Tue, Feb 01, 2011 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  AVIATION

  ANA is back in black

  All Nippon Airways Co (ANA) pivoted back into the black in the period between April and December last year, as robust travel demand and cost cuts bolstered the carrier’s bottom line. Japan’s No. 2 airline said yesterday it booked a net profit of ￥37.54 billion ($457.1 million), compared with a loss of ￥35.2 billion during the same nine months last year. Revenue rose more than 12 percent to ￥1.04 trillion. Operating profit came to ￥77.7 billion, a turnaround from a loss of ￥37.8 billion a year earlier. ANA credited a strong rebound in business travel for bolstering revenue on international routes.

  STOCKS

  UK, US seeking protection

  Stock exchanges in Britain and the US have enlisted the help of the security services after finding out they were the victims of cyber attacks, the Times newspaper reported yesterday. The London Stock Exchange is investigating a terrorist cyber-attack on its headquarters last year, while US officials have traced an attack on one of its exchanges to Russia, according to the newspaper. Officials suspect the attacks were designed to spread panic among markets and destabilize Western financial institutions. A leading UK cyber security expert told the Times: “Make no mistake, the UK’s critical infrastructure is under attack. The threat is advanced and persistent.”

  PHILIPPINES

  Economy grew 7.3 percent

  The economy has galloped to its highest annual growth in more than two decades, expanding 7.3 percent last year on strong foreign trade and election spending. Head of the government’s statistical board Romulo Virola said yesterday the rise surpassed official growth projections of 5 percent to 6 percent. The economy grew only 1.1 percent in 2009, hit by the global financial crisis. Virola said expansion in industry supported by growth in the services sector propelled the economy in the first half. Agriculture, which employs four in every 10 Filipinos, also recovered in the last three months after four consecutive quarters of decline due to a dry spell.

  MANUFACTURING

  S Korean output up 2.8%

  South Korea’s industrial output grew faster than expected in December thanks to strong exports of computer chips and cars, official figures showed yesterday. Mining and manufacturing output rose 2.8 percent in December from a month earlier, Statistics Korea said, faster than the 1.6 percent increase forecast by economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires. In November, it rose month-on-month by a revised 1.5 percent. The December figure was up 9.8 percent from December 2009, compared with November’s revised 10.7 percent year-on-year increase. For the whole of last year, industrial production increased 16.7 percent. Figures released last week showed last year’s economic growth at an eight-year high of 6.1 percent, while the government expects growth of around 5 percent this year.

  AVIATION

  Ryanair on track to hit target

  Europe’s biggest low-cost airline Ryanair reaffirmed its full-year profit target yesterday after rising passenger numbers and average fares helped offset disruption from strike action and bad weather. The Irish airline said it was on track to make a full-year net profit toward the upper end of its 380 million euro (US$517 million) to 400 million euro target range. Ryanair said it made a net loss of 10 million euros in the third quarter to the end of December, compared with an 11 million euro loss a year earlier.
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