Business Times

(GENEVA) Julius Baer Group, the Swiss wealth manager founded in 1890, said full-year profit declined 27 per cent.

(BANGKOK) Thailand, the world's biggest rice exporter, plans to extend its rice intervention scheme to the end of July to support prices during the harvest of the second crop of the grain, a senior official said here yesterday.

(LONDON) Vodafone has abandoned plans to merge its operations in Greece with Wind Hellas, in a major blow to the debt-laden smallest operator and throwing into doubt consolidation elsewhere in Europe.

(NEW YORK) The Standard & Poor's 500 Index's best start in 25 years is doing little to restore Americans' confidence in the stock market.

(SYDNEY) Thousands of Australians have fled their homes as floodwaters engulfed parts of the country's northeast, damaging properties and ravaging crops a year after natural disasters cost the economy about A$9 billion (S$12 billion).

(LONDON) Banks and trading houses have found a way to beat the ravages of economic downturn, storing millions of tonnes of metal with a business model that outsmarts new rules put in place following widespread concern about their practices.

(LONDON) Markets will punish European banks that fail to write-down their Greek debt adequately or don't tell investors how they will boost their capital buffers by June, auditing firms say.

(BRUSSELS) Romania's government collapsed yesterday following weeks of protests against austerity measures as it emerged that Europe's debt in late 2011 stood well above the EU's limits for a healthy economy.

(SINGAPORE) Asian currencies snapped a four-day advance on concern recent gains underestimated the risks to global growth from Europe's still unresolved debt crisis.

AFTER the strong loans growth of 8 per cent a quarter in Q2 2011 and Q3 2011, (9M11 YTD: 22 per cent), we expect loans growth to moderate in Q4 2011.

ASIA'S boom looks set to continue, but there are important warning bells for executives in Singapore and the other economies of South-east Asia in our latest Asia Business Outlook Survey, released last month.

WHILE addressing new economic numbers showing 243,000 new American jobs in January - including 50,000 manufacturing jobs - US President Barack Obama seemed to be going out of his way to contain the expected enthusiasm manifested on the same day in the rising Dow.

A FEW days ago, the consulting firm McKinsey's published a report telling that the US has started deleveraging its debt; the eurozone has not.

IT HAS been two years since the government announced its long term economic strategy of improving productivity in Singapore. The emphasis was to sustain Singapore's long term competitiveness. So, this productivity story seems likely to feature strongly again in Budget 2012.

MORE than 45 years ago, Chairman Mao Zedong launched the tumultuous Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which led to the destruction of millions of Chinese lives.

SINGAPORE - the third largest global oil refining and trading centre - came in the crosshairs of the US last month, with the governor of Hawaii accusing speculators here of controlling the state's energy prices, and the US State Department singling out local trader Kuo Oil, together with two others from China and the United Arab Emirates, for conducting deals with Iran.

THE global commercial aviation industry is facing a huge credit crunch as almost US$100 billion worth of aircraft are due for delivery in the coming year.

(BEIJING) China's economic expansion would be cut almost in half if Europe's debt crisis worsens, a scenario that would warrant 'significant' fiscal stimulus from the nation's government, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said.

(SINGAPORE) More are making the switch to non-HDB homes, with executive condominiums (EC) being the top alternative pick, says R'ST Research.

(SINGAPORE) Apply for a season carpark lot while you still can, as attaining a coveted spot at one of the most popular parking facilities in Raffles Place - Golden Shoe Car Park - may soon become a near-impossible task.

(TOKYO) Bank of Japan (BOJ) governor Masaaki Shirakawa said yesterday that he acknowledges that the economy is in a severe situation due to deflation and a strong yen, signalling the central bank's readiness to offer further monetary stimulus if Japan's fragile economic recovery is threatened.

A TEAM of officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrived in Tokyo yesterday to begin talks on 'important challenges' facing the Japanese economy including the problem of the strong yen, which recent corporate results indicate is playing havoc with profits and endangering employment.

THE euro and European stock and bond markets weakened slightly after a Greece agreement with its creditors was postponed yet again.

(SINGAPORE) If Budget 2012 is to prioritise Singapore's long-term transformation into a productivity- driven economy, then schemes meant to push companies in that direction need improving, participants at BT's recent pre-Budget roundtable said.

(SINGAPORE) The global commercial aviation industry is facing a huge credit crunch as almost US$100 billion worth of aircraft are due for delivery in the coming year.