EIU Country Analysis

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [AllAfrica.com] AS ONE energy analyst has observed, Dipuo Peters#;s maiden budget vote speech as energy minister this week has shown that nuclear power is still very much on the government#;s front burner. Since Eskom

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [EquityBites] Speciality pharmaceutical company Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc (NYSE: WPI) reported on Wednesday that its subsidiary Watson Laboratories Inc has been granted approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [CPI Financial] SHUAA Capital and Dubai Banking Group, which had fallen out and almost ended up in court in a row over the terms of a convertible bond that SHUAA issued in October ####, have agreed new

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Irish Independent (Ireland)] More than ###,### jobs may be lost in the agri-foods industry within two years if the practices of one supermarket giant become widespread, a leading economist has warned. The British supermarket chain

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [AFP World News (English)] NYSE Euronext, Nasdaq OMX, the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse have all entered bids to take over Poland#;s state-controlled Warsaw Stock Exchange, Polish authorities said on Wednesday. "All four bids

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Asia Pulse Businesswire] Auto major Tata Motors (BSE:######) on Tuesday said it has selected over ###,### customers for its small-car Nano touted as the world#;s cheapest which the company will start delivering from

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [BNamericas (English)] Five candidates have already shown interest in acquiring Telecom Italia#;s (NYSE: TI) ##% stake in Sofora, the holding company that controls Argentine telco Telecom Argentina (NYSE: TEO), local newspaper Perfil reported. According to the

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Business Daily Update (China)] Author: zhaott China National Nuclear Corp, China#;s biggest builder of atomic power plants, said its electricity generation rose to a record last year. Output at China Nuclear#;s plants climbed to ##

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT Credit-card issuer Visa (US) will launch a new mobile payments service for cardholders in Peru, the first of its kind in Latin America. The new service, Pago Movil con Visa, will allow cardholders in

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [AFP World News (English)] Weight-loss surgery that curbs food intake by stitching up parts of the stomach or small intestine reduces the risk of cancer in obese women by more than ## percent, according to a

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nikkei English News (Japan)] Shinsei Bank (####) and Aozora Bank (####), which have reached a basic agreement to merge as early as autumn ####, have asked Norito Ikeda, former president of Ashikaga Bank, to become president of

FROM THE ECONOMIST Scotland is to raise more of the money it spends--whether it wants to or not. PERHAPS the biggest problem in politics is how to match the public#;s desire for things like roads, hospitals and schools

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT US GDP dropped by an annualised #.#% in the first quarter of ####, a little less severe than the #.#% contraction reported in a previous estimate from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis

FROM EUROPEAN VOICE By Jennifer Rankin Germanyand the UK argue over where to base agency. Germany and the UK are at loggerheads over the location of a new international agency for renewable energy. Germany would like to keep the International

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nation (Thailand)] Major retailers have launched business strategies to battle the current economic difficulties. At the seminar "Retail Strategies #### Best Practices", hosted by Marketing Association of Thailand#;s Young Marketing Executive Club, speakers said that local

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Marketwatch] International Business Machines Corp. is drawing fresh scrutiny of its business practices from rivals and critics banking on a stricter antitrust regime under the Obama administration. The Computer & Communications Industry Association has pursued Big Blue IBM

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Evening Standard (London, England)] THE cheers rang around Lime Street in the City today after Lloyd#;s of London broker Brit Insurance chose to withdraw its £### million bid for rival Chaucer and thereby avoid the possibility

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic are set to wade into the murky waters of dark pools. The European Commission recently announced its intention to include dark pools in its review of the Markets

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nikkei English News (Japan)] Toyota Motor Corp. (####) has reduced factory hours, cut executive bonuses and slashed its dividend, but with the sales slump continuing, the industry leader may have to consider taking the shocking step of

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Xinhua News Agency (China)] The oil and gas companies in India are faced with an unstable policy regime along with business risks that come out of volatile crude oil prices, global consulting firm Ernst and Young said

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT The civil war is over, but Sri Lanka#;s mobile-phone operators continue to battle for profitability and customers. The end of Sri Lanka#;s bloody war against the Tamil Tigers has cheered businesses across

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [BNamericas (English)] German business software producer SAP (NYSE: SAP) is seeing strong adoption of mobile sales force platforms in Latin America, particularly in Chile, Enrique Onetto, sales executive of business process platform with SAP#;s multi country

Building permits in Peru are issued at the municipal level in urban areas and at the district level in rural areas. Changes are now under way to speed the process for obtaining building and other permits, which now takes #

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [MarketWatch Bullets] Pfizer Inc. pfe subsidiary Pfizer Investments Netherlands B.V. said Wednesday it has increased its offer price to buy a ##.##% stake in India-based Pfizer Ltd. from public shareholders. Pfizer Investments said the

FROM THE ECONOMIST Adnan Yousif wants to build the first truly global Islamic bank. MOST practitioners of Islamic finance pride themselves on their modesty. But not Adnan Yousif, the chairman of the Union of Arab Banks, a regional club for

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [China Daily] Sentences for nine gang members involved in an international software counterfeiting scheme were upheld by the Shanghai High People#;s Court yesterday. The nine, who sold millions of dollars in pirated software, had previously received

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT (Forecast closing date: June ##th ####) Colombia is self-sufficient in energy, and ranks fifth in Latin America for proven oil reserves, sixth for gas reserves and second for coal reserves. Colombia#;s energy consumption

FROM THE ECONOMIST The global recession is spurring a huge increase in corporate defaults. In the week to June ##th seven firms in America defaulted on their debt, pushing the total to ### so far this year. Standard & Poor#;s

FROM EUROPEAN VOICE Romania has made an early start to the traditional campaign by member states to get favoured portfolios for their nationals in the next Commission. Determined to obtain something more substantial than the multilingualism dossier given to Leonard

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT Two of Europe#;s biggest electronics retailers have reported disappointing results, and neither expects things to improve over the next year. At the end of last week, a ripple of excitement went through Europe#;s

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [AFP World News (English)] Chinese retail chain Suning Appliance Co said Thursday it planned to buy a stake in struggling Japanese consumer electronics retailer Laox for ### million yen (#.# million dollars). Suning will buy ##

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT The following is an extract from our full Energy Report for this country Demand. Although Colombia#;s domestic coal consumption jumped to #.#m tonnes in #### from #.#m tonnes in ####, this still

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT Two industry behemoths have announced a partnership that is long on promise but short on detail. Like bashful teenagers at a disco, Intel and Nokia must have been eyeing each other across the vast, pulsating

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Business Daily Update (China)] Asia#;s largest refiner, Sinopec Group said on June ## that it incurred a loss of ###.# billion yuan ($##.## billion) in its refining business in ####. The huge loss was

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nikkei English News (Japan)] L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co. (ERIC), Sweden#;s largest company and the world#;s largest telecommunications network equipment maker by sales, said Thursday that Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg is leaving his position

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT The Philippines#; import bill dropped by a record ##.#% year on year in April, implying that exports are yet to bottom out. This was sharper than the ##.#% year-on-year decline of

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nikkei English News (Japan)] Toyota Motor Thailand plans to introduce the Camry hybrid in Thailand in late July, an executive said Thursday. It would be the first hybrid vehicle to be launched and assembled in Thailand. "This

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT The following is an extract from our full Energy Report for this country In #### Generadora Union (Colombia) and the World Bank signed a greenhouse gas emissions reduction agreement to support the ##-mw Amoya

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [South China Morning Post] China United Network Communications Group, the parent of Hong Kong-listed China Unicom (Hong Kong), will invest ## billion yuan (HK$##.# billion) in Henan province in the next five years on

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Marketwatch] People shopping online are likely to bail out on planned purchases before making the final click to submit their orders, often because they are surprised by high shipping costs and other fees, according to a new

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Associated Press] Ford Motor Co.#;s top executive for auto parts purchasing said Wednesday the number of the automaker#;s suppliers that are under distress, bankruptcy protection or under observation has more than doubled in the last

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [BNamericas (English)] Brazilian telecoms watchdog Anatel plans to launch a tender to assign additional spectrum for mobile operators, local press quoted Anatel private services director Jarbas Valente as saying. Anatel expects to award ### licenses including spectrum

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Times of India] State finance minister Dilip Valse-Patil on Tuesday announced that the state government has sanctioned a Rs ##,### crore plan for improvement of electricity generation, transmission and distribution in the state. Pune district

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [New York Times] Congressional investigators said Wednesday that two-thirds of the nation#;s health insurance industry used a faulty database that overcharged patients for seeing doctors outside their insurance network, costing them billions of dollars in

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [AFP World News (English)] British energy giant BP on Thursday named Carl-Henric Svanberg, current chief executive of Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson, as the group#;s new chairman from ####. "BP is a recognised world leader in

Country Commerce Peru Released June #### The Economist Intelligence Unit ### West ## th Street New York NY##### USA The Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit is a specialist publisher serving companies establishing and managing operations across national borders

Perenco, a French hydrocarbon company that entered the Peruvian market in ####, announced in early May #### that it would be investing US$#bn to develop an oil lot in the northern Amazon region by ####. The investment has generated

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [ADP Nordic News] The net profit of Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) (STO:HM B) grew to SEK #.### billion (USD ###.#m/EUR ###.#m) in the second quarter of fiscal ####

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nikkei English News (Japan)] Domestic production at Toyota Motor Corp. (####.TO) and Nissan Motor Co. (####.TO) sank again from a year earlier in May, but the two Japanese car makers narrowed the decline for the

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nikkei English News (Japan)] Senior U.S. trade officials have called on China to revoke an order for all personal computers in China to be shipped with Web-filtering software, saying the requirement could conflict with China

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [BNamericas (English)] Costa Rica#;s telecoms regulator Sutel has authorized six companies to enter the market and compete with state telecoms monopoly ICE, marking the first official step in the liberalization of the telecoms market, local press

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT The following is an extract from our full Energy Report for this country Demand. Total electricity demand growth decelerated in #### because of the economic slowdown. The government forecasts that domestic electricity demand will grow

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Associated Press] Malaysia#;s national oil company Petronas reported a double-digit decline in net profit Thursday, blaming lower demand for oil and higher production costs amid a global downturn. Net profit fell ## percent to ##

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Daily Telegraph (UK)] Mark Newton-Jones is like a child in a sweet shop, quite literally. The chief executive of Shop Direct is demonstrating the website of Woolworths.co.uk, where from today shoppers can buy pic

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nation (Thailand)] A major retailer yesterday suggested zero import duties on luxury products as a way to draw tourists here and to boost the country#;s economy. The measure was part of proposals made yesterday by Thailand

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Associated Press] Intel Corp. said Wednesday it has cleared a hurdle in its proposed $### million takeover of software maker Wind River Systems Inc. as a federal waiting period expired. Wind River#;s software started as a

Ten procedures are required to start a business in Peru in ####, according to the World Bank#;s Doing Business #### survey. It now takes an average of ## days to complete the procedures, down from ## days in ####

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [ABC Premium News (Australia)] The Australian oil and gas industry says it could generate tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in royalties if it is allowed to expand. The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Asia Pulse Businesswire] Chinese auto sales totaled #.#### million units in the first five months this year, up ##.## per cent from one year prior, according to statistics by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Associated Press] As General Motors Corp. undergoes its transformation from big and slow to lean and fast in a New York bankruptcy court, a similar metamorphosis is under way inside a mammoth eastern Ohio factory that will

FROM THE ECONOMIST The end of the New Labour orthodoxy on public spending. THE doors of the Metro stations in Moscow are lethal--thick, heavy glass with a wicked swing. Yet surprisingly few people hold them open for the passenger

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Oil Daily] US private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has made a significant investment in East Resources the privately held natural gas company said on Tuesday. The size of the investment was about $### million, according to

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT The fast growth of mobile telephony and telephone infrastructure is expected to support an increase in e-commerce activity. E-commerce in Peru remains limited, still dominated by business-to-business transactions. A regional report

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT A rising budget deficit spells doom for Poland#;s euro ambitions. Poland#;s plan to adopt the euro in #### is unravelling: the budget deficit forecast has been hiked by ##% to Zl ##bn (US

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Marketwatch] Former Yahoo Inc. executive Jeff Weiner has been named chief executive of professional online social networking service LinkedIn, according to a statement released Wednesday. Weiner left Yahoo roughly one year ago, amid an executive shake-up

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nikkei English News (Japan)] Toshiba Corp. (####) President Norio Sasaki said in his inaugural interview Wednesday that strengthening the company#;s finances and boosting its capital ratio to ##% will be major goals under his leadership. Toshiba

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Associated Press] Federal regulators on Wednesday proposed tightened rules for money-market mutual funds that would require them to hold some assets that could be easily converted to cash and to invest only in the highest quality

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [New York Times] President Obama hailed a pledge by the pharmaceutical industry to contribute $## billion in drug discounts and other savings over the next ## years as "a significant breakthrough on the road to health care

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Marketwatch] Credit-card companies are taking a double beating from rising defaults and tighter federal regulation but it is consumers who will likely feel the pain in the coming months. "The combo of the two means there

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT The following is an extract from our full Energy Report for this country Colombia has no nuclear power programme, but is nevertheless included as one of the ## States listed in Annex II of the

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT A Brazilian Senate committee has made eight recommendations to increase competition in the country#;s banking sector. The proposals include an end to charges for clients moving funds from one bank to another; a "fair

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Associated Press] Consultants say a $#.# billion expansion of a southwestern Illinois refinery could be an economic boon for the region. A study commissioned by the River Bend Growth Association shows the ConocoPhillips Wood River refinery

FROM EUROPEAN VOICE Jim Brunsden The EU#;s target of having a new system for financial supervision in place next year means the Swedish presidency will be under pressure to refine the outline agreement reached by EU leaders on how

FROM EUROPEAN VOICE It#;s a bit poacher turned gamekeeper" is how Michael Sheppard describes his career path. For ## years he was a fisherman. But he has spent the past ## years in fisheries inspection, work that has included

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [AFP World News (English)] German customs authorities said Wednesday they had smashed a ring selling millions of counterfeit male potency tablets online from India and other Asian countries after raids in five cities. The operation involving ##

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Daily Telegraph (UK) PRIVATE equity giant Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (KKR) has ditched immediate plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange but will push ahead with going public by merging with its struggling Euronext-listed investment

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Associated Press] PepsiCo Inc. on Wednesday said it struck a deal to buy ## percent of Japan#;s largest snack company, with which it will produce and sell snacks and other foods in the Asian nation. PepsiCo

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT Plans to #;invalidate#; patents on some drugs have set Venezuela#;s government on a collision course with global pharmaceutical firms. Venezuela#;s Minister of Trade, Eduardo Saman has announced plans to annul patents on several

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT The South African Reserve Bank (SARB, the central bank) has decided to pause its latest cycle of monetary loosening, holding the repo interest rate at #.#%. (The repo rate has been cut by a

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Daily Telegraph (UK)] FORTIS Insurance is understood to be closing in on a deal to provide motor and household products for Tesco#;s financial services arm. The insurer is thought to be in advanced talks with Britain

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nikkei English News (Japan)] Citigroup Inc. has whittled down the field of potential suitors for one of its Japanese units, Nikko Asset Management, to three firms, according to people familiar with the matter. The bidders for Nikko

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Asia Pulse Businesswire] NIPPONKOA Insurance Co., Ltd., the fourth largest property insurance company in Japan, received approval from China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) to establish its first wholly-owned subsidiary in Shenzhen, a coastal city in south

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Business Line (India)] Close to two years after evaluating the Indian market, Japanese drug-maker Astellas Pharma has entered the country with plans to establish itself in the innovative drugs segment. The proposed trade agreement between Japan

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)] After nine years at the helm of Cigna Corp., H. Edward Hanway said yesterday that he would step aside as chief executive officer and chairman at the end of the year. The Philadelphia health

The stock of foreign direct investment (FDI) registered by the government#;s privatisation and investment-promotion agency, ProInversion, was US$##.#bn at end-####, up from US$##.#bn at end-####. FDI inflows in #### totalled US$#

FROM EUROPEAN VOICE Over #,### banks should today receive one-year loans from the European Central Bank. By Jim Brunsden The European Central Bank yesterday granted EUR### billion of one-year loans to banks across Europe, in an attempt

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nation (Thailand)] The Finance Ministry is ready to lower the oil tax if crude prices keep rising, but still wants the executive decree passed to raise the tax ceiling to Bt## per litre. "When we proposed the

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Daily Telegraph (UK)] More retailers said sales volumes fell in the first two weeks of June than those who reported a rise, but the picture was no worse than in May, according to the CBI#;s latest

FROM THE ECONOMIST The credit crunch has made it much more difficult and expensive for firms to hedge their risks. WARREN BUFFETT, one of the world#;s most famous investors, once called derivatives "financial weapons of mass destruction". Central bankers

FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT Ben Bernanke side-stepped congressional efforts to blame him for the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch deal. Lawmakers should now turn to more urgent matters. In the past year Ben Bernanke has faced failing banks

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Nikkei English News (Japan)] Bridgestone Corp. (####.TO) said Thursday it only expects to break even on a net basis this year after posting a Y##.## billion profit last year, revealing its pessimism about a global

FROM EUROPEAN VOICE Christof Ruhl of BP says that energy security for the European Union depends on technology, flexibility and free markets. By Tim King Extreme situations are testing and revealing. Christof Ruhl, the chief economist of energy company BP

FROM THE ECONOMIST Recession and political mistakes by the first couple point to a change in the balance of power. But will Argentina at last acquire a more coherent opposition? UNTIL about three months ago, as the southern-hemisphere summer

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Associated Press] Sinopec, with its $#.# billion bid for Addax Petroleum, is seeking crucial production capacity and coveted reserves in West Africa and the Middle East to help balance its heavy reliance on crude oil processing

FROM THE ECONOMIST In a guest article, Christina Romer says policymakers must learn from the errors that prolonged the Depression. AT A recent congressional hearing I cautiously noted some "glimmers of hope" that the economy could stabilise and perhaps start

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Associated Press] Investment bank Jefferies Group Inc. on Wednesday forecast its second-quarter net income and revenue would come in well above Wall Street expectations. Jefferies Group said it expects net income to top $## million, and

FROM EUROPEAN VOICE Firms may have to move to secure an EIB loan; new policy is part of crackdown on tax havens. By Jim Brunsden The European Investment Bank (EIB) is expected in July to tighten its rules on lending

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [Marketwatch] Taiwanese mobile-phone maker HTC on Wednesday unveiled its third Android-based device, nicknamed Hero, which showcases a new user interface focused on being easily tailored. The new interface, called HTC Sense, has been in the

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [The Fly on the Wall - Live News Feed] Sandoz has received marketing authorization for the first-ever Japanese biosimilar, recombinant human growth hormone somatropin. The precedent-setting decision further reinforces Sandoz#;s global leadership position in the

FROM DIALOG NEWSEDGE [BBC Monitoring International Reports] Government has invited bids for petroleum exploration of oil and gas licence in North-Western, Western and Eastern Provinces. Minister of Mines and Minerals Development, Maxwell Mwale said in an interview in Lusaka