Sat, Sep 24, 2011 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  FINANCE

  Greece could default: Knot

  The president of the Dutch central bank said in a newspaper interview published yesterday that he no longer rules out the possibility that Greece may not be able to pay back its crippling government debt. A Greek default “is one of the scenarios,” Klaas Knot said in an interview published in the Dutch newspaper Het Financieel Dagblad. “I won’t say that Greece cannot default,” said Knot, who is the recently installed president of De Nederlandsche Bank and a member of the governing council of the European Central Bank. Knot’s comments are unusual because they come from a member of the European Central Bank’s 23-member governing council. The bank has insisted Greece must stick with its bailout plan and has opposed default as a solution.

  ECONOMY

  Singapore inflation surges

  Singapore’s inflation jumped to a three-year high last month as housing and transportation costs rose despite an economic slowdown. The Statistics Department said yesterday that the consumer price index rose 5.7 percent last month from a year earlier, the most since October 2008. That compares with a year-on-year rise of 5.4 percent in July. The department said housing prices climbed 9.9 percent last month from a year earlier, while transport costs surged 12.5 percent. The city-state’s economy grew 0.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier. The government expects GDP to expand as little as 5 percent this year, compared with 15 percent growth last year.

  AUTOMAKERS

  Isuzu to make trucks in PRC

  Isuzu Motors will develop large trucks with its Chinese partner, as Japanese truckmakers shift their focus toward growing markets in the rest of Asia, a report said yesterday. The new project will involve Qingling Motors (Group) Co (慶鈴汽車集團), the Chinese firm that Isuzu works with to produce light and midsize trucks, the Nikkei Shimbun daily said. The new trucks, which will evolve from Isuzu’s heavy-duty Giga series, are expected to go on sale in China and Japan around 2015, it added. It said the Chinese market for large trucks stands at more than 1 million units a year, compared with roughly 30,000 in Japan.

  SPORTSWEAR

  Nike profits rise 15 percent

  Nike Inc reported its fiscal first-quarter profit rose 15 percent as demand grew for its sneakers and athletic apparel in nearly every market worldwide despite an uncertain global economy. Nike said sales improved in nearly all markets, including strong gains in the US and emerging markets like India and China. Overall, its revenue rose 18 percent to US$6.08 billion, with particularly strong performance in its running, basketball and women’s training business. As a result, Nike earned US$645 million, or US$1.36 per share, for the quarter that ended Aug. 31, up from US$559 million, or US$1.17 per share, in the same quarter last year.

  INTERNET

  Alibaba attracts investors

  DST Global and Temasek Holdings Pte are among investors that agreed to buy shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) in a transaction valuing China’s largest e-commerce company at US$32 billion, two people familiar with the deal said. Silver Lake and Alibaba chairman Jack Ma’s (馬雲) Yunfeng Capital are also part of the group buying as much as US$1.6 billion stock from Alibaba employees, said the people, who asked not to be named because terms of the agreement were private.
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