Kim
FILE PHOTO: The logos of car manufacturers Renault and Nissan are seen in front of a common dealership of the companies in Saint-Avold, France, Jan. 15, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann
April 26, 2019
TOKYO (Reuters) – Renault SA will propose to Nissan Motor Co a plan to create a joint holding company in which both firms would nominate a nearly equal number of directors, as the French automaker seeks further integration with its Japanese partner, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Friday.
Under the proposal, the holding company would be headquartered in a third country, the newspaper said, without citing sources.
Renault had made an earlier merger proposal that Nissan rejected on April 12, the newspaper said.
The outlook for the alliance between Renault and Nissan – one of the world’s top automaking partnerships – has been in focus since the arrest in November of its main architect, Carlos Ghosn, for financial misconduct.
The capital structure between the two automakers, in which Renault is the main shareholder of Nissan, has become an issue in past years, since Renault saved Nissan from the brink of bankruptcy two decades ago.
(Reporting by Ran Kim and Naomi Tajitsu; Editing by Chris Gallagher)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A shopper looks at food at a supermarket in Tokyo February 26, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
April 26, 2019
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s household spending likely rose for a fourth straight month in March, a Reuters poll found on Friday, but weak factory output and exports could still push the economy into a mild contraction in the first quarter.
Household spending is expected to have risen 1.7 percent in March from a year earlier, the poll of 14 economists showed, the same rate of growth posted in February.
“The employment situation is favorable but wage recovery remains moderate, which is why private consumption lacks momentum,” said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute.
“Still, domestic demand will likely be relatively solid till a planned sales tax hike in October. But after that, the economy is seen weakening unless external demand becomes strong enough to boost Japan’s economy.”
Japan is scheduled to raise its sales tax hike to 10 percent from 8 percent in October, after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe twice postponed it.
The last sales tax increases from 5 percent in 2014 dealt a blow to private consumption, which accounts for about 60 percent of the economy.
The government will announce household spending data at 8:30 a.m. Japan time on Friday, May 10 (2330 GMT, May 9).
Recent data showed Japan’s industrial output fell in January-March at the fastest pace in almost five years, while exports fell for a fourth straight month.[nL3N2272AR][nL3N21T1SQ]
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Kim Coghill)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean senior ruling party official and former intelligence chief, return to discussions after a break at Park Hwa Guest House in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 7, 2018. Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) – The demotion of Kim Yong Chol, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s point man for nuclear talks with the United States, signals he has taken the fall for the failed second summit between the two countries, diplomats in Seoul and regional experts said.
The hawkish former general and spymaster was recently removed from a key party post and is expected to hand over his leading role in the nuclear talks to diplomats who had been previously restrained to playing a secondary part, they said.
Kim Yong Chol remains a formidable force in Pyongyang but there is no word whether he has been given a new role in the ultra-secretive North Korean power structure. He did not accompany Kim Jong Un to Russia this week for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, the North Korean leader’s first international foray since his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February ended in disarray.
“The summit damaged the North’s long-held principle that its leader never makes an error, so they have to shift the blame,” said Kim Hyun-wook, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul.
“This may not mean an immediate shift in their U.S. strategy, but the diplomats will likely take the initiative to contain the fallout from Hanoi and promote diplomacy with various countries.”
Kim Yong Chol was beside Kim through the last 12 months, including for his three meetings with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, two with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the two Trump summits, in Singapore and Hanoi.
But for those who have known him as a hardline military general, Kim Yong Chol never seemed comfortable with the art of negotiating the roll back of his country’s nuclear program in exchange for concessions from the United States.
Kim avoided getting into details at negotiating sessions, instead leaving it to diplomats to build strategy, two diplomatic sources in Seoul familiar with the North’s diplomatic engagements said.
Even then, he refused to yield control, one of the sources said.
“Whether or not he understood the issues, he kept a tight grip on the negotiations. It seemed like: ‘Over my dead body I’m going to let Ri Yong Ho take over,’” the source said, referring to the North’s foreign minister.
‘REAL SPOKESWOMAN’
Ri and his deputy, Choe Son Hui, are seen to be taking over the vacuum left by Kim Yong Chol, flanking the leader as he met Putin on Thursday.
The collapse of the Hanoi summit was a major setback for Kim Jong Un, who, several sources said, was led to believe by hawkish aides like Kim Yong Chol that he was about to win sought-after sanctions relief in return for a promise to partially scrap nuclear facilities.
Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at South Korea’s Sejong Institute, said the demands Kim made of Trump in Hanoi had the hallmarks of the “best scenario” strategy advocated by hawks like Kim Yong Chol.
“But it turned out to be a scenario that the United States could never accept,” Cheong said. “Kim Jong Un cutting his reliance on Kim Yong Chol is a positive sign for the negotiations.”
The person who now appears to have Kim’s ear is Vice Foreign Minister Choe, North Korea experts said.
She has steadily grown in influence over the last 15 years, rising from a junior player on the North’s U.S. diplomacy team to become vice foreign minister and a member of the powerful State Affairs Commission.
She held several news conferences after the collapse of the Hanoi summit, playing the rare role of conveying Kim Jong Un’s thinking.
Thae Yong Ho, former North Korean deputy ambassador in London who defected to the South in 2016, said Choe has joined an inner circle of women close to Kim Jong Un, including his sister and his wife.
“Now she’s the real spokeswoman for Kim Jong Un,” Thae told a forum hosted by the Asan Institute of Policy Studies on Wednesday in Seoul. “How can Choe read his mind? Because she has access.”
A diplomatic source also said Choe appears to have built rapport with Kim Yo Jong, Kim’s sister who is also a senior party official, which contributed to her recent promotion.
“We have to remember that (Foreign Minister) Ri and Choe are not only North Korea’s best people for the job of dealing with the U.S.,” said Michael Madden, a North Korea leadership expert at the U.S.-based Stimson Center.
“But they both have known the leader since he was a small boy so there is a dynamic of their wanting to see Kim Jong Un thrive and succeed.”
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Jack Kim and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: World Bank Group President David Malpass and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde at the IMF and World Bank’s 2019 Annual Spring Meetings, in Washington, U.S. April 13, 2019. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan
April 26, 2019
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly 40 world leaders and scores of finance officials, including International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde, are gathered in Beijing for China’s second Belt and Road infrastructure summit, but the World Bank’s new president isn’t among them.
David Malpass, fresh from a senior Trump administration post at the U.S. Treasury Department, is instead making his first foreign trip as the World Bank’s leader to sub-Saharan Africa to highlight his vision for the bank’s poverty reduction and development agenda.
A World Bank spokesman said Malpass will be traveling this weekend to Madagascar, Ethiopia and Mozambique before flying to Egypt and a debt conference in Paris. Malpass has said that Africa is a key priority for the bank due to its high concentration of the world’s poorest people.
World Bank Chief Executive Officer Kristalina Georgieva, who had been acting president during the leadership selection process, is representing the institution at the summit and had accepted China’s invitation before Malpass started at the bank on April 9, the bank spokesman said.
Former World Bank President Jim Yong Kim attended China’s first Belt and Road summit two years ago.
Leaders of two of the countries on Malpass’ trip, Ethiopia and Mozambique, are among a number of African leaders also attending this year’s summit.
Malpass, who was the Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs, is a longtime critic of China’s Belt and Road lending practices and had worked to raise alarms about them with G7 and G20 countries in that role.
“In lending, China often fails to adhere to international standards in areas such as anti-corruption, export credits, and finding coordinated and sustainable solutions to payment difficulties, such as those sought in the Paris Club,” Malpass told a U.S. House Financial Services subcommittee in December.
His absence coincides with a significant downgrade of the Belt and Road summit by the United States as the Trump administration tries to negotiate a deal to resolve longstanding trade and intellectual property disputes with China — talks in which Malpass frequently participated.
No high-level U.S. officials are attending, a State Department spokesman said, citing similar concerns about Belt and Road debt.
Malpass said at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings this month that meeting the development lender’s goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 calls for a focus on Africa.
“By 2030, nearly 9 in 10 extremely poor people will be Africans, and half of the world’s poor will be living in fragile and conflict-affected settings,” he told a news conference at the meetings. “This calls for urgent action, by countries themselves, and by the global community.”
He told reporters on his first day on the job that he wanted to “evolve” the bank’s relationship with China to one where Beijing is a bigger contributor of capital and cooperates more closely with the bank on development issues and poverty reduction.
But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Malpass’ former boss, on the same day told lawmakers that the World Bank under Malpass’ leadership and a new U.S. development agency “can be a serious competitor to (China’s) Belt and Road.”
(Reporting by David Lawder; editing by Jason Neely)
Source: OANN
North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un on Thursday accused the United States of operating in “bad faith” at February’s Hanoi summit, which produced no breakthroughs in talks about the North’s denuclearization and U.S. sanctions.
Kim added peace on the peninsula depended on the United States’ “future attitude.“
At the meeting in Vietnam between the two leaders, Trump had demanded sanctions relief only if North Korean abandoned its nuclear weapons program. Kim wanted sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling a single nuclear facility.
But the balance the U.S. sought shifted dramatically Thursday, when Kim met with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin — a sit-down described by the Korean Central News Agency as “unreserved and friendly,” AFP reported.
Kim declared “the situation on the Korean peninsula and the region is now at a standstill and has reached a critical point,” the news agency reported. And he warned the situation “may return to its original state as the U.S. took an unilateral attitude in bad faith at the recent second DPRK-US summit talks.”
“Peace and security on the Korean peninsula will entirely depend on the U.S. future attitude, and the DPRK will gird itself for every possible situation,” he said, AFP reported.
Kim said he hoped to usher in a “new heyday” in ties between Pyongyang and Moscow.
Source: NewsMax Politics
FILE PHOTO: An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China July 6, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song
April 26, 2019
By Wayne Cole
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Asian shares got off to a subdued start on Friday, while the dollar held near two-year highs against the euro on speculation that data later in the day will show the U.S. economy outperforming the rest of the developed world.
The euro was off 1 percent for the week at $1.1133 as euro zone economic figures continued to disappoint.
Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was 0.8 percent firmer for the week so far at 98.128 having touched its highest since May 2017.
The yen proved an outlier by gaining as speculators cut short positions ahead of holidays which will see most Japanese markets shut for six whole trading days.
The exceptionally long break has investors concerned there could be another “flash crash” like the one in early January that drove the yen massively higher in a matter of minutes.
The dollar was down at 111.51 yen, after shedding 0.5 percent overnight, but was buoyed elsewhere by solid data on U.S. capital goods orders.
The rise in the yen and some mixed Japanese economic data nudged the Nikkei down 0.7 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1 percent.
The mood might lighten later on Thursday should data on U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) prove as upbeat as some now expect.
A string of solid numbers has led analysts to revise up their forecasts for growth and the latest median polled by Reuters is for an annualized 2.0 percent.
The closely-watched estimate of GDP from the Atlanta Federal Reserve is projecting an outcome of 2.7 percent, a huge turnaround from a few weeks ago when it was down at 0.5 percent.
Yet the rebound has not been mirrored in inflation which remains subdued across much of the developed world, prompting a host of central banks to turn dovish.
Just this week central banks in Sweden and Canada have backed off plans to tighten, while the Bank of Japan tried to dispel doubts about its accommodative stance by pledging to keep rates at super-low levels for at least one more year.
European Central Bank Vice-President Luis de Guindos on Thursday opened the door to more money-printing if needed to boost inflation in the euro zone.
Rate cuts look much likelier in Australia and New Zealand after recent disappointingly weak inflation reports.
The Federal Reserve holds a policy meeting next week and is expected to reaffirm its patient stance. A Reuters poll of analysts out Thursday found most believed the Fed was done with tightening altogether.
MIXED EARNINGS
Wall Street had ended Thursday mixed after a raft of earnings reports. The Dow fell 0.51 percent, while the S&P 500 lost 0.04 percent and the Nasdaq added 0.21 percent.
Amazon.com Inc shares firmed after the market closed as the company reported a first-quarter profit that topped estimates.
Shares of Facebook Inc and Microsoft Corp both jumped after they reported better-than-expected results. Intel Corp fell sharply after the chip maker forecast current-quarter revenue below estimates.
In commodity markets, spot gold was idling at $1,278.26 per ounce.
Brent crude ran into profit-taking after hitting $75 per barrel on Thursday for the first time in nearly six months following the suspension of some Russian crude exports to Europe.
Brent crude futures lost 20 cents to $74.15 a barrel, while U.S. crude was last down 24 cents at $64.97 a barrel.
(Editing by Kim Coghill)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: One hundred dollar notes are seen in this photo illustration at a bank in Seoul January 9, 2013. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won
April 26, 2019
By Shinichi Saoshiro
TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar hovered near a two-year high against its peers on Friday, supported by strong U.S. capital goods orders and awaiting first-quarter GDP data which could further reinforce the greenback’s bullish standing.
The dollar index versus a basket of six major currencies stood at 98.128 after advancing to 98.322 on Thursday, its highest since May 2017.
Data on Thursday showed new orders for U.S.-made capital goods increased by the most in eight months in March. That follows other recent U.S. data that show strength in retail sales and exports which have eased concerns of the world’s biggest economy sharply slowing.
The markets are watching first-quarter U.S. gross domestic product data due later on Friday (1230 GMT) for signs of whether the United States remains stronger than other leading economies.
According to a Reuters survey of economists, GDP probably increased at a 2.0 percent annualized rate in the quarter. The economy grew at a 2.2 percent pace in the October-December period.
“We expect the GDP data to underline steady economic recovery. Differences in economic fundamentals is a key driver for currencies now that the Fed – and more recently the Swedish and Japanese central banks – have adopted a dovish stance,” said Shin Kadota, senior strategist at Barclays in Tokyo.
Sweden’s central bank said on Thursday that recent weak inflationary pressures meant an interest rate hike would come slightly later than it had planned, sending the Swedish crown to a 17-year low.
In a move to dispel any doubt over its commitment to ultra-loose policies, the Bank of Japan on Thursday put a time frame on its forward guidance for the first time by telling investors that it would keep interest rates at super-low levels for at least one more year.
The euro was a touch higher at $1.1139 but within reach of $1.1117, its lowest level since June 2017 plumbed on Thursday.
The single currency has shed nearly 1 percent against the dollar this week, weighed by worries about the health of the euro zone economy.
The dollar was down 0.1 percent at 111.52 yen after shedding 0.5 percent overnight.
The Australian dollar was steady at $0.7018 after ending Thursday little changed.
The Aussie has lost roughly 2 percent this week, during which it sank to a near four-month trough as soft domestic inflation data boosted the prospect of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia.
(Reporting by Shinichi Saoshiro; Editing by Kim Coghill)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Office workers are reflected in a glass railing as they cross a street during lunch hour in Tokyo June 1, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
April 26, 2019
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s jobless rate rose in March while the availability of jobs held steady at a high level, government data showed on Friday, underscoring a tight labor market.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 2.5 percent, against economists’ median forecast for 2.4 percent, figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed.
The jobs-to-applicants ratio stood at 1.63, unchanged from February. The median estimate was for the ratio to rise to 1.64, according to a Reuters poll.
(Reporting by Sumio Ito and Stanley White; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)
Source: OANN
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, Russia in this undated photo released on April 25, 2019 by North Korea’s Central News Agency (KCNA). KCNA via REUTERS
April 25, 2019
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, during his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said peace and security on the Korean peninsula will entirely depend on the future U.S. attitude, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Friday.
Kim’s remarks are seen as keeping pressure on the U.S. to be “more flexible” in accepting Pyongyang’s demands to ease sanctions, compared to the U.S. stance during the collapsed second U.S.-North Korea summit in February in Hanoi, as he said earlier this month.
Kim said at the time he will wait “till the end of this year” for the United States to change its mind.
“The situation on the Korean peninsula and the region is now at a standstill and has reached a critical point where it may return to its original state as the U.S. took a unilateral attitude in bad faith at the recent second DPRK-U.S. summit talks,” KCNA reported Kim saying, using North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Kim invited Putin to North Korea at a convenient time and Putin accepted, KCNA said.
The first face-to-face talks between Putin and Kim, held on an island off the Russian Pacific city of Vladivostok on Thursday, did not appear to have yielded any major breakthrough.
The two leaders had an in-depth discussion on the ways for the two countries to promote the strategic communication and tactical collaboration in the course of ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in the region, KCNA said.
Putin said afterward he thought a deal on Pyongyang’s nuclear program was possible and that the way to get there was to move forward step-by-step in order to build trust.
But any U.S. guarantees might need to be supported by the other nations involved in previous six-way talks on the nuclear issue, Putin said, which was seen as an attempt to use the summit to strengthen Russia’s diplomatic clout as a global player.
Both Russia and North Korea agreed to take positive measures in several fields in order to further cooperate in trade, economy, science and technology, KCNA said.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Chris Reese)
Source: OANN
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