1 Eurozone unemployment at lowest level in four
years (San Francisco Chronicle) Unemployment across the 19-country eurozone
fell in December for the 15th month running to its lowest level in a little
more than four years, official figures have shown.
However, the monthly decline was the smallest in six
months and has reinforced concerns that the recovery was already losing
momentum at the end of 2015 — even before the China-related turmoil in financial
markets stoked fears for the global economic outlook.
Statistics agency Eurostat said the number of people
out of work across the eurozone in December decreased by 49,000 to a total of
16.75 million, its lowest level since October 2011. The last time the eurozone
has enjoyed a longer run of falling unemployment was the 21-month stretch that
ended in June 2007.
As a result of the latest monthly fall, the
unemployment rate fell from 10.5 percent to 10.4 percent, its lowest since
September 2011. Though unemployment has been falling steadily, it's still
relatively high across the region, certainly in comparison with the US, where
the jobless rate stands at 5 percent.
And the overall numbers continue to mask big
disparities. While Germany's unemployment rate stands at 4.5 percent, according
to Eurostat, Greece and Spain remain lumbered by jobless rates above 20
percent. And youth unemployment is way too high at 22 percent across the
eurozone as a whole.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Eurozone-unemployment-edges-down-for-15th-month-6800224.php
2 Saudi fiscal reserves at four-year low (Gulf News)
Saudi Arabia’s fiscal reserves dropped to a four-year low last year as the
government sought to finance a budget deficit caused by plunging oil revenues,
a report says.
The reserves of the world’s largest crude exporter
dropped to $611.9 billion at the end of 2015, the lowest level since 2011, down
from $732 billion a year before, the Saudi Jadwa Investment said. Jadwa said it
expected reserves to fall to around $500 billion by the end of 2016, after oil
prices fell by three quarters since mid-2014.
The kingdom, the second largest crude producer after
Russia, posted a record budget deficit of $98 billion last year after oil
income dived by 60 per cent to just $118 billion. Riyadh also projected an $87
billion deficit for this year but Jadwa forecast the shortfall to be more than
$107 billion.
To help finance the budget deficit, the kingdom in
December introduced a series of austerity measures raising fuel prices by up to
80 per cent and increasing the prices of electricity, water, natural gas and
others. Jadwa said it expected inflation to soar this year to 3.9 per cent,
from 2.2 per cent last year, as a result of the price hikes. The kingdom also
issued bonds in the domestic market worth $30 billion.
The International Monetary Fund last month revised
downward Saudi gross domestic product growth to just 1.2 per cent this year,
the lowest since 2009. Its GDP grew 3.4 per cent in 2015. Saudi Arabia is
currently pumping 10.2 million barrels of crude per day.
http://gulfnews.com/business/economy/saudi-fiscal-reserves-slide-to-4-year-low-on-weak-oil-1.1664670
3 Yahoo reports $4.4bn loss, to cut 15% of staff
(Jana Kasperkevic & Julia Carrie Wong in The Guardian) Yahoo chief
executive Marissa Mayer has announced plans to cut the company’s workforce by
15% and close five foreign offices by the end of 2016.
The struggling tech company reported a $4.4bn loss
for the last three months of 2015 as it wrote down the value of assets
including Tumblr, the blogging site it bought for $1bn in 2013. Mayer, a former
Google executive, has come under pressure from activist shareholders unhappy
with her tenure. She announced an “aggressive strategic plan” that is expected
to lead to the sale of parts of its business.
Yahoo’s fourth quarter earnings for 2015 were better
than expected, coming in at $1.27bn. Overall, the revenue for 2015 was $4.9bn,
up from $4.6bn the year before. But the company’s traffic acquisition costs
(TAC), the amount Yahoo spends to attract users to its websites, rose to $271m
in the fourth quarter, up from $74m a year earlier.
Yahoo said its strategic plan would simplify the
company and narrow its focus. While revenue has gone up, Yahoo shares have
fallen 33% over the past year. Over the past three months they have fallen by
17%. The company also reinforced its
commitment to spinning off its $31bn stake in Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce
business.
4 BP profits halve, shares plunge (BBC) Shares in BP
have ended Tuesday almost 9% lower after it reported that annual profits had
more than halved. The oil giant said its profits had fallen by 51% to $5.9bn
(£4.1bn), compared with $12.1bn in 2014 following a dramatic slide in oil
prices.
Oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday, with Brent crude
down 5.3% to $32.42. BP's underlying fourth-quarter profits sank to $196m,
compared with $2.2bn for the same period in 2014 and far worse than analysts
had expected. A further 3,000 job cuts were also announced by BP on Tuesday.
Last year, it said 4,000 jobs would go in its
upstream division as part of a $2.5bn restructuring programme. BP said its
upstream business, which covers exploration and production, slumped to a $728m
loss in the final quarter. Bob Dudley, BP chief executive, said the company was
making good progress in managing and lowering costs and capital spending.
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