Wed, Nov 14, 2018 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  TRADE

  US-Japan pact to be ‘model’

  Japan and the US are to negotiate a trade agreement that would serve as a “model” for the Indo-Pacific, US Vice President Mike Pence said yesterday in Tokyo. “The United States has had a trade imbalance with Japan for too long. American products and services too often face barriers to compete fairly in Japanese markets,” he said after talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. “The best opportunity for free, fair and reciprocal trade will come in a bilateral trade agreement.” Abe and US President Donald Trump in September agreed to negotiate such a pact. “When completed we’re confident that this agreement will establish terms on goods and services,” Pence said.

  

  Photo: EPA-EFE

  UNITED STATES

  Fed official urges rate hike

  Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly said US policymakers ought to be gradually lifting interest rates to bring an economy that is running above potential in for a soft landing. “It wouldn’t be surprising to me that we would need to go up again in December and at least a couple of times next year,” Daly told Bloomberg News on Monday in her first interview on policy since she became head of the Fed branch on Oct. 1. That would be enough to get to her estimate of neutral. “In my modal expectation, I think that’s something that will be needed,” she said. Daly later told reporters following a speech in Idaho Falls, Idaho, that she was not set on a move next month in particular. She said two to three rate increases would be appropriate over the next “period of time,” but the timing remains to be seen.

  TELECOMS

  Flat dividend for Vodafone

  Vodafone Group PLC has suspended a pledge to keep dividends growing as it tries to rein in debt after the US$22 billion acquisition of Liberty Global PLC’s German and Eastern European units. Vodafone announced a flat interim dividend and said its full-year payout would also be unchanged from last year. It would consider increasing the dividend over the long term once it meets its debt ratio target. Investors have been bracing for a potential change to dividend policy under new chief executive Nick Read as the Liberty deal stretches its leverage. Read said he would reduce operating costs by 1.2 billion euros (US$1.35 billion) by 2021 and review its tower assets to drive returns after its organic revenue grew by 0.8 percent in the first half of the year.

  ECONOMY

  IMF sees Gulf recovery

  Economic growth in the energy-rich Persian Gulf region will recover this year from a contraction last year, but remains vulnerable to volatility in crude oil prices, the IMF said yesterday. The fund predicted that an overall energy price recovery from 2015-2016 lows would spur the economies of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to grow by 2.4 percent this year and 3 percent next year, after a contraction of 0.4 percent last year. The council states together pump over 17 million barrels per day and depend heavily on crude revenues. Growth in non-council oil exporters in MENA, which includes Iran, Iraq, Algeria and Libya, is projected to slow to 0.3 percent this year, from 3 percent last year and pick up modestly to 0.9 percent next year, the IMF said.
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