February 2004 Edition
TAXES
India has slashed or abolished taxes on popular consumer goods, a key move in the country's programme to overhaul the economy. The tax changes, effective immediately, are expected to give a major boost to India's information-technology and telecommunications industries, as tariffs come down on computers, electronic goods, pharmaceuticals and cellular phones, as well as domestic air travel. The announcement is also expected to create a greater opening for foreign companies targeting India's rapidly growing middle class.
AUDIO
According to the Association of American Publishers, the U.S. audio-book market has grown an average of 11.5 per cent annually since 1997, while consumer book sales grew 2.7 per cent annually in the same period.
LEAVE
British career women are being offered maternity leave of up to five years by some of that country's biggest employers. So desperate are employers to retain skilled staff that they are promoting the career breaks as an enticement to retain female executives who have children. After years of steady growth, the number of working mothers with dependent children appears to have reached a plateau at about 65 per cent, and experts fear that British women will follow their American counterparts who are leaving work in ever greater numbers.
IPOs
There were a total of 53 offerings in Canada last year, by comparison there were 69 IPOs in 2002. Overall, last year's IPOs were worth a total of $4.6-billion, down from $5.8-billion in 2002. Technology and media ranked first in terms of total value of IPOs last year, with eight offerings totalling $1.5-billion.
SHRIMP
The U.S. is the world's largest shrimp consumer and is the biggest market for both Thailand and Vietnam. It imports around 120,000 tonnes of the Thai shrimps, worth some $1-billion, or about half of Thailand's annual exports of the seafood. Shrimp exports from Vietnam to the U.S. rose seven-fold between 1998 and 2002, when shipments reached $470-million. Now, the U.S. Southern Shrimp Alliance, which is battling a halving of shrimp prices and job losses, is seeking anti-dumping duties of up to 200 per cent on China, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Brazil and Ecuador.
COSTS
Statistics Canada reports that on average, Canadian households spent C$60,090 in 2002, a 2.2 per cent increase from 2001 after adjusting for inflation. Personal taxes accounted for a estimated 20 per cent: transportation claimed 14 per cent while food represented 11 per cent and shelter 19 per cent. Two provinces, Alberta and Ontario, reported average levels of household spending above the national average while Newfoundland and Labrador continued to have the lowest provincial average, C$47,900.
TRENDS
Some U.S. banks, such as Bank of America, are opting for more branches with human tellers. They claim the rapid expansion in branching comes after the industry for years attempted to prod Americans out of teller lines and into cheaper ways of using services, such as ATMs and the Internet. But the public remains resolutely attached to the bank branch.
TASTE
In recent decades, a commercial buffalo, also known as bison, meat industry has developed in the U.S. which may attract new consumers looking for an alternative to beef since the advent of mad-cow disease. Buffalo are fed grass then corn or potatoes for 90 to 120 days before they are slaughtered when they weigh around 2,000 ponds (907kg). They are not fed antibiotics, growth hormones or animal byproducts.
AFRICA
The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts that Africa will likely be the home of many of the both the world's fastest-growing and slowest-growing economies in 2004. Chad's economy is tipped to grow at an impressive 54 per cent this year while Equatorial Guinea should grow at 23 per cent, both due to rising oil output. Yet, other petro-states are not so lucky. Saudi Arabia can expect growth of only 0.5 per cent, and Kuwait 1.1 per cent in 2004. Zimbabwe remains at the bottom. Its economy is expected to shrink by nearly 9 per cent this year.
FAKE
Wine fakers who pass off cheap plonk dressed up with the labels of expensive vintages are forcing genuine producers to consider bringing in microchip technology to identify their bottles. The makers of one of the world's greatest Italian wines have been forced to redesign their bottles and introduce new security measures after 12 people were arrested for producing 20,000 bogus bottles of a renowned wine. Another six million bottles of bogus Chianti have also been discovered.
GROWTH
The global semiconductor industry is expected to grow by 18 per cent this year amid double-digit growth in personal computer and mobile phone shipments. It is also predicted that the market will grow at a compound annual rate of 12.5 per cent through 2008, with revenue rising from US$160-billion in 2004 to US$282-billion in 2008. China, the world's largest consumer of mobile phones and second-largest consumer of PCs, is expected to drive this growth.
SMUGGLING
Chinese customs authorities are on the alert for smugglers attempting to use the new free-trade agreement with Hong Kong and Macau to avoid import duties. As part of a two-stage plan, China has identified 273 items made in Hong Kong and Macau that are now able to enter the mainland market duty free. By January 1st, 2006 all Hong Kong and Macau sourced products will enter China duty free.
DIAMONDS
Canada has become the third largest producer of diamonds in the world behind Botswana and Russia. From 1998 to 2002, companies have mined about 13.8 million carats of these precious stones worth about C$2.8-billion and amounting to about 15 per cent of the world's supply. The diamonds are also of high quality. In 2001, the average price per carat for a Canadian-mined diamond was $228. This was the third highest in the world behind prices for diamonds mined in Namibia and Angola.
ONIONS
Researchers are scrambling to identify a mystery disease that has emerged for the first time as a threat to Georgia's US$75-million crop of Vidalia sweet onions. Tests are being conducted on lesions that have started appearing on the leaves of onion plants in seed beds. Scientists want to know whether they have a unique cause, or are related to the Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus which has plagued Georgia peanuts and tobacco. Georgia's 134 registered Vidalia growers harvested 12,500 acres of onions last year.
HOURS
The European Commission has expressed concern that British workers are being unfairly forced to work long hours due to abuse of an "opt-out" clause secured by London from EU employment rules. Britain is the only country in the EU where working hours have increased over the last decade. New figures show that about 16 per cent of Britains currently work more than 48 hours a week.
TRENDS
Fly-in communities are springing up across the United States "Pecan Plantation" in Texas, has 125 homes, all served by taxiways. Planes can land, taxi home and be parked in the drive. Teen pilots can bring aircraft to the door to pick up their dates. Many houses do not have garages, they have hangers for two cars and two planes.
TRADE
Iraq is beginning free-trade talks with its Arab neighbours in the Persian Gulf region after signing agreements to dismantle trade barriers with Iran and Turkey. In six months, Iranian trade with Iraq has nearly doubled from the same period the previous year to US$400-million. Iran and Turkey are probably the largest suppliers of consumer goods to the Iraqi economy, while the Gulf states supply cars.
SAFETY
According to a New Zealand study, silver cars are much less likely to be involved in a serious crash. People driving silver cars were 50 per cent less likely to suffer serious injury compared with drivers of white cars.
SCANNERS
Around a fifth of people in Britain are unable to read small print on food and medicine labels. Now, a new "speaking" barcode has been developed that can read out food ingredients to blind and partially-sighted shoppers and warn of allergy-inducing ingredients. The product has attracted a good response in tests.
GECKOS
Lizards climb walls using the mechanical adhesive force of millions of tiny hairs on their feet. A synthetic version of those microscopic hairs allows Gecko tape, developed by a British university, to stick to almost any surface without glue. Applications include gloves that allow a person to climb a glass wall, the ability to move computer chips in a vacuum and new bandages.
GIRLS
According to UNICEF, girls are falling behind boys in school attendance. An estimated 121 million children worldwide are missing out on formal education; 54 per cent of them are girls. In many countries, this gap grows with age because girls are less likely to move on to secondary school. Educating girls not only improves their prospects, but also those of their future children. UNICEF estimates it would cost $60-billion in external aid by 2015 to ensure universal access to primary education for both girls and boys.
INSURANCE
In a recent Canadian survey, 55 per cent of small businesses said they were negatively affected by rising insurance premium costs. They have had a bigger impact than domestic events like the SARS outbreak, the mad-cow scare or the rising Canadian dollar. International challenges--like the war in Iraq--had a negative impact on revenue for 28 per cent of respondents, while 67 per cent reported no real impact. In terms of future challenges, 11 per cent said taxes were the most crucial issue facing small businesses in the next five years.
WOOD
Every year there are about 10 million housing starts in China, but less than one per cent are built of wood. In 1997, British Columbia grabbed a 2.2 per cent share of China's wood-product imports. By 2001, that share dropped to 1.4 per cent, though the value of B.C.'s wood exports to China is rising. B.C. exported $29-million in wood products to China and Hong Kong in 1997, or 30 per cent of Canada's total of $97-million. In 2002, B.C.'s exports to China hit $47-million , or 61 per cent of Canada's $76-million.
CAMERAS
Kodak, which launched the world's first popular camera more than a century ago, will stop selling traditional 35-millimetre film cameras in the United States, Canada and Europe by year's end. Kodak hasn't made money selling film cameras in the U.S. for some time, but had continued selling them to drive film sales. Film camera sales fell 15 per cent to 12.1 million units last year. Digital cameras, which store images on microchips, outsold film cameras for the first time in 2003.
STRESS
Last month, 385 Swiss postal workers were given blues-harmonica lessons to help them relieve stress.
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