EU economy: Q3, Q4 forecasts lowered
The EU's executive commission lowered its third and fourth quarter growth forecasts for the euro zone yesterday to between 0.2 and 0.5 percent, a 0.1-point decline from the range projected in September. "The reason for the downward revision ... is the deterioration in household spending and external demand in the last few months," the commission said.
Crude oil: Price falls to US$27.72
The price of oil slipped in early trading yesterday after Iraq invited the US to inspect two sites where Washington suspects Baghdad of having resumed its prohibited weapons program. Benchmark Brent North Sea crude for November delivery fell to US$27.72 a barrel in early deals from US$28.13 at the close of trading on Wednesday. Prices eased in response to comments by the head of Iraq's armament programme, Abdel Tawab Mulla Howeish, also the mlitary industries minister. "The American administration can send whoever it wants to visit the An-Nasr and Euphrates sites, which it suspects of being used to produce weapons of mass destruction," Howeish told a press conference in Baghdad. "If the American administration wants to see the two sites, we urge them to inspect them immediately," Howeish said.
Automakers: BMW sales up 20 percent
German car maker BMW said yesterday sales raced ahead by 20 percent in the first nine months of the current year as demand for its luxury own-brand cars and the popular new Mini remained unbroken despite the gloomy economic environment. BMW said in a statement it sold a total 805,800 of its own-brand cars and new Minis in the first nine months of the current year, 20 percent more than in the corresponding period a year earlier. Some 700,950 BMW cars were sold worldwide in the period from January to September, five percent more than a year earlier. And the group sold a total 104,900 new Minis in the January-September period, already more than the group had been expecting for the entire year.
Internet: Vietnamese army an ISP
The Vietnamese army has become the country's fifth Internet service provider (ISP), offering high-speed online service to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, officials said Thursday. Vietel, the army-run electronic and telecommunications company, officially became a rival to the four other state-owned ISPs on Tuesday after earning its license in 1998, company director Le Hoai Nam said.
RSS