The US department of Agriculture has estimated that the American milk output for 2013 will drop around 0.5 percent to 198.9bn pounds as the number of milk producing cows drops to an eight year low. Corn crops, an essential component of cattle feed, have soared to record high prices in August after a summer of draught and pestilence afflicted the US and destroyed much of the harvest. According to the UN, global dairy prices rose 6.9 percent last month alone. The supply of feed is likely to remain low for the next 12 months, slowing the output in the US and Europe considerably. American cows produced an average of 1,776 pounds of milk each in A...
The World Bank has cut its forecast for China’s growth rate this year citing concerns over the weak demand for its exports, and slow investment growth. The global lender cut its prediction to 7.7 percent, down from the 8.2 percent growth estimate it made in May. In a report on the state of East Asia and Pacific economies the World Bank said there are fears that China might slow down even further. “The risk remains of a more pronounced slowdown in China than currently expected,” said the report. China has been hit particularly hard this year by slow international demand for exports to the eurozone and the US, two of its biggest markets. ...
The US credit union regulator has filed a lawsuit against the American arm of Credit Suisse Securities, accusing it of selling faulty or misrepresented mortgage-backed securities to three credit unions, which later collapsed. The suit was filed in a federal court in Kansas City, Kansas. It was revealed in a statement by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) that the three credit unions bought over $715m of the faulty securities after allegedly being led to believe that there was little chance of losing money from the investment. The securities were sold to US Central Federal Credit Union, Western Corporate Federal Credit Union and S...
Nasdaq was forced to cancel a number of stock trades in Kraft Foods after a trading glitch caused the company’s shares to shoot up nearly 30 percent. The trading error comes just days after Kraft Foods and their former snack business Mondelez International began trading as two separate companies. Kraft and Mondelez have recently switched their shares from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq. Both companies’ shares soared as much as 28.9 percent within one minute of the opening bell on Wednesday morning. The error was spotted within an hour of the market opening. A subsequent review ruled the trades ‘erroneous’ and they were cancelle...
An advisory group set up by the European Commission has called for Europe’s biggest banks to keep their traditional deposit-keeping business legally apart from other, higher-risk activities. The recommendations intend to safeguard ordinary bank clients and savers from future banking crisis and to avoid further shocks to the banking system. The Liikanen Group made the recommendations for the “legal separation of […] particularly risky financial activities from deposit taking”, as well as “activities closely linked with securities and derivatives”. The group was commissioned with reviewing the European banking system last year. Ex...
Thailand’s economy has expanded around 3.3 percent in the second quarter, smashing forecasts which had puts growth at 1.7 percent. The figure was released by the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) reflects measures taken by the government to boost the economy following last year’s flood and slow growth. Year-on-year growth has been of 4.2 percent, from 0.3 percent. The government has also announced plans to invest $63.4bn on infrastructure in an attempt to prevent or mitigate the consequences of natural disasters in the future and bolster growth even further. However, Arkhom Termittayapaisith, secretary general at the ...
Although the world’s second largest emerging economy has provided investors with plenty of opportunities over the last few years, growth last year plummeted partly as a result of the country’s inadequate infrastructure. In order to address investors concerns, the Brazilian government yesterday announced a massive $65.6bn investment in its transport infrastructure over the course of the next 25 years. Over half of that amount will be spent in the next five years, with a particular focus on the county’s roads and railways. President Dilma Rousseff told reporters: “We are starting with railways and roads but obviously we will take care o...
After coming in for heavy criticism for hiding a series of transactions with Iranian financial institutions, Standard Chartered has paid off regulators in New York. The US has strict economic sanctions on the Iranian regime, and the New York Department of Financial Services last week said that the Hong Kong based bank had infringed these sanctions after uncovering details of around $250bn of transactions with Iran. Although the bank claims that the deals only amounted to $14m, it says it is willing to pay the “civic penalty” in order to move on. In a brief statement the bank said: “A formal agreement containing the detailed terms of the...
Figures released this morning show that the German economy, which has held together the chaotic eurozone during the last few years of financial strife, has grown just 0.3 percent over the last quarter. Fuelled by domestic consumption and relatively strong exports, the rate is less than the 0.5 percent of the previous quarter, but more than the 0.2 percent predicted by leading economists to Reuters. ABN Amro’s Aline Schuilling said they felt the figures won’t prevent the eurozone from contracting in the coming months. “We do not think that Germany on its own can keep the entire euro zone afloat. We expect total eurozone GDP to have contr...
With many financial institutions coming under pressure to restructure their businesses in the wake of the last few years of economic turmoil, some firms have looked to separate aspects of their business in order to isolate the potential risks. JP Morgan, however, have announced plans to merge their corporate and investment banking divisions with their securities and treasuries arms, in the hope that it will lead to increased pre-tax profits of $1bn over the course of the next five years. In an interview with the Financial Times on Monday, group CEO, Jamie Dimon, said this streamlining of the business will help reduce costs while tightening th...