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World Business Quick Take

■ BANKING

UBS announces more cuts

Switzerland’s biggest bank UBS yesterday said it would cut 2,000 more jobs as it revamps its investment bank that had been battered by the US subprime crisis. The latest lay-offs would bring the staff levels in the investment bank unit to approximately 17,000 by year’s end, 6,000 less than the peak level in the third quarter of last year, the bank said in a statement. “Reductions will be predominantly targeted to businesses being exited or downsized in order to protect and sustain our core client franchises,” it added.



■ FOOD SAFETY

Jellies pose hazard

A Japanese maker of bite-sized jellies faced government pressure yesterday to issue a recall after 17 people died from choking on the sweets, company officials said. The government announced this week that 17 mostly children and elderly people have died since 1995 after eating the candies made of konjac, a plant used in Japanese cuisine known for its rubber-like texture and low calories. Seiko Noda, the minister for consumer affairs, on Thursday met with the president of MannanLife, one of the largest companies producing the candy, and requested a recall. No decision on a recall had yet been made, the company said.



■ JAPAN

Minister shrugs off rate cut

Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano said an interest-rate cut by the Bank of Japan wouldn’t help the nation’s slowing economy because the benchmark rate is already low. “Japan’s overnight lending rate is already at 0.5 percent, so lowering the rate probably wouldn’t be effective,” Yosano told reporters in Tokyo yesterday. “The BOJ’s action of pumping cash into the money market has been the right approach.”



■ FRANCE

Forecast shows recession

Budget Minister Eric Woerth downplayed a forecast by the state statistics agency that the country has dipped into recession, saying it is in a period of “very weak growth.” “In essence, France is not in a recession. One percent growth” over the entire year, “that’s not a recession, it’s very weak growth,” he said on Thursday at a gathering in southern France of lawmakers from the ruling conservative UMP party. The state statistics agency Insee has forecasted that France’s gross domestic product dropped by 0.1 percent in the third quarter.



■ ENERGY

E.ON buys Russian parcel

E.ON, one of Germany’s biggest energy companies, said on Thursday it had bought one quarter of one of the world’s greatest natural gas fields, at Yuzhno Russkoye in Russia. The deal, which follows years of tortuous negotiations, was signed with gas monopoly Gazprom at a meeting of Russian and German government leaders on Thursday in the Russian city of St Petersburg. Another big German company, BASF, has already bought a quarter of the same field.



■ BANKING

WaMu execs leave

The chief executive of failed Washington Mutual Inc (WaMu) and five other senior executives of the largest US thrift, now owned by JPMorgan Chase & Co, are leaving their positions soon. Employees of Seattle-based WaMu were told on Thursday that chief executive officer Alan Fishman and the other executives are departing. A memo to employees said the combination of the two companies made their positions redundant. The employees also were told they would be informed by Dec. 1 whether their jobs will continue.


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