Sat, Dec 03, 2022 page10

• World Business Quick Take

  • Agencies
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  Germany

  Exports fall on inflation

  German exports fell more than forecast in October, data showed yesterday, as high inflation and supply chain snags hit demand in key trading partners, further raising the specter of recession for Europe’s largest economy. Exports declined by 0.6 percent on the month, twice as much as analysts predicted in a Reuters poll, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed. Germany’s top export partner, the US, saw the sharpest fall in German exports at 3.9 percent, while exports to EU member states were down 2.4 percent. Imports posted their sharpest drop in October since January at 3.7 percent, leading to a higher trade balance of 6.9 billion euros (US$7.3 billion). The German Chambers of Commerce and Industry said last month that Germany’s exports were likely to fall 2 percent next year due to a sluggish global economy.

  South Korea

  Inflation slowed last month

  South Korean inflation slowed last month, a result foreshadowed by the head of the central bank, while underlying price pressures stayed strong suggesting further policy tightening. Consumer prices advanced 5 percent from a year earlier, slowing from October’s 5.7 percent pace and below the 5.2 percent forecast by economists, statistics office data showed yesterday. From a month earlier, prices fell 0.1 percent, also weaker than expected. Core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as oil and agricultural products, held at 4.8 percent last month from a year earlier, coming in above the median estimate of 4.5 percent. “This keeps the central bank’s worries alive,” Kyobo Securities researcher Lim Dong-min said.

  Aviation

  Airbus behind annual target

  Airbus delivered an estimated 66 jets last month, leaving itself a near-record challenge of 137 this month to meet its goal for this year, though it has not excluded the possibility of trimming the target, industry sources said. The world’s largest planemaker has delivered around 563 planes this year, the sources said, up from 497 from January through the end of October, or 495 after adjusting for two deliveries blocked by Russian sanctions. A late surge pushed last month higher than expected, but failed to lift doubts over this year’s target of “around 700” with weeks to go before the end of the year, the sources said. One industry source said the company had all but given up hope of reaching its key revenue-driving target. “They have too many problems,” the source said, asking not to be named. Missing parts forced Airbus to cut the target for deliveries to 700 from 720 in July. Scattered shortages or bottlenecks continue to weigh.

  Internet

  Arctic cable plan launched

  A plan to build the first fiber-optic cable across the Arctic has secured its first investment, the consortium behind the 1.1 billion euro (US$1.15 billion) scheme said yesterday. The subsea cable, which developers say would be the first to be laid on the Arctic seabed, would connect Europe and Japan via North America as part of the global internet infrastructure. An earlier plan to run the cable along the Russian Arctic coastline, in a venture with Russia’s second-biggest mobile phone operator, MegaFon, was canceled last year. This was due to Russia’s increased reluctance to authorize the cable being laid in its territorial area, Finland’s Cinia, the company leading the Far North Fiber consortium, said. Far North Fiber is a joint venture between Cinia, US-based Far North Digital and Japan’s Arteria Networks.
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