December before picking up to a rate of 2.7 per cent in the second half of next
year.
The drop in Canada’s prices for exported crude oil
and other commodities shrank the economy in the first half of the year, with
most economists saying the declines of less than 1 per cent were too small to
be considered a true recession.
2 Zuckerberg to give away 99% of shares (BBC) Facebook's
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan say they will give away 99% of
their shares in the company to good causes as they announce the birth of their
daughter Max. Mr Zuckerberg made the announcement in a letter to Max on his
Facebook page.
He said they are donating their fortune to the Chan
Zuckerberg Initiative because they want to make the world a better place for
Max to grow up in. Mr Zuckerberg said the donation currently amounts to $45bn
(£30bn).
Max was born last week, but the couple only made the
news of her birth public on Tuesday. In his letter Mr Zuckerberg said the aim
of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is "to advance human potential and
promote equality for all children in the next generation".
Its initial areas of focus will be personalised
learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities. "Your
mother and I don't yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the
future," Mr Zuckerberg said at the start of his letter to Max. "You've
already given us a reason to reflect on the world we hope you live in," it
added.
3 Apple and people-to-people payments (Olga Kharif
in Sydney Morning Herald) Silicon Valley is obsessed with a particular part of
the finance business that involves sending cash to friends using an app. That's
led to a flurry of options that often aren't profitable because they charge
little to no transaction fees. PayPal and its subsidiary, Venmo, are among the
most popular, though they face a growing list of competitors, including Google,
Facebook, and Square.
Now Apple plans to get in on the action, too. If
Apple hopes to compete, it will also need to make its service free to use with
debit cards, according to analysts. Person-to-person payment services aren't
cheap to operate, and Apple may lose money on many transactions, said research
firm Crone Consulting. Companies don't generate much revenue from payments
users make to friends, said Will Stofega, an analyst at researcher IDC.
Apple isn't likely to find a way to profit directly
from the feature. Instead, the company will probably use it to increase
adoption of Apple Pay in stores. The mobile tap-to-pay option hasn't taken off
as quickly as expected since it debuted about a year ago.
Meanwhile, PayPal said Venmo processed $2.1 billion in
transactions last quarter as people used the app to split the bill at
restaurants, pay roommates for rent, or reimburse friends for movie tickets.
"We think of it as an engagement play; there's a monetisation aspect that
comes second," said Jo Lambert, a vice president at PayPal.
While there's no shortage of apps in the $7.5
billion US market for sending money to friends using a phone, analysts are
bullish on Apple's prospects - so much so that some anticipate fallout for
credit card providers and ATM makers. Money-transfer apps could reduce the need
to hit the cash machine.
If iPhone users start connecting Apple Pay to their
bank accounts, they could bypass credit cards entirely when sending money to
friends and potentially for in-store payments, cutting out middlemen.
It's
almost impossible to predict how long such a shift would take. But Talie Baker,
an analyst at researcher Aite Group who relies on Chase QuickPay to exchange
money with friends at least once a week, sees a cashless future as inevitable:
"I can't wait for the day when it's just a lipstick and a phone in your
pocket, and that's all you need."
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