European Central Bank President Mario Draghi says his strategy for battling Europe
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The King of Beers slipped another notch down the list of beer royalty in 2011.
Sales of Budweiser fell 4.6 percent last year, according to estimates by Beer Marketers Insights, to 17.7 million barrels, while Coors Light eked out a 0.8 gain to 18.2 million barrels. That means the Silver Bullet is now the nation’s second best-selling beer, after Bud Light.
It’s the first time in almost two decades that Anheuser-Busch (now Anheuser-Busch InBev) couldn’t claim the country’s two top brews, and it comes amid a long decline for the company’s flagship lager. Bud’s 4.6 percent decline actually marks its best performance in some time – sales fell nearly 10 percent in 2009 – and ABI has said one of its top priorities is to boost sales of the brand, both in the U no fax payday loans.S. and overseas.
Both ABI and Miller Coors saw overall shipments fall last year – 2.9 percent and 3 percent, respectively – amid a tough sales climate for the beer industry. ABI sold less beer in 2010 than it did in 2000, Beer Marketers estimates. But its income on those sales nearly doubled.
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The European Commission has criticized Belgium’s 2012 budget as too optimistic, indicating that the country has to adopt more austerity measures or risk sanctions.
The country’s finance minister quickly reacted to the Commission’s intervention, saying Friday that the government was determined to meet its fiscal targets this year.
Belgium has promised to cut its budget deficit to 2.8 percent of economic output this year, from around 3.6 percent in 2011. But the Commission, the European Union’s executive, believes the Belgian government won’t be able meet this target unless tax revenues or spending cuts are increased.
The Commission’s criticism of the budget is a particularly sensitive issue in Belgium, where political parties needed more than one and a half years to set up a government, which was finally sworn in in December.
Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo had to balance the demands of the country’s strong Dutch-speaking community, which has been demanding more financial autonomy, and the French-speaking region, which is weaker economically.
But Belgium has one of the highest debt loads in the eurozone and analysts fear that it risks being dragged into the currency union’s debt crisis. Under EU rules, Belgium has to bring its deficit below 3 percent of GDP and spell out how it plans to reduce it debt to below 60 percent of GDP over the long-term, from about 100 percent currently.
“It is normal that the Commission is asking us questions,” Belgian Finance Minister Steven Vanackere told reporters outside the government offices. “The budget was set up at the end of the year at high speed. It was not the normal way to do things.”
He stressed that the government would strive to get its deficit below the 3 percent limit this year. “Belgium has not plans to skirt its responsibilities,” Vanackere said. “We want to _ also for ourselves and not for Europe _ make sure that the deficit gets under the 3 percent payday loans.”
The EU’s Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn last fall threatened to hit Belgium _ along with Malta and Cyprus countries _ with sanctions under the bloc’s new, stricter budget rules. Two non-euro countries _ Hungary and Poland _ were also suspected of overspending, but they would not face financial penalties.
A spokesman for the Commission said Friday that Rehn’s office was seeking clarification from the governments of all five countries to assess whether their estimates for both revenue and expenditure estimates were “credible.” No decision on sanction had been taken yet, he said, but added that it could come very soon.
The EU’s executive has been taking a much more active role in policing member states’ budgets after lackluster enforcement of the bloc’s budget rules allowed countries like Greece or Italy run up high debts.
Under the new sanctions regime, a country that is not doing enough to reduce its deficit and debt will have to pay an interest-bearing deposit of 0.2 percent of GDP, which could eventually be turned into a fine. The new rules also make it harder for countries to block sanctions against their partners.
Julien Manceaux, an economist at ING in Brussels, said the intervention from the Commission did not come as a surprise, adding that the Belgian government is already set to re-examine this year’s budget in February.
“The Belgian deficit is among the lowest in the eurozone anyway so it is certainly not a reason to panic,” he said. “But it is for sure that markets will keep an eye on the decisions that will be taken again in 2012 to stabilize debt trajectory.”
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Raf Casert and Mark D. Carlson contributed to this article.
European stock markets headed higher in early trading Monday, while South Korea’s benchmark Kospi closed flat following the New Year’s holiday weekend.
Britain’s FTSE 100 index rose 0.1 percent at 5,572.28. Germany’s DAX was 1.1 percent higher at 5,960.04. France’s CAC-40 rose 0.5 percent to 3,174.76.
South Korea’s Kospi index, which lost 11 percent of its value last year, closed nearly unchanged at 1,826.37. Most other Asian markets were closed for an extended New Year’s holiday.
South Korea’s tech sector move higher, with Samsung Electronics up 2.1 percent and LG Electronics gaining 2.3 percent. Steel giant POSCO slid 1.1 percent and Korea Electric Power shed 1.8 percent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX, which was also open for business Monday, fell 1.7 percent to 6,952.21. Foxconn Technology, the world’s biggest contract electronics manufacturer, which makes iPads and iPhones for Apple Inc., fell 0.9 percent. Personal computer maker Acer Inc. shed 2.3 percent.
Benchmarks in the Philippines and India rose while Indonesia fell.
The Asian-Pacific region’s major benchmarks, including Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index and Australia’s S&P ASX 200, were closed. Markets in the U.S. are also closed in observance of New Year’s Day.
Last year was one that traders would prefer to forget: most Asian equity indexes closed out 2011 deeply in the red unsecured personal loans. The Nikkei in Tokyo ended the year at 8,429.45 _ its lowest closing since 1982.
China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, closed Monday, endured a 21 percent loss for the year as the impact of Beijing’s multibillion-dollar stimulus faded and the government tightened curbs on lending and investment to cool blistering economic growth.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index finished at 18,434.39 _ a precipitous slide of 19.7 percent from a year ago. Singapore’s Straits Times Index took a 17.5 percent dive when it closed at 2,646.35 on Friday.
Australia’s benchmark S&P ASX 200 ended the year at 4,140.4 _ 14.5 percent lower for 2011.
India’s benchmark Sensex index fell more than 22 percent in 2011, making it one of the worst performers globally. The rupee also lost about 14 percent this year and recently hit an all-time low, breaching 54 rupees to the dollar.
In hopes of reducing volatility and attracting foreign cash, India announced Sunday that it would allow individual foreign nationals to invest directly in its stock market starting Jan. 15. Currently, foreign investors are limited to indirect investments such as mutual funds.
It’ll be a little easier for companies in St. Louis City and County to play in the global economy after the region’s Foreign Trade Zone was expanded to include all of both counties.
In an announcement Monday morning, city and county officials said that their application has been approved to grant Foreign Trade Zone status to the whole area. Previously, the region’s Foreign Trade Zone has been roughly 800 acres around Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
Foreign Trade Zone status makes it easier and quicker for companies to get reduced customs duties on goods they ship to or from the U payday loan.S. The goal, said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, is to help grow exporting, manufacturing and logistics companies in the region
Slay and Dooley applied to the Commerce Department for the larger trade zone last fall. The approval makes St. Louis one of a few dozen regions to have the new, expanded, status.
Retailers are reporting strong sales gains in November, boosted by a discount-fueled spending binge for the start of the holiday shopping season last weekend. Now, the challenge is to keep shoppers spending throughout the most important selling period of the year.
Macy’s Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp., Limited Brands Inc. and teen retailer Buckle Inc. all reported sales gains Thursday that beat Wall Street estimates. Target Corp., however, was a straggler, reporting a slim sales gain that was below what analysts had expected.
The figures are based on revenue at stores opened at least a year and are considered a key indicator of a retailers health.
An “overhaul” of European treaties is needed to help restore market confidence in the eurozone’s ability to reduce high state debt and deficits, the French budget minister said Sunday.
Valerie Pecresse said a new governance pact among eurozone members could include “real regulators, real sanctions” to help restore confidence in the currency union.
Speaking on Canal Plus TV, she said the eurozone’s biggest economies _ France, Germany and Italy _ want to be the “motor” of a more integrated Europe.
“We won’t restore confidence unless we show proof _ very quickly _ about the unflailing solidity and solidarity of the eurozone,” Pecresse said.
Pecresse said each country must rid itself of the debt and deficit problems that are behind the continent’s deepening debt crisis.
German media reported this weekend that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are pushing for swift legal changes that would force eurozone members to comply with strict rules for budget discipline, like tough and easily enforceable sanctions for violators.
Sarkozy and Merkel have argued that the European Union’s treaties must be amended to guarantee a strict enforcement of the currency zone’s growth and stability pact payday loans.
Treaty changes, however, are complicated to engineer and take a lot of time _ probably more than the troubled eurozone currently has with markets doubting the solidity of several member states such as Italy.
One alternative could be a treaty between the governments involved, which would later be merged into EU law _ as has happened before with Europe’s Schengen visa-free travel agreement, German newspapers Welt am Sonntag and Bild reported.
The new initiative could be announced as early as this week and concluded early next year, Welt am Sonntag reported.
Germany’s government, in a statement Sunday, did not comment on the question of an intergovernmental treaty but said it’s continuing to push for changes to the EU treaty to be discussed at a summit next month in a bid to strengthen the currency union.
President Barack Obama is using a new report on the income gap between the richest Americans and everyone else to continue pushing for passage of his stalled $447 billion jobs bill.
A report this week by the Congressional Budget Office found that average after-tax income for the top 1 percent of U.S. households had increased by 275 percent over the past three decades while middle-income households saw just a 40 percent increase in their post-tax income. Those at the bottom of the economic scale saw their income grow by a mere 18 percent.
Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address that he would pay for his jobs plan with an added tax on people who make at least $1 million a year. But Senate Republicans blocked action on the bill, a blend of tax breaks for businesses and public works spending, because they oppose much of the increased spending and the surtax on millionaires.
“These are the same folks who have seen their incomes go up so much, and I believe this is a contribution they’re willing to make,” he said. “Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress aren’t paying attention. They’re not getting the message.”
Obama is now trying to get Congress to pass the individual components of the bill. But Senate Republicans also blocked action on the first of those measures, $35 billion to help local governments keep teachers on the job and pay the salaries of police officers, firefighters and other emergency services workers.
Saying the country can’t wait for Congress, Obama has begun taking unilateral steps that he says will encourage economic growth. The actions do not require congressional approval.
On Friday, Obama directed government agencies to shorten the time it takes for federal research to turn into commercial products in the marketplace, to help startup companies and small businesses create jobs and expand their operations more quickly. He also called for creation of a centralized online site for companies to easily find information about federal services. He previously had announced help for people who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth and for the repayment of student loans. The White House also challenged community health centers to hire veterans.
“We can no longer wait for Congress to do its job,” Obama said. “So where Congress won’t act, I will.”
The CBO report, based on IRS and Census Bureau data, was released as the Occupy Wall Street movement spreading across the country protests bailouts for corporations and the income gap highlighted by the report. The Occupy Wall Street protesters call themselves “the 99 percent.”
In the weekly GOP message, Illinois Rep. Bobby Schilling urged Obama to support the “forgotten 15″ _ measures that Schilling’s party says would help create jobs by blocking various energy and environmental regulations and streamlining administrative procedures. The bills, passed by the Republican-controlled House, await action in the Democratic-run Senate.
Shilling said the bills give the White House and Congress an opportunity to build on the common ground created by the passage of free-trade agreements, and a measure to void a law requiring federal, state and many local governments to withhold 3 percent of their payments to contractors until their taxes are paid. Obama included repealing that tax in his jobs plan.
“Republicans have a jobs plan, one with some bipartisan support, but it’s stuck in the Senate,” said Schilling, owner of a pizza parlor in Moline, Ill. “We’re asking President Obama to work with us and call on the Senate to pass the `forgotten 15′ to help the private sector create jobs, American jobs desperately needed.”
The International Criminal Court will investigate three to six people in Ivory Coast for their actions during the West African nation’s violent six-month-long political crisis, the court’s top prosecutor said.
“We will focus on the most egregious and the most responsible,” Luis Moreno-Ocampo said late Saturday during his visit to Ivory Coast as part of the court’s recently opened investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity. Officials said Sunday that he had left the country.
Moreno-Ocampo said national authorities should investigate other suspects.
He said the public will not know the names of the international court’s suspects until he collects evidence and the judges review it.
“I don’t know (who they are) yet,” he said.
Earlier this month the court’s judges authorized the prosecutor to investigate violence committed after November 2010.
On Saturday, Moreno-Ocampo said the probe may look at violence committed as early as 2002.
“Today people volunteered to provide us with more information,” he said. “The judges are requesting more information and we will provide it.”
Human rights groups have called on the court to probe violence committed before the elections, when the nation was plunged into civil war, then underwent a de facto split along north-south lines.
Former president Laurent Gbagbo failed to hold elections when his first term ended in 2005. After a poll last November, he refused to accept his electoral defeat. Thousands died during the political standoff that followed.
Moreno-Ocampo did not meet Gbagbo during his visit, but said: “We will probably request through his lawyers to interview him.”
On Sunday, a spokeswoman for Ivory Coast’s prosecutor’s office said authorities arrested a fugitive military commander accused of serious crimes while working as a top aide to the former first lady. Habiba Coulibaly said Commander Anselme Seka Yapo was arrested Saturday.
In 2005 the U.N. accused Simone Gbagbo of leading death squads to kill opposition members.
French and U.N. forces assisted the forces loyal to President Alassane Ouattara who removed Gbagbo from power in April. Ouattara took office in May.
Ouattara asked the international court to investigate crimes committed by both sides during the postelection crisis payday loan no faxing.
During his visit Moreno-Ocampo met with Ouattara, with Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, with victims, members of the opposition and with the president of the newly formed reconciliation commission.
The commission, the prosecutor said, can address victims’ needs immediately, unlike the court.
“For those who were raped, who lost their homes, they need assistance now,” he said. “They don’t need to wait for a judge’s decision.”
Human Rights Watch says over a dozen people on both sides, including Gbagbo, led fighters to commit war crimes and likely crimes against humanity during the postelection violence.
Gbagbo’s spokesman Kone Katinan has said if he is to be judged, it should be by his own people rather than by an international tribunal.
Pro-Gbagbo newspapers have accused the international court of being one-sided. But residents have expressed optimism about the court’s involvement.
“It’s good to have someone from the outside of the country investigating … they can be more impartial, and more credible,” said beauty product distributor Kone Tresor Korona, 33, a resident of Abidjan who hails from the north, like Ouattara.
“Since the government is also doing an investigation, we can compare the (results of the) two, and hopefully when we put them together we can be closer to the truth,” Korona said.
The Ivory Coast investigation is the court’s seventh, all of them in Africa. So far, none of the cases has reached a verdict.
Ivory Coast is not a member of the court, but has accepted its jurisdiction in the case. It is the first time the court has opened an investigation in a nonmember nation following such a recognition of jurisdiction by a nonmember state.
Despite their lack of member status, the prosecutor said authorities have welcomed him.
“This is the first time in which we have a good relationship with national authorities. They are allowing us to (speak with) victims,” Moreno-Ocampo said. “It’s an interesting, new experience.”
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