VIDEO: 'Absurd' to blame China for US woes

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
3 October 2011 Last updated at 01:53 GMT Help

View the original article here

VIDEO: The future for in-flight movies

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Keith Wallace reports on how technology could bring about major changes to in-flight entertainment in the skies.

Airlines are looking at options to link your phone or laptop to the aircraft's entertainment system or the internet and touch-screen ordering for your drinks and snacks on board.

Get in touch with Fast Track via e-mail or Facebook.

Watch Fast Track on the BBC World News channel on Saturdays at 0430, 1230 and 1930 GMT or Sundays at 1930 GMT.

View the original article here

Growing trade ties between Indian and Pakistan

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
2 October 2011 Last updated at 16:04 GMT By Shahzeb Jillani BBC News Pakistan's commerce minister (right) took a large delegation with him Business leaders from India and Pakistan say there's new optimism about the efforts their governments are making to improve trade ties. But critics warn that overcoming decades of mistrust may not be that easy.

For the first time in 35 years, a Pakistani commerce minister led a business delegation to India last week. The entourage included nearly 80 leading industrialists, traders and high-ranking officials.

Peace talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours broke down in 2008 after the attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai, which India blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

Nearly three years on, as if to emphasize a sense of normalcy, the Pakistani Commerce Minister, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, was hosted at the city's iconic Taj Mahal Hotel - which was one of the main targets of the 2008 attacks.

There, leading Pakistani traders got a chance to mingle with their equally eager-for-business Indian counterparts.

Between them, they spoke not just of the profits their individual businesses could make if their governments removed the long standing hurdles in their way. But also of how much the people of their two countries, and indeed the wider region, stand to benefit from freer movement of goods, money and commodities.

Win-win situation Continue reading the main story

The only way I see realization of trade potential between our two countries is for India to remove its non-tariff trade barriers and for Pakistan to reciprocate by granting the MFN status to India”

End Quote Hasan Khan Former advisor to Pakistan's Ministry of Finance Vijay Kalantri, president of All India Association of Industries, said traders on both sides feel business between India and Pakistan is a win-win situation for everyone.

"Why are Indians and Pakistanis forced to trade unofficially via third countries like Dubai or Sri Lanka?" he tells the BBC from Mumbai.

"All we are asking is, let there be direct business-to-business contact between us."

After the talks in Delhi, ministers from the two sides announced their agreement to boost their annual bilateral trade from current $2.7bn (￡1.7bn) to $6bn by 2015.

They also pledged to ease business travel and promote bilateral trade through the land route.

For Pakistan, a significant announcement was a pledge by India to drop its opposition to the European Union's plan to grant Pakistan tariff waiver on select commodities to help it recover from the devastation of 2010 floods.

There was hope that Pakistan might reciprocate and grant India the Most Favoured Nation status (India granted Pakistan MFN status way back in the 1990s).

Even though no such announcement came, Pakistan committed itself to a road map to implement preferential trade ties with India, as prescribed under the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA).

Trade barriers

There are a number of explanations why Pakistan has so far withheld the MFN status from India.

At present there are a number of barriers to prevent trade between Indian and Pakistan

First is political. Pakistani leaders have often linked it to the resolution of the core issue of Kashmir.

It's a stance which has long been propagated for mainly domestic consumption.

But there is a sense in Pakistan that while the country should continue to push for a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue, trade and commerce should not be held hostage to resolution of political disputes.

The second is protectionism. For years, domestic industry in Pakistan has feared it would be swamped by imports from India. But even there, the mood appears to have shifted.

Senator Haji Ghulam Ali, president of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, says there's a consensus that Pakistan should open up to Indian business.

"Everyone now recognizes it will be beneficial for both sides. It's just a matter of time before it's done," he tells the BBC from Delhi.

Business leaders say that less trade barriers would benefit firms in both countries

However, the last, and more plausible, obstacle is the issue of non-tariff barriers.

"In my experience, India has one of the most restrictive trade regimes in the region," asserts Dr Ashfaq Hasan Khan, a former advisor to Pakistan's Ministry of Finance. His view matters, given has decades of dealings with South Asian governments on trade liberalization.

He explains that despite granting Pakistan the MFN status, India has a variety of non-tariff barriers in place - such as, stringent certification codes, customs rules, security clearances and movement restrictions - which make it virtually impossible for Pakistani traders to do business in India.

"The only way I see realization of trade potential between our two countries is for India to remove its non-tariff trade barriers and for Pakistan to reciprocate by granting the MFN status to India," says Mr Khan.

He adds: "Unless there's political will to do that, everything else is just talk and photo-op."

View the original article here

New £50 note set for 2 November

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
30 September 2011 Last updated at 15:24 GMT Boulton (left) and Watt were two key figures in the Industrial Revolution The Bank of England has announced that the new-style ￡50 note will be introduced on 2 November.

The design of the new note was revealed in 2009 and features entrepreneur Matthew Boulton and engineer James Watt, who pioneered the use of steam engines in textile manufacturing.

The Bank says the note will have a range of enhanced security features.

It will be the first time that two portraits will appear together on the reverse of one its banknotes.

The Boulton and Watt note will initially be circulated in tandem with the current ￡50 note featuring Sir John Houblon, the first governor of the Bank of England.

The Houblon note will eventually be withdrawn. The Bank will announce a withdrawal date in due course.

The design has seldom changed since it was first introduced in 1725. A white ￡50 was in use for more than 200 years until 1943.

There are 210 million ￡50 notes in circulation, valued at ￡10.5bn. That is 84% higher than 7 years ago.

The ￡20 is the most common Bank of England note in circulation, with 1.55 billion notes in circulation worth ￡31bn.

View the original article here

US factory orders drop slightly

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
4 October 2011 Last updated at 15:08 GMT Activity remained subdued at US factories in the summer New orders at US factories declined slightly, adding to concerns over the health of the world's largest economy.

The Commerce Department said orders for manufactured goods fell 0.2% in August, after rising a downwardly revised 2.1% in July.

Economists had expected orders to be unchanged.

But orders for capital goods - expensive items such as computers and communications equipment - rose 0.9%, the second gain in three months.

Sluggish growth in the US economy earlier this year has not been sufficient to reduce high levels of unemployment.

The economic recovery is "close to faltering", Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday.

On Monday, the ISM Manufacturing Index unexpectedly rose in September, beating expectations that the index would remain unchanged.

View the original article here

Kodak denies any bankruptcy plans

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
2 October 2011 Last updated at 10:09 GMT Kodak is one of the best-known and most iconic brands in photography Eastman Kodak has said it has "no intention of filing for bankruptcy".

The struggling US camera and printing group's comments came after it confirmed it had hired a law firm well-known for handling bankruptcy protection cases, Jones Day.

Kodak said it was "not unusual for a company in transformation to explore all options".

Shares in the firm fell 54% on Friday as fears persist about its future. It has not made a profit since 2007.

Kodak, synonymous with film photography for more than 100 years, has struggled to adapt to the digital age.

Last week it announced plans to borrow $160m (￡103m) for "general corporate purposes".

Kodak is now continuing to explore a sale of its digital imaging patents, worth an estimated $2bn.

Mark Kaufman, an analyst at Rafferty Capital Markets, said: "I don't believe bankruptcy is inevitable.

"This is a pretty valuable portfolio, they should get a good price.

"They need to get this [sale] out of the way. They need to sell this portfolio, raise some type of cash."

The company currently has a market value of $210m. This compares with $31bn at its height in February 1997.

View the original article here

Sharp rise in eurozone inflation

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
30 September 2011 Last updated at 11:18 GMT Continue reading the main story Last Updated at 03:49 GMT

Market indexCurrent valueTrendVariation% variationThe eurozone inflation rate increased to 3% in September, up from 2.5% in August, according to the first estimate from the EU statistics agency.

No breakdown was given, but Eurostat said its initial forecasts were usually "reliable".

Separate figures also released by Eurostat showed the eurozone unemployment rate unchanged at 10% in August from the previous month.

The number of people unemployed fell by 38,000 compared with July.

The unemployment rate in Spain, the highest in Europe, rose slightly to 21.2%, with youth unemployment hitting 46.2%.

However, the jobless rate for those under 25 in the eurozone as a whole fell slightly, to 20.4%.

Falling shares

Analysts, who had expected a small rise in inflation, pointed to technical changes in the way price rises are calculated as a contributory factor in the sharp increase.

Continue reading the main story Andrew Walker Economics correspondent, BBC World Service

This rise in the inflation rate makes the situation even more complicated for the European Central Bank.

The ECB has been widely criticised for raising interest rates earlier this year, as several eurozone countries are struggling with government debt crises and economic growth that is either weak or completely stalled.

The ECB has an inflation target of close to but below 2%. So the increased rate of price rises will make the Bank even more cautious about making interest rate cuts.

In addition, some of the ideas being discussed for responding to the eurozone crisis involve a wider role for the European Central Bank which could be characterised as, in effect, "printing money". As this could be inflationary, the latest data on price rises underlines the potential risk of such a move.

"It's not a nice number, but I wouldn't panic that the high inflation which some have warned about for years is finally here," said Martin Van Vliet at ING.

"We will see inflation declining over the next months, staying above 2.5% but next year, with stable oil and food prices, we will fall to lower levels."

The European Central Bank target for inflation is 2%, and the bank raised interest rates in July from 1.25% to 1.5% in order to combat rising prices.

However, the continuing debt crisis makes further rate rises in the coming months unlikely, analysts say.

With confidence in the outlook for economic growth in the eurozone fragile, policymakers are unlikely to risk raising rates, they say.

Equally, however, sharply rising prices make a cut in interest rates less likely.

This put further downward pressure on markets that fell sharply in early trading.

Germany's Dax index was down 2.5%, with France's Cac 40 and the UK's FTSE 100 sliding about 1.5%.

View the original article here