The International Monetary Fund may upgrade its growth forecast for Japan, although the nation must start fiscal and structural reforms in 2014, IMF First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton was cited as saying in an interview in the Financial Times.The IMF’s economic growth forecast for Japan of 1.2 percent next year will probably rise because of extra stimulus measures, the FT said, citing Lipton. The government expects gross domestic product to increase 1.4 percent, according to budget docu

CUPERTINO, California (AP) ― Apple CEO Timothy Cook received a compensation package valued at nearly $4.3 million this year, up slightly from 2012.Cook’s pay for fiscal 2013, which ended in September, consisted of $1.4 million in salary and a bonus of $2.8 million, according to a regulatory filing Friday. Cook’s compensation also includes $52,721 in company contributions to his 401(k) account, life insurance premiums and a vacation cash-out.The year’s pay was relatively modest compared with 2011

Country estimates 2013 growth at 7.6 percent as challenges seen ahead

China plans to raise the retirement age for the first time since the 1950s, as policy makers confront the prospect of a shrinking workforce that damps economic growth. The age will rise gradually, Hu Xiaoyi, a vice minister of human resources and social security, said this month. China’s compulsory retirement ages, now 50 for most women and 60 for men, are likely in 2020 to be about five years higher than they are now, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Delaying retirement may b

Swatch Group AG won an arbitration award of 402 million francs ($449 million) from Tiffany & Co., more than the New York-based jeweler earned last year, after the Swiss watchmaker claimed a breach of contract at a joint venture. Tiffany said it will take a charge of $295 million to $305 million in the fourth quarter for the decision by an arbitration panel in the Netherlands. The charge may reduce earnings by as much as $2.35 a diluted share for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, relative to the for

The International Monetary Fund is raising its outlook for the U.S. economy, as a budget deal in Washington and the Federal Reserve’s plan to taper its bond buying ease doubts about the future, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said. “We see a lot more certainty for 2014,” she said in an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” With the unemployment rate falling, the Fed’s action last week and the government budget agreement, “all of that gives us a much stronger outlook for 2

Russia’s crisis haunts Deutsche Bank analyst seeing China bust

Ministers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq said OPEC needn’t cut production next year to make room for additional supplies from Iran, Libya and U.S. shale oil. “I am optimistic the market will stay balanced and stable next year,” Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said Saturday in a speech at a meeting of Arab oil exporters in Doha, Qatar. “Shale oil is not posing any threat to Saudi Arabia and OPEC,” he told reporters. Commerzbank AG said in a Dec. 10 report that the Organization of Petroleum Ex

BlackBerry Ltd.’s five-year deal to outsource smartphone production to Foxconn Group is jump-starting its transformation into a services provider, pleasing investors who were looking for a smaller, nimbler company. BlackBerry announced plans Friday for Foxconn to make its phones at plants in Indonesia and Mexico, sending the shares up 16 percent, the biggest one-day gain in more than four years. The move will help the struggling company cut production spending and avoid the kind of inventory glu