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World Business Quick Take

■ OIL

OPEC to cut output: official

OPEC should order a “substantial” cut in oil output at this week’s emergency meeting in Vienna, Algerian Energy Minister and current OPEC chief Chakib Khelil said on Saturday. “There will be a reduction in production at the next extraordinary meeting of OPEC, and it will have to be a substantial one to get the balance right between supply and demand,” he told reporters. “If it has to be 1.5 million barrels per day, or 2 million barrels per day, that’s what it will be,” Khelil said, during a visit to the southern Algerian province of Tamanrasset. Khelil said that OPEC wanted to see oil prices “remain stable” throughout the first half of next year at “between US$70 and US$90.” Iran — OPEC’s second largest exporter — also called Saturday for a significant cut amid prospects of reduced demand in the face of the global economic slowdown, the state broadcaster reported.



■ ENTERTAINMENT

Media giant to cut spending

A trade paper reports that NBC Universal plans to cut US$500 million in spending next year to prepare for an expected continuation of the worldwide economic slowdown. Variety says president and CEO Jeff Zucker announced the cuts Friday in a staff memo. The reduction would equal 3 percent of the company’s budget. Variety says division heads will decide how to reduce their spending. But Zucker’s memo suggested several ways, including staffing reductions and cutbacks in budgets for travel, entertainment and promotions. Variety says the memo didn’t specifically mention any layoff plans. It’s unclear how many staffers might be affected by the spending drop. An NBC Universal spokesman didn’t return a call seeking comment on Saturday.



■ HEALTH

Aussie economy hit by injury

Chronic diseases such as back pain and arthritis are forcing many older Australians out of work and costing the economy US$10 billion a year, a study released yesterday said. Researchers used Australian Bureau of Statistics data to estimate that 663,235 people aged between 45 and 64 were missing from the labor market in 2003 because of ill health. The study, published in The Medical Journal of Australia, found the cost to GDP of the absent employees was some A$14.7 billion (US$10.1 billion) per year. “Back injuries, arthritis and mental health disorders accounted for approximately half the missing workers,” researcher Deborah Schofield said. She said as the government dealt with an ageing population, and encouraged older people to remain in the workforce, more attention needed to be paid to the health of workers in their 40s, 50s and 60s.



■ MANUFACTURING

Tata warns of capital flight

Tata group chief Ratan Tata, forced to relocate production of the world’s cheapest car from eastern India, has warned there could be a flight of capital and industry from the poverty-hit region. In an open letter to residents of communist-ruled West Bengal, Tata asked whether they wanted to build a prosperous state or “see the state consumed by the destructive political environment of confrontation, agitation, violence and lawlessness?” The tea-to-steel group earlier this month shifted production of the high-profile Nano car to the business-friendly western state of Gujarat, abandoning the original site in West Bengal. The Nano has attracted worldwide attention due to its planned price tag of just 100,000 rupees (US$2,100).


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