Fri, Sep 16, 2022 page11

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  FINANCE

  Singapore expanding jobs

  Singapore aims to add as many as 20,000 finance jobs over five years as the government seeks to bolster areas including wealth management and sustainable financing. The Asian financial hub is projected to add 3,000 to 4,000 net roles on average every year from last year to 2025, while the financial sector would grow by 4 to 5 percent per year in the plan unveiled yesterday by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The financial sector accounts for 14 percent of the city-state’s GDP.

  METALS

  Gold dips on rate worries

  Gold stayed below US$1,700 an ounce as worse-than-

  expected inflation data out of the US this week increased expectations of a prolonged period of interest rate rises. Bullion fell 0.3 percent on Wednesday following the US government’s inflation figures report. Spot gold was little changed at US$1,695.45 an ounce at 8:58am in Singapore. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was also flat. Silver and palladium were steady, while platinum was down.

  ENERGY

  Shell CEO to step down

  Shell PLC chief executive Ben van Beurden is to step down at the end of this year after almost 40 years at the company, to be replaced by the firm’s head of gas and renewables, Wael Sawan. Van Beurden, 64, has steered the company through some of its most turbulent times. The first big move of his tenure as CEO was the takeover of rival BG Group PLC, a deal valued at close to US$50 billion that tested the company’s finances during an oil price slump, but is now paying off as natural gas prices soar. At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Van Beurden made the first cut to Shell’s dividend since World War II, a move that upset investors. He was also the architect of the company’s plan to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy, and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

  RETAIL

  LVMH to turn off lights

  LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE plans to turn off its stores’ lights at night, starting in France next month, with plans to deploy the energy-saving measure in other parts of the world at a later stage, the luxury giant said yesterday. LVMH, the world’s largest high-end goods conglomerate, which operates 522 stores and 110 production sites in France, said it would turn off the lights at stores between 10pm and 7am, while its offices would go dark at 9pm. It would also lower temperature settings at industrial sites by 1oC in winter and raise them by 1oC in summer, it said. The two measures would allow it to cut its energy usage by 10 percent, it said.

  TRANSPORTATION

  US rail strike risks delays

  A potential strike by US rail workers is threatening to delay consumer goods sailing from China on one of the world’s most lucrative trade routes. US freight-rail companies and unions are in talks to avert a walkout of workers today, a situation that would create ripple effects across global supply chains trying to recover from disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Even before this week, containers have been stuck at railway yards in the US due to manpower and equipment shortages. Waiting times there have grown to more than two days, up from less than a day at the start of this year. The US imported about US$47 billion of goods from China in July, making the Trans-Pacific crossing one of the key routes for the world’s economy.
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