Posts Tagged ‘international’

These figures make the misfortune of the Greeks

May 16, 2011 - 1:56 pm Comments Off

Manageable or unbearable? Greek debt is the largest in the euro area relative to the size of the country. It represents almost one and a half times its gross domestic product. For the moment, Greece is on life support of the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). But the aid of EUR 110 billion will be repaid from 2013.

Some, like the IMF, argued that Greece has the means to cope. However, many economists doubt the ability of the Mediterranean country to face the wall of reimbursements that will be overcome in two years. She will need to find 60.9 billion euros in 2013 and 78.4 billion next year and 85 billion in 2015, calculated the International Monetary Fund.

Privatization chain

To finance its debt, Greece has pledged to privatize public enterprises and to sell state assets to the tune of 50 billion euros by 2015. Also to ease the bill for 2015, the EU agreed to extend the duration of its loans from 3 years to 7.5 years. According to analysts at Societe Generale, it could mean that Athens has nothing to repay to the EU by 2017.

The British government sold its cellar

May 14, 2011 - 12:32 pm Comments Off

In the United Kingdom, the austerity spared any sector, not even the cellar of Her Majesty's Government, which provides for eighty years banquets and official functions. "I seriously considered deleting the cellar, but all indications are that we will save taxpayers by preserving and reforming it in order to finance the purchases of sales of some raw targeted," said Secretary State for Foreign Affairs, Henry Bellingham, charged with managing the cellar official.

"Sales of targeted stocks of high value" will save half a million pounds – 571 000 – in five years. The cellar of 38,000 bottles British government account, whose value is estimated at one million euros.

The economic and social challenges of Mayotte

March 31, 2011 - 4:52 am Comments Off

Earlier this year, the head of state went to Mayotte in anticipation of the creation of the 101st French department. For the 186,000 inhabitants of the island, the promise became a reality this Thursday, March 31.

If 2010 has prepared the process of departmentalization, Mayotte has a long way to go. The economic and social challenges are enormous. Economic First, because the island is in a difficult situation. The written conditions of the Institut d'émission des overseas (IEDOM, relay Overseas Bank of France), published recently, last year was particularly weak in all sectors (including agriculture, construction, trade). The labor market continued to deteriorate, consumption fell, as imports.In short, Mayotte had a year 2010 "morose" and, apart from a little less poor prospects in tourism, "in 2011 gave no indication of genuine improvement", said the new director of the IEDOM, Nicolas de Seze.

Development Fund

Social challenges then, as the island is facing significant migration flows. The proportion of foreigners, mostly from other islands of the Comoros – who come to find work, join relatives, to qualify for the schooling of their children or for treatment – from 15% in the early 1990s to nearly 41% in 2007, fell within the central bank in a previous study savings account payday advance.The vast majority would be illegal.

The cost of illegal immigration has been estimated in a Senate report from 2008 to 32.4 million euros for national education and 30 million for health services – more than 3.3 million on the fight against this immigration (police, gendarmerie …). Excluding the cost of moonlighting.

New French department, Mayotte "will benefit from development funds relatively large," recalls Will there be IEDOM. Another issue will then arise: "The ability to use knowledge. The real problem is there. We need a real project management for projects, it will take time. "There must then be the private sector take over public investment. Not a small feat in a country where, today, produce is more expensive than importing "…

Japan's economy paralyzed after the quake

March 11, 2011 - 1:16 pm Comments Off

The most powerful earthquake which claimed the North-eastern Japan early this morning has an impact on the Japanese economy. Before long, the Nikkei has literally collapsed, the yen has fallen and the country is, for now paralyzed.

In fact, air transport and railways have stopped Friday in much of Japan. Traffic was stopped in the major airport of the archipelago, at Narita, in the Tokyo area, where services were checking the status of airport runways. Shinkansen express trains were immediately arrested throughout the northeast of the archipelago, and highways in the Tokyo area closed a few minutes after the earthquake.

Similarly, the markets, the response is immediate. The Japanese currency fell against all the eight major currencies.The Japanese currency is thus dropped to a low of two weeks against the dollar at 83.30 yen to the dollar and 114.98 yen per euro after issuing a first warning to the tsunami.

The index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei 225, has accelerated its losses late in the session. The benchmark index of the place of Japan and ended lower by 1.72%

It must be said that the disaster – which worsens progressively transmitted information has been particularly violent. The quake had a magnitude of 8.8 at 6:46. A scale rarely observed. Waves of 4.2 meters swept the Pacific Coast. Japanese TV shows and soon after the earthquake has made "many injured".

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Ireland wants to renegotiate the plan with the EU and IMF

February 28, 2011 - 8:32 am Comments Off

The Irish vote is also a warning to Europe. By giving more than 36% of the votes of the opposition Fine Gael in parliamentary elections on Friday, voters clearly endorsed the government that had negotiated the bailout with the EU and the IMF. The ruling party had won just over 17% of the votes. The future prime minister, Enda Kenny, has already announced he intends to immediately renegotiate the terms "punitive" of the device. For Europeans, the case falls ill while looming in March, a marathon of negotiations critical to the future of the euro area.

"We will act on it next week," promised Enda Kenny, who considers "bad for Ireland and for Europe" the bailout of 85 billion euros signed in late November. The future prime minister wants to broach the subject on Friday in Helsinki at a meeting of conservative leaders of the EU.With two requests: to lower the rates "punitive" loan, fixed at 5.8% and involving banks, making them bear a larger share of losses.

European side, the rhetoric still print campaign promises was greeted with caution. "The Commission will continue to support Ireland" in the implementation of its austerity program, "which is essential" to the country's economy, said Sunday the spokesman on economic issues, Amadeu Altafaj. Before the elections, Brussels had suggested that there might be a little leeway for adjustments after 2011.A lower interest rate can not be excluded, but Dublin will probably make concessions on its corporate tax rate, seen as fiscal dumping elsewhere in Europe.

Fears for the other weak links

The Irish case puts the euro area in front of his responsibilities on the eve of a series of summits that bring together Heads of State and Government (11 and 24 March) and Finance Ministers (14 and probably 21 March) low fee payday loans. It is to decide on remedies for the debt crisis, first by raising the ceiling of the Rescue Fund (FESF) to assist countries in serious financial difficulties, and partly by tightening governance . Germany has much to impose his views on fiscal discipline.But his range of proposals, unveiled a month ago, was recently welcomed by its partners.

This bodes ill for the magnitude of the final result, even though the euro area sees risks reappear after a brief lull. Between record high oil prices and market concerns, Portugal was in the front line. The fear of another recession pushed its lending rates to astronomical levels (7.579% Friday, a record since the country's entry into the euro area). Investors are already convinced that Lisbon will shortly call on European rescue mechanism – such as Ireland and Greece before him.A perspective that revives fears for the other weak links in the eurozone, Spain in mind.

On Wednesday, the Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, will be received by Angela Merkel in Berlin to discuss the support fund – and how countries' having problems with their sovereign debt, such as Portugal "could best use of the devices financial assistance.

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Smartphone sales jumped 72% in 2010

February 9, 2011 - 9:00 pm Comments Off

Last year, the mobile phone market was above all marked by soaring sales of smartphones, up 72%. They now account for 19% of the 1.6 billion handsets sold worldwide. A share that will grow and could reach 70% within two to three years.

Nokia, whose difficulties are no secret to anyone, is still the market leader, with another 28.6% market share (against 36.4% in 2009). "I do not see Nokia losing its global leadership in the short term, Le Figaro said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner. The group however is constantly facing new challenges. Especially the "white boxes" these little Chinese brands that have long served the limits of legality and now have a storefront.Micromax carve cruppers or G5 with Nokia in India, Africa, or Russia and Ukraine and of course, China!

Samsung continues to position itself as a challenger to Nokia in emerging markets and entry level. Its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S was sold about 10 million units in the last quarter, making it a very serious competitor to the iPhone. But Apple continues to benefit from "the strength of the attractiveness of its brand," said Carolina Milanesi. A change in the pricing of Apple, although unlikely, could be accompanied by a new boom in sales cash advance loan no fax. And even without that, Apple and RIM (BlackBerry) now rank ahead of Sony Ericsson and Motorola.

The challenge of operating systems

The symbol is strong in the fourth quarter of 2010, Symbian, Nokia has lost its place as the operating system's biggest selling world in favor of Android from Google.On the whole year, the OS remains the Finnish front, with 37.6% market share, a position very fragile in view of recent sales. "Even if the group is preparing to make drastic choices. It should not however abandon Symbian for Android. In contrast, in the high end, the platform could be Google's preferred solution to the house, Meego. " Globally, Carolina Milanesi estimated 5 or 6 operating systems to coexist, with three or four major players by region. The diversity of solutions is needed to face the width of an offer which starts at $ 20 to finish at $ 900.

Finally, the radius of disappointments Windows Phone figure 7 that despite significant marketing resources in place was not up to the expectations of the market. In the fourth quarter, it sold only 1.4 million phones in Windows 7.

Microsoft and Google trap accused of plagiarism

February 2, 2011 - 3:24 pm Comments Off

Google settles accounts with Microsoft in public. In a blog published on the night, the number one Internet search accuses his rival of copying the results it provides Internet site Bing. "Some results from Bing resemble more and more to an incomplete version, hackneyed from those offered by Google – a cheap imitation," says one of the engineers of the division of research on the internet, Amit Singhal.

The story takes the spy novel. It began last summer, says Google, where its engineers find that gives the same first search result on a misspelled word: "torsorophy" instead of "tarsorrhaphy (Tarsorrhaphy, an ophthalmic surgery)."Bing began offering our first search result without specifying the spelling [...] It was very strange," writes Amit Singhal.

A real trap is then assembled by teams of Google, who voluntarily associate a hundred keywords devoid of any meaning ("hiybbprqag", "delhipublicschool40 chdjob" or "juegosdeben1ogrande") with Internet pages containing any of these words. Normally, other search engines, which Bing would never have offered results for these keywords invented payday loans. But after some time, Bing began to display exactly the same as those of Google.

Observes the Microsoft Internet Explorer users

Why? Google advance an explanation.Microsoft to attract into his trap, he told twenty of his engineers laptops running Windows with Internet Explorer, and gave them the task of entering the keywords Google invented and click on the rigged results. According to Amit Singhal, the similarity of the results shows that Microsoft observes user navigation on Internet Explorer to copy Google's ranking in Bing. "We hope that this practice cease," he quips.

Taken to task publicly, Microsoft has admitted to using information obtained through Internet Explorer, with the consent of its users. What he had never hidden the rest, says Business Insider. But according to an official of Bing, Harry Shum, these data represent only a "small part" of information that takes into account in determining its ranking."We use more than 1000 different signals and features in our algorithm," said the Microsoft executive.

Starbucks is changing its logo, the customer does not like

January 7, 2011 - 9:12 pm Comments Off

"Stupid," "horrible," "simple, modern and boring." Facebook page from Starbucks, the regulars of the coffee chain has more than enough words to describe the logo change envisaged by the company in March. One of the 281 comments posted on the official website of the brand is even more direct: "What is the moron in your marketing department who had the idea to remove the name world famous Starbucks Coffee on your new logo? .

Far from being radical, change is surprising indeed. Logo in force since 1992, when its IPO, the Seattle-based group that retains the stylized siren, abandons the black color that was present in its former corporate signature and keep only the traditional green. Exit statement also internationally known as "Starbucks Coffee".

Aware of the risks of marketing such a change, the company's CEO, Howard Schultz, took out the heavy artillery to be justified. Video, photos and special pages are multiplying on the brand website. "Although we have been and will always be a distributor of coffee, it is possible that we have in the future new products without coffee" Howard Schultz is justified. The latter also points out that such changes occur for the 40-year mark, a period conducive to a fresh start.

"A generic '

However, these arguments do not seem to satisfy fans of the coffee chain payday loan lenders. Some – like the man who says "never start their day without their Starbucks, even walking in 60 cm of snow" especially fear of no longer navigate. "When I go abroad, Starbucks are my benchmarks. Now I no longer recognize, "says one visitor.

Specialists are also surprised. "It's crazy. They will say what? 'The coffee formerly known as Starbucks?' "Surprised James Gregory, the consulting firm CoreBrand. The latter concern mainly the signing unnamed sui could harm the brand also present in other distribution networks. "Here you're dealing with customers who are not regulars. Your product becomes almost a generic product and it does not say it's a Starbucks product, "said he.

Financial issues also raise questions. Starbucks, which is emerging from a restructuring period marked by the closure of 1,000 stores worldwide, will change the logos on its 16,000 stores and hundreds of products. For now, the cost of this transformation of the logo is not mentioned.

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Background

Logo criticized and removed.

Areva is accelerating its offensive in offshore wind

December 26, 2010 - 3:32 pm Comments Off

On the eve of the holiday season, Areva offers a nice gift. It is not in the register as expected. The French group, world leader in nuclear power, has indeed won a contract worth 400 million euros in offshore wind. Made official Thursday, the order calls for the construction, implementation and maintenance of 40 turbines of 5 megawatts M5000 (MW) each. These facilities are for the park Borkum West II, located in the North Sea.

Commissioning is planned for 2012-2013. Thanks to the 200 MW installed, Areva will supply electricity to some 200,000 homes. Often double as the contract signed with Trianel, an association of several German utilities, including an option – exerting in 2011 – for forty additional turbines. Incidentally, the French group was pleased that "eleven of the first rank banks committed themselves to fund this project."Evidence at his eyes firmly believe that investors in the development of green electricity.

Areva, which regularly insists on its uniqueness as an energy "low-carbon" – nuclear over renewable – the niche has invested in wind energy in 2007, taking 51% of the German manufacturer Multibrid payday advance low fees. Last spring, he bought the remaining 49%. Multibrid became Wind Areva, a 100% subsidiary of Areva and solely dedicated to offshore wind.

The company currently boasts some 600 MW of projects. It has already commissioned six turbines M5000 Alpha Ventus, the first German offshore wind farm, also located in the North Sea, 45 km from Borkum.

Candidate in France

For the moment, France is still far behind Germany and especially Great Britain in development of offshore wind.However, the government is considering launching a call for tenders for all the French coastlines. A project of over 10 billion euros had sketched Borloo before leaving the Department of Ecology.

Even if the specification is yet to be finalized, the group led by Anne Lauvergeon is already in the running. Like all large energy companies, hoping that such tender will be discriminating, "as to the operators select the most serious," says one expert on the issue.

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The Comareg goes into bankruptcy

November 24, 2010 - 6:36 am Comments Off

The devastating effects of the crisis affecting the advertising market in the heart of a champion of free press French. When Works yesterday in Lyon, Groupe Hersant Media (GHM) announced that "given the economic situation and a difficult market," he would file on Friday "a request to open insolvency proceedings Comareg for Britain and its subsidiaries and Comareg Sejga "and" placed under safeguards to Hebdoprint.The latter company, a subsidiary of media group chaired by Philippe Hersant, is responsible for printing the newspaper's free ads Released-Sold, with 260 local editions and claims more than 15 million readers each week.

The goal defended by Dominique Bernard, CEO of DRG arrived almost a year ago, is "to present a plan for continuing the business for Comareg and its subsidiaries, and a backup plan for Hebdoprint, allowing them to resume their activities in a sustainable way. " This application should be considered by the Tribunal de Commerce de Lyon 30 November, the company said that the pole of free press about 2,500 employees.Former cash cow DRG, publisher of regional and local press in France and overseas, the Comareg saw as his fellow Spir (Sipa Group-West France) and S3G (southwest), income-rolled by the crisis and increasing competition from the Internet. 1 billion euros in 2004, advertising revenues of all the free press in France fell to 799 million euros in 2009, according to Irep. Revenues of the only free newspaper ads dropped 32% last year to 691 million euros 100% free credit score.

Strategy proactive repositioning "

During a tense year 2009 during which Comareg lost 30.8 million euros a turnover of 259.4 million, the newspaper group took initial steps to stop the degradation of its activity.He has set up two backup plans for employment, which involved a total of over 200 people in 2009, and arrested the Paris edition of Best-Released in 2010. The Comareg also sold its 16% stake in Mediapost La Poste Group, where she entered in 2003. The DRG is a subsidiary of a major customer of Mediapost to whom it entrusts the distribution of its free.

Despite this situation, GHM reiterated yesterday that he "is convinced that the free newspaper ad has a future as part of a proactive strategy of repositioning.Pin "PGA" (Free Press ad) has the willingness and ability to implement effective measures for rehabilitation and recovery activities, including the rationalization of production facilities, marketing and distribution, and a rapid shift towards a system bimédia, paper web.

Sacrifices all the more necessary in the acquired business to Vivendi in 2003 that the group of Philippe Hersant must also deal with bank debt estimated at more than 200 million euros. GHM has, moreover, acknowledged yesterday that he "started a process of renegotiating its bank debt and for this, sought the appointment of an ad hoc manner, which was granted on September 24" last. Procedures which should allow him to "restore his balance," he said.