1 US growth revised higher (BBC) The US economy grew
even faster than thought in the July-to-September period, latest official
figures indicate. The world's largest economy grew at an annualised rate of
3.5% in the quarter, up from an earlier estimate of 3.2%, the Commerce
Department said. It was the second time that the figure had been revised
upwards, from an initial 2.9%.
The rate of growth in the third quarter was the
strongest for two years. The Commerce Department said consumer spending, which
accounts for more than two-thirds of the US economy, increased at a rate of 3%,
compared with the previous estimate of 2.8% and the initial estimate of 2.1%.
2 More Asian defaults loom in 2017 (Straits Times) As
if investors in Asia's troubled corporate bond markets don't have enough to
worry about, concern is mounting about whether South Korean shipyards will be
able to repay record amounts of debt coming due next year.
Yields on bonds of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine
Engineering Co and Samsung Heavy Industries Co have shot up this year. The top
four Korean shipbuilders have 2.3 trillion won in notes maturing next year, the
most in Bloomberg-compiled data going back to 1997.
The bond slump adds to jitters in Asia's debt
market, which has seen Chinese defaults climb to 28 this year from seven in
2015 and delinquencies spreading in Singapore as weak commodity markets took
their toll. Hanjin Shipping Co sought bankruptcy protection this year and
earnings suffered at Korea's top shipyards including Hyundai Heavy Industries
Co and Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co, amid a slump in oil prices and growing
competition from China.
Hyundai Heavy, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Samsung Heavy
have all posted multiple quarters of losses in the past year-and-a-half amid
delivery delays and a plunge in demand for new vessels and oil platforms. Korea
Ratings, a local affiliate of Fitch, cut the credit scores of all three
shipyards in 2016 and has a negative outlook.
3 World’s first solar panel road (Kim Willsher in
The Guardian) France has opened what it claims to be the world’s first solar
panel road, in a Normandy village. A 1km route in the small village of
Tourouvre-au-Perche covered with 2,800 sq m of electricity-generating panels,
was inaugurated by the ecology minister, Ségolène Royal.
It cost €5m to construct and will be used by about
2,000 motorists a day during a two-year test period to establish if it can
generate enough energy to power street-lighting in the village of 3,400
residents.
In 2014, a solar-powered cycle path opened in
Krommenie in the Netherlands and, despite teething problems, has generated
3,000kWh of energy – enough to power an average family home for a year. The
cost of building the cycle path, however, could have paid for 520,000kWh.
Before the solar-powered road – called Wattway – was
opened on the RD5 road, the panels were tested at four car parks across France.
The constructor was Colas, part of giant telecoms group Bouygues, and financed
by the state. Normandy is not known for its surfeit of sunshine: Caen, the
region’s political capital, enjoys just 44 days of strong sunshine a year
compared with 170 in Marseilles.
Critics say it is not a cost-effective use of public
money. Marc Jedliczka, vice-president of Network for Energetic Transition (CLER)
told Le Monde: “It’s without doubt a technical advance, but in order to develop
renewables there are other priorities than a gadget of which we are more
certain that it’s very expensive than the fact it works.”
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