BRUSSELS (AFP) ― Eurozone countries are “worried” by the problems hitting emerging economies but do not believe there is a risk of contagion, senior officials said Monday.Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup which gathers the finance ministers of countries that use the single currency, insisted that the euro’s fragile recovery was not threatened.The worries over markets such as Argentina, Turkey and Russia come as the eurozone is emerging from the worst of its debt crisis.“Of course we

Japan reported a record annual trade deficit last year as energy shipments and weakness in the yen pumped up the nation’s import bill. The shortfall was 11.5 trillion yen ($113 billion), almost double the previous year’s 6.9 trillion yen, a finance ministry report showed in Tokyo Monday. Imports rose 25 percent in December from a year earlier and exports gained 15 percent, leaving a monthly deficit of 1.3 trillion yen. A record 18 straight monthly deficits show how nuclear plant shutdowns, highe

TOKYO (AFP) ― Moody’s cut its credit rating on Sony to junk on Monday, saying the Japanese electronics giant had more work to do in repairing its battered balance sheet.The international ratings agency lowered its view of the company to “Ba1” from “Baa3,” meaning its debt is now seen as below investment grade, a move that threatens to push up Sony’s borrowing costs.“While Sony has made progress in its restructuring and benefits from continued profitability in several of its business segments, it

BUENOS AIRES (AP) ― Argentina’s economy minister is backtracking on details of the government’s recent announcements over the easing of currency controls. Argentina announced Friday it was relaxing restrictions on the purchase of U.S. dollars. The decision was forced by double-digit inflation and the sharpest slide in the local peso’s value since its 2002 economic collapse, causing fears among many Argentines that it could happen again. Economy Minister Axel Kicillof told local daily Pagina 12 i

NEW DELHI (AFP) ― India’s Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym died on Sunday after apparently falling at a hotel in Bangkok where he was attending a board meeting, a company spokeswoman and reports said.“Tata Motors deeply regrets to announce the untimely and tragic demise of its Managing Director, Karl Slym, in Bangkok earlier today,” the company said in a statement.“Karl Slym was in Bangkok to attend a meeting of the Board of Directors of Tata Motors Thailand Ltd.”Slym, 51, died in a fall,

India is the cheapest place to buy a Big Mac, whereas Norway offers the highest price for the signature burger among 48 countries, according to the newly updated Big Mac index unveiled Saturday by The Economist. 　 The Economist has published the Big Mac index annually since 1986, tracking the various prices of the McDonald’s flagship burger around the world. It uses exchange rates to convert local prices to U.S. dollars, providing a useful measure to compare the value of different countri

PARIS (AFP) ― A plunge in the Argentinian peso and a slowdown in Chinese growth have brought concerns over emerging markets back into the limelight, although analysts say a catastrophic chain reaction like the 1997 Asian financial crisis is unlikely.The peso stabilized Friday after plunging 14 percent in panic-selling over two days that recalled memories of the country’s 2001 financial crisis After the peso’s worst single-day fall in more than a decade, the government abandoned an unpopular ban

DAVOS (AFP) ― The leaders of the world economy expressed cautious optimism over the prospects for the global economy this year as the Davos forum wrapped up on Saturday.Speaking on a panel of ministers, central bankers and top business leaders at the World Economic Forum, the governor of the Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda said: “We have to be mindful of downside risks, but I think we can be cautiously optimistic about the global economic outlook.”The U.S. economy is slated to grow faster than thr

Coca-Cola Co., the world’s largest soft drink maker, said data belonging to 74,000 individuals, including thousands of former and current employees, was compromised when company laptops were stolen. Letters are being sent to 18,000 individuals, as well as third parties, whose names and Social Security numbers were on the computers, the Atlanta-based company told employees Friday in a memo. Another 56,000 will be sent to those whose driver’s license numbers and other sensitive data were on the ma

SHANGHAI (AFP) ― A shockwave is looming in China’s multi-trillion dollar “shadow banking” system, with an unprecedented default only days away on a $500 million investment product sold to hundreds of people.Staff at China’s biggest bank ICBC pushed the “Credit Equals Gold #1 Trust Product” by promising returns of 10 percent a year, far more than traditional deposits, investors say.But the coal company it was supposed to fund never obtained key licences for its activities, state media reported, a

When Mohamed El-Erian first told Bill Gross several weeks ago that he wanted to leave to “recharge the batteries,” the co-founder of Pacific Investment Management Co. was “shocked” and “discouraged.”El-Erian, 55, for years had been putting in long hours as the public face of Pimco next to Gross, appearing in the office as early as 5 a.m., speaking on national television throughout the day, and responding to messages well past regular working hours. Gross, battling record redemptions from his big

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) ― Hi-tech bosses on Wednesday demanded that authorities change their murky ways in the wake of revelations of vast snooping by the United States and other governments that have raised concerns over privacy.Just days after President Barack Obama unveiled measures to fight back against accusations of government overreach, executives at the swanky World Economic Forum in Davos said security demands by state authorities posed a business risk.“We need to be able to rebuild tr

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Facebook is like an infectious disease, experiencing a spike before its decline, according to U.S. researchers who claim the social network will lose 80 percent of users by 2017.Two doctoral candidates in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University made their astonishing claims in a paper published online at a scientific research archive, but not yet peer-reviewed.Based on the rise and fall of MySpace, John Cannarella and Joshua Spechler say that Facebook, the l