Fri, Mar 01, 2019 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  SOUTH KOREA

  Stocks fall after summit

  Stocks in the nation plunged and the currency weakened after US President Donald Trump’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was abruptly cut short yesterday without a deal. The benchmark KOSPI index closed 1.8 percent — the most since Oct. 23 last year — while the won slipped 0.5 percent. So-called peace stocks, a group of infrastructure names that had rallied on hopes that a positive outcome from the summit might lead to new business opportunities in the North Korean regime, also fell. Futures contracts on the S&P 500 Index fell as much as 0.4 percent.

  SWITZERLAND

  Economy returns to growth

  The economy returned to growth in the final three months of last year, dodging the worst of the weakness that hit neighbors to the north and south. While missing the 0.4 percent median forecast of economists, the 0.2 percent expansion marked a rebound from the third quarter, when the economy shrank a revised 0.3 percent. Manufacturing jumped 1.5 percent, boosted by pharmaceuticals and chemicals. End-of-year momentum was led by exports and household spending, while investments in equipment tumbled 1.1 percent, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs. With the US-China trade dispute gnawing at sentiment, the global economy has lost momentum, with Europe looking particularly weak. Italy sunk into recession and Germany narrowly avoided that fate. Switzerland’s export-reliant economy is exposed to the downturn, although low unemployment and manufacturing-sector figures indicate that it is not headed for a outright slump. Still, industry expects weaker order growth this year due to cooling demand in its biggest markets. That would curb economic growth, which the Swiss National Bank forecasts will cool to about 1.5 percent this year.

  AUTOMAKERS

  British production falls

  British car production declined for the eighth month in a row in January as output bound for China plunged by more than 70 percent. The industry is struggling with multiple headwinds, including falling demand in China , a regulatory backlash against diesel vehicles in Europe and continued uncertainty over Brexit, which has put the brakes on investment in the UK. The sharp fall in production in January was mainly driven by the slowdown in production for export. Output bound for China dropped by 72.3 from last year — the biggest fall on record — according to figures published yesterday by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, an industry lobby group. Output for European markets fell by one-fifth. British factories produced a combined 120,649 vehicles in the month, down by 18.2 from January last year.

  AUSTRALIA

  Home lending slows

  Home lending slowed to the weakest since the 1980s. Loans to buy houses advanced just 0.2 percent in January from the prior month, according to monthly financial aggregates released by the Reserve Bank of Australia in Sydney yesterday. That was the lowest level since July 1984, when the nation was initiating a deregulation campaign to help a moribund economy. The bank, which has kept interest rates low to spur economic growth, last month dumped its tightening bias as signs mount that consumers are reining in spending amid falling house prices.
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