经济学人下载:一周商业要闻

Business this week 

一周经济要闻

Oct 12th 2013 |From the print edition

Barack Obama nominated Janet Yellen to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve in February. Ms Yellen is Mr Bernanke’s deputy and became the outright favourite for the top job when Larry Summers withdrew his name from consideration. She has been instrumental in creating the Fed’s policy of monetary stimulus and the “forward guidance” on interest rates that many central banks now give. However, she could get a rough ride from Republicans at her confirmation hearing in the Senate.

奥巴马总统提名珍妮特·耶伦担任下一届联储主席，以接替将在2014年1月任期结束后离职的伯南克。珍妮特-耶伦为现任联储副主席，在劳伦斯·萨默斯主动退出这场竞争之后，她便成为这一宝座的首要人选。她曾对制定美联储的货币刺激政策提出建设性意见，并且对现行央行利率有前瞻性指引。但她可能在参议院的听证会上遭到共和党人的挑战。

Slaying George’s dragons

杀掉乔治的龙

The IMF’s latest GDP forecasts shaved 0.3 of a percentage point off the world’s economic growth rate for this year, to 2.9%. The fund warned that the Fed should not taper its stimulus programme too quickly, or the subsequent rise in borrowing costs would hinder growth. But it gave George Osborne, Britain’s chancellor, something to crow about by lifting Britain’s growth forecast by half of a percentage point; in the spring the IMF had raised concerns that Mr Osborne’s austerity measures could choke growth.

IMF最近将今年国际经济增长率预期下调三个百分点至2.9%。IMF警告说，美联储不应过快减少其经济刺激计划，否则随后的借款成本上升会阻碍经济增长。因此，英国财政大臣乔治·奥斯本将英国经济增速预期上调了0.5%,这一政策足以让他得意一番。而早在今年春天，IMF就担忧过奥斯本的紧缩政策可能造成经济增长速度放缓。

The IMF also cut its growth outlook for emerging markets. Brazil raised its main interest rate for the fifth time since April, by half of a percentage point to 9.5%, as it battles stubbornly high inflation.

IMF同时也下调了发展中国家的经济增速预期。巴西苦苦挣扎于居高不下通货膨胀，将其基准利率上调至预期的一半至9.5%，这是该国自四月以来的第五次上调。

Serbia proposed severe spending cuts. The government said it was also getting a loan “on favourable terms” that was almost a “gift” from the United Arab Emirates.

塞尔维亚提议大幅削减开支。该国政府称其正在以“优惠的条件”申请贷款，这大抵算是从阿联酋得到的一份“礼物”。

After 40 years without much success, Airbus at last broke into the Japanese aviation market in a big way when Japan Airlines ordered 31 A350 widebody jets with a total list price of $9.8 billion, and placed an option for 25 more aircraft. It is a blow to Boeing, which had a virtual monopoly in Japan. Analysts wonder if JAL’s decision to buy from Airbus is related to the technical problems that have beset Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner; two JAL Dreamliner flights had to be diverted this week because of glitches. 

日本航空公司（日航，JAL ）以约为95亿美元的目录价格订购31架A350宽体飞机，并且保留追加购买25架A350飞机的选择权。这意味着在入驻日本民航市场40年未果之后，空客终于打入日本市场。这对于在日本保持垄断地位的波音公司来说无疑是一个打击。分析学家认为日航选择购买空客飞机可能跟波音787“梦幻客机”出现的技术问题有关。本周，两架“梦幻客机”由于小故障而不得不返航。

Demand for shares in Royal Mail was said to be heavily oversubscribed ahead of its flotation, the biggest sale of a state asset in Britain for two decades. As with past privatisations, the government has been criticised by some for undervaluing what the market will pay for a public-sector company. 

还未上市，英国皇家邮政股票就获得超额认购。皇家邮政上市是英国政府20年以来最大规模的私有化行动。针对先前的私有化，有人批评英国政府低估了国有企业股票在市场中的价值。

Twitter provided much-sought-after details of its finances ahead of its IPO. Revenue at the microblogging site was $253m in the first half of the year, double that from the same period last year, and it had 218m monthly active users, up by 44% from last year (around 5% of that is spam).

还未进行首次公开募股，Twitter就披露了其引人瞩目的财政细节。上半年，其微博网站收入为2.53亿美元，是去年同期的两倍。月活跃用户为2.18亿人，同比上升44%（其中约5%为垃圾邮件）。

HTC reported a worse-than-expected quarterly loss, its first in 11 years. The Taiwanese smartphone-maker has fallen further behind its cheaper Chinese rivals, and now accounts for 3% of global market share, down from 9% in 2011.

HTC称其季度亏损比预期的还要糟糕，是11年来的首次亏损。这家台湾智能手机制造商被中国内地价格更为便宜的竞争对手远远抛下。其所占有的全球份额由2011年的9%下降到现在的3%。

The Apple of its eye

对苹果情有独钟

The Obama administration decided not to overturn a ban imposed by America’s trade commission on some of Samsung’s older phones for infringing patents held by Apple. It is unlikely to hurt the South Korean company’s sales much, though some have questioned the White House’s motives. In August it did quash a ban imposed by the commission on Apple’s older iPads and iPhones that were found to infringe Samsung’s patents.

奥巴马政府未否决美国贸易委员会对侵权苹果的一些旧款三星产品颁布的禁令。尽管有人质疑白宫的动机，但这不会对这家韩国公司的销量有太大影响。而与之截然不同的是，今年八月，奥巴马政府解除了美国贸易委员会对侵权三星产品的苹果旧款iPads 和 iPhones发布的禁令。

Alcatel-Lucent said it would cut 10,000 jobs, or around 15% of its worldwide labour force. Since France’s Alcatel and America’s Lucent merged in 2006, the combined telecoms-equipment maker has made a profit in just one year. Others in the industry, such as Cisco, are also retrenching. Although most of the cuts are outside France, the French government said it wanted “social dialogue” with the company about scaling them back.

阿尔卡特朗讯公司称将裁员10000人，这相当于其全球范围内约15%的员工。自2006年法国阿尔卡特公司与美国朗讯公司合并以来，这家电讯设备制造企业仅获一年盈利。其他同类型企业，如思科公司，也在缩减开支。虽然法国裁员人数并不多，法国政府称将针对裁员与该公司进行“社会性对话”。

Walmart brought the shutters down on its troubled joint venture in India with Bharti. Foreign supermarket retailers have yet to set up shop fully in India after last year’s regulatory change that allows them to own up to 51% of their operations. Most are put off by the requirement that 30% of their produce must come from small local businesses.

沃尔玛决定关闭与印度巴帝公司合作并不顺利的合资企业。根据去年印度修改的外商投资条例，印度允许外国企业拥有其在当地经营的超市51%股份，但是仍没有任何一家海外超市零售商进入印度开设零售店。印度规定海外零售商30%的商品必须在当地小型企业采购，这一规定使得他们望而却步。

Electronic-cigarette companies were relieved when the European Parliament decided not to reclassify their products as medicinal, thereby avoiding tougher regulations. European governments, however, still want strict restrictions until more is known about the health effects of e-cigarettes. 

欧洲议会决定不将电子香烟产品归类为药品，这使得各大电子香烟公司如释重负，因为他们因此得以避免更为苛刻的管理条例。然而，在更多了解电子香烟对健康的影响之前，欧洲政府依然希望对其采取严格限制。

Suited and booted

你情我不愿

Men’s Wearhouse, a clothing chain that has most of its stores in America’s eastern states, rejected a $2.3 billion takeover bid from Jos A. Bank, a rival. Last month the boss of Men’s Wearhouse provided a novel explanation for a big quarterly drop in profit, saying that the13 in 2013 was causing suspicious brides (not grooms) to postpone their wedding plans until next year. 

大部分专营店开设在美国东部各州的服装连锁Men’s Wearhouse拒绝其同行Jos A. Bank时装店以23亿美元的价格收购。上月，Men’s Wearhouse 老板对该企业季度大幅亏损做出了新奇的解释，称2013年中的13 这个不吉利的数字可能是造成新娘（不是新郎）将婚礼推迟到明年的原因。