经济学人下载:一周商业要闻

Business this week

一周商业要闻

Aug 3rd 2013 |From the print edition

The American economy grew at an annualised rate of 1.7% in the three months to June, compared with 1.1% in the previous quarter. Companies restocked their inventories faster than expected, offsetting government spending cuts imposed by the “sequester”. The Federal Reserve said it expects growth to pick up further despite the fiscal drag. 

今年三至六月，美国经济年增长率达到1.7%，而上一季度增长率仅为1.1%。企业补充库存的速度远比预期要快，抵消了由“自动减赤计划”而造成的政府财政缩水的部分。美联储表示尽管面临财政障碍，但仍希望经济有进一步增长。

The latest numbers reflect a change in how American GDP is calculated. From now on the figures, revised all the way back to 1929, will include intangibles like R&D spending. The tweaked method, meant to capture the shape of modern economies, swelled output by 3.6%. It also reduced federal spending as a share of GDP. 

最新一组数据反映了计算美国GDP的新方法。它对从1929年至今的所有数据都进行了修正，将诸如研发费用支出的无形资产纳入其中。调整后的新方法旨在更好地了解当今经济发展的情况，通过它计算出的GDP增长率比旧方法计算出的增长率增加了3.6%，此外，联邦政府支出也不再作为GDP计算的参考依据。

The recovery in American house prices continued apace. The S&P/Case-Shiller index for the 20 biggest cities rose by 12% year on year in May, the biggest rise since March 2006.

美国房价继续迅速回升。今年五月，国内前二十大城市的标普希勒房价指数同比上涨12%，这是自2006年3月以来出现的最大涨幅。

The unemployment rate in the euro zone stood at 12.1% in June, with 24,000 fewer jobless than in May, the first dip since April 2011. Around19.3m people remain out of work.

今年6月，欧元区国家失业率达到12.1%，失业人口比五月减少约2.4万人，这是自2011年4月以来首次出现减少的情况。但是，目前仍有大约1930万处于失业状态。

The IMF warned that Greece may need an additional euro10.9 billion ($14.5 billion) in bail-out loans from euro-zone partners by the end of 2015. Paulo Nogueira Batista, a Brazilian who represents 11 Latin American countries on the IMF’s board, abstained from approving a new euro1.7 billion ($2.3 billion) tranche of rescue loans to the country. Mr Batista argued that the fund’s outlook forAthens is too rosy and that the debt may not be repaid.

国际货币基金组织（IMF）警告称，截至2015年底，希腊可能还需要其他欧元区成员提供109亿欧元（约合145亿美元）的救援贷款。在IMF董事会中代表11个拉美国家的巴西官员保罗·诺盖拉·巴蒂斯塔弃权反对通过向希腊政府提供新一波高达17亿欧元（约合23亿美元）的救援贷款计划。巴蒂斯塔认为人们对提供给希腊的救援贷款的前景过于乐观，而且这笔债务很可能无法偿还。

Mad Men

广告狂人

Publicis, a French advertising giant, and Omnicom, an American one, announced a $35 billion “merger of equals”. The combined firm, which will pipBritain’s WPP to become the industry’s biggest, hopes size will give it an edge in the growing market for data-driven digital ads. Investors were cautious: transatlantic consolidation is likely to throw up a host of problems, not least keeping PepsiCo and Coca-Cola sweet under one roof.

法国广告与传媒剧透阳狮集团(Publicis)与美国奥姆尼康集团(Omnicom)宣布以350亿美元的价格进行“对等合并”。这两大传播集团合并后就成为全球第一大传播集团，规模大大超过英国WPP集团。它希望通过在日益发展的市场上扩大规模，从而赢得数据驱动数字广告的优势。对此投资者们都十分谨慎，他们认为跨大西洋兼并很可能会出现一系列问题，尤其是如何在众口难调的情况下保持各自的一贯风格。

Perrigo, an American pharmaceutical company, said it would buy Elan, an Irish biotechnology firm, for $8.6 billion. The deal will allow Perrigo, which makes private-label remedies for Walmart, among others, to lower its tax burden by benefiting fromIreland’s low corporate rate.

美国制药公司百利高透露将以86亿美元的价格收购爱尔兰生物技术公司Elan。百利高公司为包括沃尔玛在内的公司生产自有品牌的药品。通过此次收购，它将从爱尔兰较低的公司税率中获利，从而大大降低其税务负担。

Saudi Arabiaawarded infrastructure contracts worth $22.5 billion to three Western-led consortiums. They will build a metro system in the capital,Riyadh.

沙特阿拉伯与三个受西方国家领导的财团签署了高达225亿美元的基础设施建设合同。他们将在沙特首都利雅得建造地铁系统。

Peter Löscher resigned as boss of Siemens after the German engineering giant had to issue a surprise profit warning in late July. Joe Kaeser, hitherto the chief financial officer, takes the helm. The firm’s second-quarter revenues fell year on year, though by less than analysts had feared.

7月底，德国电子产品巨头西门子集团发布了令人震惊的盈利预警。随后，其首席执行官彼得·罗旭德辞职。现任首席财务官乔伊·凯撒接任该职位。该公司第二季度的收益同比有所下降，但是并没有糟糕到分析家们所担心的程度。

The EU and China averted a trade war by settling an antidumping spat over solar panels. The European Commission put a floor on the price of Chinese panels that was much lower than expected. In return, the Chinese withdrew their threat to retaliate against wine and polysilicon imports fromEurope.

中国与欧盟妥善解决了太阳能电池板的反倾销争端，成功避免了一场贸易战。欧盟委员会给出了中国向欧洲出口的太阳能电池板的最低限价，远远低于预期价格。作为回报，中国取消了针对从欧洲进口的酒类和多晶硅而采取的相应的报复性措施。

Power failure 

电力故障

JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay $410m to settle allegations byAmerica’s Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the bank had manipulated power markets in parts of theUnited States. Days earlier the bank said it would leave the business of trading physical commodities altogether.

摩根大通公司同意支付4.1亿美元就美国联邦能源委员会指控其在美国某些州操纵电力市场一事达成和解。几天前，摩根大通表示将全面退出实物商品交易市场。

American authorities brought criminal charges against SAC Capital, a hedge fund at the centre of an insider-trading probe. The move came days after its boss, Steven Cohen, was charged in a civil case for failing to supervise employees, some of whom already await criminal trials. Mr Cohen has not been named in the indictment, which makes references only to SAC’s “owner”. Both Mr Cohen and SAC deny the charges against them.

美国当局对赛克资本管理公司提出刑事指控，因为该公司管理的对冲基金是一起内幕交易调查的关键。此前，赛克资本管理公司的董事长史蒂文·科恩因未能监管好员工而在一民事案件中遭到指控，而其中一些员工也面临刑事审判。起诉书中暂未定性科恩目前的身份，只是称其为赛克资本管理公司的拥有人。科恩和赛克资本管理公司都否认这些指控。

Barclays, a bank, announced a ￡5.8 billion ($8.9 billion) rights issue to help plug a ￡12.8 billion capital hole and meet a 3% leverage ratio set by its British regulator. Deutsche Bank said it plans to reduce leverage by shedding assets worth euro250 billion ($330 billion).

巴克莱银行日前宣布发行58亿英镑（约合89亿美元）的配股以帮助填补128亿英镑的资金空缺，进而达到英国监管当局设定的3%的杠杆比率。德意志银行表示计划通过剥离2500亿欧元（约合3300亿美元）的资产以降低经济中的杠杆率。

In Americaa judge ruled that the Federal Reserve’s cap on “interchange fees” that retailers pay on debit-card transactions is too high and must be lowered. The American Bankers Association said the decision would have “disastrous consequences” for banks, for which the fees are an important source of revenue.

美国一名法官裁决美联储给使用借记卡交易的零售商设定的手续费上限过高，须适当降低。美国银行间协会表示此决定会给银行带来“毁灭性后果”，因为手续费是各大银行收入的重要来源。

Uralkali, a Russian producer of potash, pulled out of the Belarus Potash Corporation, one of two cartels that control exports of the stuff, which is used to make fertiliser. Uralkali suggests that the unravelling of the arrangement could send potash prices tumbling by 25%.

俄罗斯碳酸钾出产商乌拉尔撤出两大碳酸钾联盟之一的白俄罗斯钾肥公司，该公司控制着这一用于肥料生产的原料的出口。乌拉尔公司负责人表示它的退出将使钾肥价格下降25%。