Wed, Jan 04, 2023 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  AUSTRALIA

  Housing market takes a dive

  The housing market last year recorded its biggest annual decline since 2008, as sharp interest rate hikes sapped buying power and put off investors. The national Home Value Index fell 5.3 percent last year, the first drop since 2018, CoreLogic Inc said in a report on Monday. Annual declines were the biggest in the bellwether market of Sydney, which slid 12.1 percent, followed by an 8.1 percent drop in Melbourne. National values last month declined 1.1 percent, the report said. Home values could fall further in the early months of this year, CoreLogic said.

  TURKEY

  Inflation rate slows again

  The annual inflation rate slowed for a second month last month after hitting a two-decade high, official data showed yesterday. Consumer prices rose 64.3 percent from a year earlier, the state statics agency said, compared with an 84.4 percent annual increase in November. Analysts attribute the sharp slowdown to the so-called base effect. The latest reading is still higher than in any other emerging market aside from Argentina.

  SRI LANKA

  Austerity drive begins

  The country on Monday began a fresh austerity drive, freezing government recruitment as new taxes and higher electricity prices were implemented, with authorities trying to secure a US$2.9 billion bailout from the IMF. A record 20,000 civil servants retired at the end of last month — eight times as many as usual, according to the Ministry of Public Administration, Home Affairs, Provincial Councils and Local Government — after President Ranil Wickremesinghe reduced their retirement age from 65 to 60. They would not be replaced, the ministry said.

  INDIA

  Rules to curb risky gaming

  Regulations have for the first time been drafted to oversee areas of online gaming that fall into a gray area between gambling and entertainment, seeking to resolve growing complaints of addiction particularly among minors. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has published proposed rules governing apps or Web sites that involve an exchange of users’ money, from online casinos and card games to fantasy sports clubs. That sets them apart from gaming titles such as Electronic Arts Inc’s FIFA Soccer, which is to be regulated by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

  FRANCE

  Retirement age under debate

  Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said a contentious overhaul of the pension system might not necessarily require raising the minimum retirement age to 65 from 62. Consultations with worker and business representatives would continue for another week before the government finalizes a plan to be debated in parliament early next month, Borne said on France Info radio. “There are other solutions that could enable us to meet our objective of balancing of our pension system by 2030,” Borne said.

  RUSSIA

  Ex-Soviet states buy less gas

  Gas exports to countries outside a group of former Soviet republics plunged 45.5 percent annually last year, figures from gas giant Gazprom showed on Monday. Gazprom PJSC said in a statement that exports outside the Commonwealth of Independent States totaled 100.9 billion cubic meters compared with 185.1 billion in 2021. Europe was previously Gazprom’s main export market, but supplies have been drastically reduced because of sanctions following Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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