Wed, Sep 30, 2015 page15

• World Buisness Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  GREECE

  Islands losing VAT discount

  Mykonos, Santorini and Rhodes will be among the first islands to lose their preferential tax rates under Athens’ bailout deal, the government said on Monday. The islands — many of which lack airports and rely on tenuous maritime links to the mainland in winter — had until now enjoyed a 30 percent break on the value added tax (VAT) rate. As of Thursday, the three VAT rates of 6, 13 and 23 percent will apply on the three islands, as well as Naxos, Paros and Skiathos, as in the rest of the country, the Ministry of Finance said. The next islands to lose their VAT benefits will be announced on June 1 next year and Jan. 1 the following year, the ministry said.

  DENMARK

  Borrowing need raised

  The government said it will need to borrow more than previously estimated as the debt office prepares to end an eight-month hiatus on bond auctions that has sapped liquidity from its benchmark debt market. The government will need to borrow 153 billion in kroner (US$23.5 billion) next year, 6.3 percent more than it first estimated, according to a statement published by the Ministry of Finance in Copenhagen late on Monday. The borrowing need will be 4.8 percent higher this year than previously calculated, or 132 billion kroner, the ministry said.

  TRADE

  WTO boss likes limited talks

  Negotiators may increase chances of reaching deals if they focus on limited sectors of the economy rather than long-running global talks, WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo said. He said WTO members are unlikely to resolve disputes over farm subsidies and market access at a ministerial meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in December. Even so, the WTO has “often had success where we’ve taken more innovative approaches,” Azevedo said. Another “significant” step was a WTO accord this year to update the Information Technology Agreement, an accord to reduce tariffs on 201 technology products valued at US$1.3 trillion a year, he said.

  AUTOMAKERS

  More recalls possible

  Seven more companies could be facing recalls because they use air bag inflators made by Takata Corp, according to letters they received last week from US safety regulators. So far about 23.4 million Takata driver and passenger air bag inflators have been recalled on 19.2 million US vehicles sold by 11 different companies, including Honda Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sent letters to Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, Suzuki Motor Corp, Tesla Motors Inc, Volvo Trucks, Volkswagen AG and Spartan Motors Inc seeking information on which models have Takata inflators. As of Sept. 1, only 4.4 million air bag inflators had been replaced.

  INTERNET

  Facebook out briefly

  Facebook Inc on Monday stumbled for the second time in a week, going out of service for slightly less than an hour. The social network was down for 42 minutes about mid-day in California, after being out of service for 12 minutes four days earlier, according to the Web site performance tracker currentlydown.com. Facebook did not disclose how many of its more than 1 billion users were affected by the outage. People took to Twitter during the outage, with #facebookdown jumping into a spot among the top trending hashtags.
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