News and Articles

* Trichet said the ECB could cut rates again

* German unemployment rises almost double the expected


* Collapse of air cargo volume in December

* Sony suffers loss in 3rd. trim, Nintendo low picture

The European Central Bank (ECB) might cut interest rates to new record minimum, its chairman said Thursday, while German unemployment data showed its biggest increase in nearly four years, while confidence deteriorated economy in the euro zone.


Japanese firms felt an even greater harm to the global financial crisis, and international aviation agency said that 2009 would be one of the most difficult years in its history.

The ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said the bank could take more unusual measures to combat the global economic slowdown and cut rates below their current level of 2 percent, as a minimum.


"At the moment we have taken non-standard and could take more of these measures. Veremos. Advancement or not discard anything," Trichet said in an interview with CNN that appears on its website.

The signs of global corporate voltage stressed the need for dramatic responses, while the fiscal stimulus plan of 825,000 million dollars from the U.S. president Barack Obama was endorsed Wednesday by the House of Representatives.


It marked the first legislative success of his presidency, but showed the deep partisan divisions since, despite an offensive to convince Obama, all Republicans voted against the project. It is expected that the Senate approved a similar version.

Cutting JAPANESE EARNINGS


In Japan, Sony Corp followed the path of electronics maker Canon Inc. with a bad earnings report.

Sony fell on negative results in the last quarter and reiterated its projection of a record annual loss due to the collapse in demand and the strengthening of the yen. The rival Sony, Nintendo Co. cut its outlook for the full year for the second time in three months.


Nippon Steel, the second largest steel worldwide, lowered its projected pre-tax profits for the year to March by 36 percent by the weakening of demand for all types of products.

The electronics group Toshiba Corp said it planned to cut costs to $ 3,300 million in the next fiscal year, reducing capital expenditures and contract jobs.


The International Air Transport Association (IATA, for its acronym in Spanish) said that air cargo in December fell 22.6 percent over the same month of 2007, a free fall "unprecedented and disturbing" that reflects the slowdown international trade.

Passenger traffic fell 4.6 percent. The figures are bad news for the global economy in general, since one third of international trade takes place in goods shipped by air.

The IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani said that was not anywhere on the floor of the market, adding: "Keep the seat belts tight and get ready for an emergency landing and turbulence."

The global economic crisis has already cost billions of dollars and now threatens millions of jobs.

In Germany, unemployment rose by 56,000 people in January in terms of monthly and seasonally, compared with a projection of 30,000. The unadjusted total, a sensitive indicator in an election year, grew to 3.489 billion.

In France, hundreds of thousands of workers staged a nationwide strike to try to force the president Nicolas Sarkozy and business leaders to work more on attempts to protect jobs and wages.