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The number of registered jobless in Spain fell in July from a month earlier, the fifth straight month of declines, the Labour Ministry said on Friday, boosted by seasonal factors including a strong tourist season.
Jobless numbers fell by 1.4% in July, or by 64 866 people, leaving 4.7 million people out of work, the data showed.
The follow a quarterly survey by the National Statistics Institute which reported an unemployment rate of 26.3% in the second quarter with 6 million people unable to find work.
"In annual terms, employment continues to be destroyed and unemployment continues to be generated, but less than before and this points to a change in trend. It suggests that the unemployment rate could be similar in the third quarter as the second," said Estefania Ponte, economy and strategy director at Cortal Consors.
Registered jobless numbers rose 2.4% in July from a year earlier, the ministry figures showed.
Spanish unemployment has soared to record levels since the property bubble burst in 2008 and is expected to remain high for years to come as the battered economy, in recession since the end of 2011, struggles to return to sustainable growth.
The Labour Ministry tends registered jobless figures tend to be lower than the statistics institute's estimates as the disillusioned long-term unemployed, who's benefits end after two years, stop signing on.
According to the statistics institute, some 1.9 million people who had previously held a job had been out of work for more than two years in the second quarter.
The number of people registering as out of work in July fell in all the main economic sectors, with the largest drop seen in the services industry, down 37 614 people, or 1.3%, boosted by a strong tourism season.
Spain's tourist sector, worth over 10% of economic output, has seen a boost this year as holiday makers avoid trouble spots in usually popular destinations in Northern Africa such as Egypt
Unemployed from construction dropped 16 310 people and was down 11 233 people from industry, the ministry said.
In a few remote corners of China, two of France's top winemakers have more on their minds than a trade row with their most promising export market.
In three far-flung provinces, a world away from Beijing's allegations of European wine dumping, makers of such lofty French brands as Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Dom Perignon champagne are investing millions of dollars to produce vintages they hope will put Chinese wine on the world map.
In a country where cheap plonk and overpriced mediocre wines still define the domestic industry, the French are partnering with Chinese investors to produce super-premium wines for increasingly discerning drinkers at the market's top end.
They will likely charge hundreds of dollars per bottle when the wines start appearing in a year or two, turning out deeply rich reds and elegantly sparkling wines for wealthy Chinese drinkers who they hope will be proud to serve local vintages that are the equal of their imported collections.
"China deserves the production of great wines," said Christophe Salin, president of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (DBR), which owns the vaunted Chateau Lafite, Ch. Duhart-Milon and Ch. L'Evangile, among other French labels. "Without wanting to copy Lafite, we wish to produce a great wine on Chinese soil," he added in an interview.
"Shangri-La"
DBR is investing 100m yuan ($16.3m) with partner CITIC, a state investment firm, to develop 25 hectares (62 acres) of vineyards in eastern Shandong province to produce super-premium red wine for the Chinese market.
Moet-Hennessy, the wine and spirits arm of luxury group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, is also looking to make a top-end Chinese red and is planting 30 hectares (74 acres) of grapes in remote mountains of southern Yunnan province.
Moet-Hennessy studied climate and soil conditions at hundreds of locations around China before settling on an area the government calls "Shangri-La", abutting Tibet, to grow Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc and Merlot grapes.
Moet-Hennessy CEO Christophe Navarre won't divulge the investment there but says it is borne two-thirds by Moet-Hennessy and one-third by its Chinese partner, winemaker VATS.
"I dream one day to go back to France with a bottle of red wine produced in the region of Shangri-La and I can say it's the best wine in the world," Navarre said in announcing the venture last year.
Moet-Hennessy's wine portfolio includes the vaunted Ch. Cheval Blanc and Ch. d'Yquem, the world's most coveted dessert wine. Its champagnes include Dom Perignon, Moet & Chandon and Krug - and it is developing vineyards in Ningxia Hui autonomous region in north-central China with a view to producing China's first ultra-premium sparkling wine.
Neither DBR nor Moet-Hennessy plans to market its Chinese wines under existing brands. Both say they want to give the wines a unique Chinese identity a strategy that is questioned by some within the Chinese wine industry.
"If they don't put their brand on it then people won't buy it at a very high price," says Monica He, who works with wine importer Menvis in Beijing.
Growing thirst
DBR's and LVMH's investments into China aim to capitalise on China's growing thirst for premium wines, but could also help their extensive line-ups of mid-priced wines and spirits.
Chinese consumers are drawn to either high-end or cheap wine, leaving a gap in the middle of the market. By producing a Chinese "halo" wine marque, the French winemakers could draw drinkers to their imported mid-range lineup.
The French investors do not have plans to produce still white wines in China, as red wine and champagne are more fashionable for upwardly mobile Chinese wine drinkers.
China is the world's fifth-largest wine consumer, according to a study last year for VINEXPO, an annual wine trade show that alternates between Bordeaux and Hong Kong. The study forecast annual consumption growth in China and Hong Kong at 54.3% between 2011 and 2015, or a billion more bottles every year.
China's wine market is dominated by a few large local producers that make bulk and mid-priced wine, and some premium-priced wines selling for more than $100 a bottle, but these are usually considered far inferior to much cheaper imported wines.
Can China produce something at the highest level?
"The potential there is to make something very, very good," says Jim Boyce, who follows China's wine industry on his blog Grapewallofchina. "There are a lot of people who've been telling me for years that Yunnan is where it's going to happen."
Meanwhile, Beijing and Brussels are in talks to end their trade dispute over wine, with a settlement seen as likely after the two sides struck a deal last week in a separate row over Chinese solar panel exports to Europe. Beijing had launched its investigation into European wine sales after the European Union moved to impose steep import duties on Chinese solar panels.
US employers slowed their pace of hiring in July but the jobless rate fell anyway, mixed signals that could make the Federal Reserve more cautious about drawing down its huge economic stimulus programme.
The number of jobs outside the farming sector increased by 162 000, the Labour Department said on Friday.
That was below the median forecast in a poll of 184 000. Compounding that miss, the government also cut its previous estimates for hiring in May and June.
At the same time, the jobless rate fell two tenths of a point to 7.4%, its lowest in over four years. Gains in employment fueled some of that decline, but the labor force also shrank during the month, robbing some of the luster from the decline in the unemployment rate.
The data reinforces the view that the job market is inching toward recovery, with the broader economy still stuck in low gear.
"The US economy is grinding along for the better, but it's going to be a long and slow grind," Tanweer Akram, an economist at ING US Investment Management in Atlanta, said ahead of the report.
The question is whether the pace of job gains is enough for the Fed to feel the US economy is ready to get by with less support. The US central bank currently buys $85 billion a month in bonds to keep borrowing costs low.
The stimulus program has lowered interest rates, spurring growth in the country's beleaguered housing market and boosting car sales. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last month the U.S. central bank would likely reduce the level of monthly purchases by the end of the year, and end them by mid-2014.
The Fed's policymaking committee wrapped up a two-day meeting on Wednesday without any change to the program. The panel's statement, however, referenced new factors that could be seen as risks to growth: a recent rise in mortgage rates and persistently low inflation. Central bank policymakers next meet in September.
Structural concerns
The growth in payrolls left the three-month average gain at 175 000. Many economists believe even hiring around that level could lead the Fed to trim its bond buying in September.
But Friday's jobs report could also entertain darker views on the economy.
For one, analysts wonder if the pace of job creation can be sustained given slower-than-expected economic growth.
Gross domestic product, a measure of the nation's economic output, grew at a mere 1.4% annual rate in the first half of the year, down from 2.5% in the same period of 2012.
Most economists expect GDP will accelerate in the second half of this year, which would make it more plausible for the current hiring trend to continue.
But the fact that job creation has been relatively robust despite weak output might point to a frightening possibility: perhaps the economy's growth potential has fallen.
This would mean less output is needed to create jobs, but that incomes would grow at a slower pace over the long run. The prospect of such a structural shift worries economists and investors.
"It's something we have been talking about a lot," Jeffrey Cleveland, a Los Angeles-based economist at investment management firm Payden & Rygel, said ahead of the report.
Friday's report showed the average work week declined to 34.4 hours, while average earnings slipped 0.1%.
China, Iran's largest trading partner and top oil customer, repeated its opposition on Friday to tougher US sanctions on Iran after the House of Representatives approved a bill aimed at halting Iran's oil exports.
The bill seeks to cut Iran's oil exports by a further one million barrels per day to near zero over a year, an attempt to reduce the flow of funds to Tehran's disputed nuclear programme. The legislation provides for heavy penalties for buyers who do not find alternative supplies.
"China has long advocated resolution through dialogue and negotiations and opposes unilateral sanctions from one nation based on its domestic laws," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a faxed statement .
"In particular, it opposes sanctions that will hurt the interests of a third party," it added, without elaborating.
The success of any toughening of the sanctions will depend on China, Iran's top customer, which has repeatedly said it opposes unilateral sanctions outside the purview of the United Nations.
China reduced oil purchases from Iran by 21% last year, but that was partly on account of differences in the first quarter over the renewal terms of annual contracts and shipping delays.
Chinese oil industry officials have said refiners are likely to cut shipments 5% to 10% this year from last. They cut imports 2% in the first six months of the year.
China has consistently advocated resolving the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme through talks and has opposed what it views as unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union made outside the framework of the United Nations.
A failure of the economic policies promoted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would take a toll on the global economy, the International Monetary Fund said late Thursday.
Abe has advocated aggressive monetary easing steps to reinvigorate the world's third-largest economy and pull it out of the deflation that has lasted more than a decade.
The IMF has supported the policies, and said in a report released in Washington that Abe's economic programme, so-called Abenomics, "would have clear positive net growth spillovers on the global economy."
However, the report added that without structural reforms, fiscal consolidation, and the achievement of a new inflation target, output in Japan could decrease by 4% after 10 years.
The IMF simulations suggested that global output losses could reach 2% of GDP if investors in Japan were to reconsider the risk of their investments, leading long-term interest rates to rise 2 percentage points, the report said.
European Union officials endorsed a deal on Friday to settle a dispute with China over solar panels, the biggest trade row to date between the two powers, after winning almost unanimous backing from member states.
The agreement will be officially published on Saturday and takes effect on August 6. Chinese firms who agree to its terms will avoid duties that the 28-nation EU had planned to impose.
In a statement, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it had received almost unanimous support but declined to give details on any possible abstentions.
"We can't go into details. A huge majority of member states voted in favour. No member state voted against," a Commission spokesman said.
The EU trade chief and his Chinese counterpart agreed late last month to set a minimum price for panels from China near spot market prices.
European solar panel makers have accused China of benefiting from huge state subsidies, allowing them to dump about €21bn ($27.79bn) worth of below-cost panels in Europe last year.
The EU had planned to impose hefty tariffs from August 6 but, wary of offending China's leaders and losing business in the world's No. 2 economy, a majority of governments, led by Germany, opposed the plan, allowing for the compromise deal.
Europe is China's most important trading partner, while for the EU, China is second only to the United States. Chinese exports of goods to the bloc totalled €290bn last year, with €144bn going the other way.
Radioactive groundwater at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has risen to levels above a barrier being built to contain it, highlighting the risk of an increasing amount of contaminated water reaching the sea, Japanese media report.
The Asahi newspaper, citing data from a meeting of a task force working on the Fukushima clean-up at Japan's nuclear regulator, estimated that the contaminated water could swell to the ground surface within three weeks.
The latest revelation underscores the hurdles facing Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) 2-1/2 years after a massive earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima plant, triggering the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
One of Tepco's biggest challenges is trying to contain radioactive water that cools the reactors as it mixes with about 400 tons of fresh groundwater pouring into the plant daily.
Tepco has been injecting a chemical into the ground to build barriers to contain the groundwater, but the method is only effective in solidifying the ground from 1.8m below the surface, whereas data from test wells shows the contaminated water has risen to one metre below the surface, the newspaper said.
China halted imports of all New Zealand milk powder, New Zealand's trade minister said on Sunday, after bacteria that could cause botulism found in some dairy products raised food safety concerns that threatened its $9.4bn annual dairy trade.
Global dairy trade giant Fonterra said on Saturday it had sold contaminated New Zealand-made whey protein concentrate to eight customers in Australia, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Saudi Arabia for use in a range of products, including infant milk powder.
Nearly 90% of China's $1.9bn in milk powder imports last year originated in New Zealand, so a prolonged ban could result in a shortage of dairy products in China.
Foreign-branded infant formula in particular is a prized commodity in China given consumer distrust of Chinese brands after a series of domestic food safety scandals.
New Zealand's neighbour Australia was caught up in the ban after some of the contaminated whey protein concentrate was exported there before being sent on to China and elsewhere.
"The authorities in China, in my opinion absolutely appropriately, have stopped all imports of New Zealand milk powders from Australia and New Zealand," said New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser.
Ingredient
"It's better to do blanket protection for your people and then wind it back when we, our authorities, are in a position to give them the confidence and advice that they need before doing that," he said.
There was no official word of a ban from Chinese authorities on Sunday.
Chinese state radio said on Saturday that Fonterra was notifying three Chinese firms affected by the contamination.
Some of China's biggest food and beverage companies are said to be customers of Fonterra, using its milk powder as an ingredient in everything from confectionery to cheese on frozen pizza.
Fonterra is a major supplier of bulk milk powder products used in formula in China but it had stayed out of branding after Chinese dairy company Sanlu, in which it had held a large stake, was found to have added melamine often used in plastics to bulk up formulas in 2008.
More than six children died in the industry-wide scandal and hundreds were made sick.
The London Metal Exchange and Goldman Sachs have been named as co-defendants in a US class-action lawsuit alleging anti-competitive behaviour in aluminium warehousing, said Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx).
Goldman on Wednesday tried to diffuse years of frustration over long waiting times and inflated prices at metals warehouses across the world by offering immediate access to aluminium for end users holding metal at its Metro warehouses.
Criticism of banks that own commodity assets and trade raw materials has ratcheted up in recent weeks, with the US Department of Justice starting a preliminary probe into the metals warehousing industry, sources said.
Britain's financial watchdog is also investigating the LME's warehousing system.
The lawsuit alleges "anti-competitive and monopolistic behaviour in the warehousing market in connection with aluminium prices", LME owner HKEx said in a statement on Sunday.
The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, filed on Friday in the US District Court in Michigan, is Superior Extrusion an end user of aluminium.
"LME management's initial assessment is that the suit is without merit and LME will contest it vigorously," HKEx said.
Customers and US lawmakers have accused Goldman and other warehouse owners of artificially inflating waiting times to boost rents for warehouse owners and lift metal prices.
London Metal Exchange aluminium for three months delivery closed at $1 809 per ton on Friday.
Spanish jobless numbers continue to fall
The number of registered jobless in Spain fell in July from a month earlier, the fifth straight month of declines, the Labour Ministry said on Friday, boosted by seasonal factors including a strong tourist season.
Jobless numbers fell by 1.4% in July, or by 64 866 people, leaving 4.7 million people out of work, the data showed.
The follow a quarterly survey by the National Statistics Institute which reported an unemployment rate of 26.3% in the second quarter with 6 million people unable to find work.
"In annual terms, employment continues to be destroyed and unemployment continues to be generated, but less than before and this points to a change in trend. It suggests that the unemployment rate could be similar in the third quarter as the second," said Estefania Ponte, economy and strategy director at Cortal Consors.
Registered jobless numbers rose 2.4% in July from a year earlier, the ministry figures showed.
Spanish unemployment has soared to record levels since the property bubble burst in 2008 and is expected to remain high for years to come as the battered economy, in recession since the end of 2011, struggles to return to sustainable growth.
The Labour Ministry tends registered jobless figures tend to be lower than the statistics institute's estimates as the disillusioned long-term unemployed, who's benefits end after two years, stop signing on.
According to the statistics institute, some 1.9 million people who had previously held a job had been out of work for more than two years in the second quarter.
The number of people registering as out of work in July fell in all the main economic sectors, with the largest drop seen in the services industry, down 37 614 people, or 1.3%, boosted by a strong tourism season.
Spain's tourist sector, worth over 10% of economic output, has seen a boost this year as holiday makers avoid trouble spots in usually popular destinations in Northern Africa such as Egypt
Unemployed from construction dropped 16 310 people and was down 11 233 people from industry, the ministry said.
French winemakers eye China vintage
In a few remote corners of China, two of France's top winemakers have more on their minds than a trade row with their most promising export market.
In three far-flung provinces, a world away from Beijing's allegations of European wine dumping, makers of such lofty French brands as Chateau Lafite-Rothschild and Dom Perignon champagne are investing millions of dollars to produce vintages they hope will put Chinese wine on the world map.
In a country where cheap plonk and overpriced mediocre wines still define the domestic industry, the French are partnering with Chinese investors to produce super-premium wines for increasingly discerning drinkers at the market's top end.
They will likely charge hundreds of dollars per bottle when the wines start appearing in a year or two, turning out deeply rich reds and elegantly sparkling wines for wealthy Chinese drinkers who they hope will be proud to serve local vintages that are the equal of their imported collections.
"China deserves the production of great wines," said Christophe Salin, president of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (DBR), which owns the vaunted Chateau Lafite, Ch. Duhart-Milon and Ch. L'Evangile, among other French labels. "Without wanting to copy Lafite, we wish to produce a great wine on Chinese soil," he added in an interview.
"Shangri-La"
DBR is investing 100m yuan ($16.3m) with partner CITIC, a state investment firm, to develop 25 hectares (62 acres) of vineyards in eastern Shandong province to produce super-premium red wine for the Chinese market.
Moet-Hennessy, the wine and spirits arm of luxury group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, is also looking to make a top-end Chinese red and is planting 30 hectares (74 acres) of grapes in remote mountains of southern Yunnan province.
Moet-Hennessy studied climate and soil conditions at hundreds of locations around China before settling on an area the government calls "Shangri-La", abutting Tibet, to grow Cabernet sauvignon, Cabernet franc and Merlot grapes.
Moet-Hennessy CEO Christophe Navarre won't divulge the investment there but says it is borne two-thirds by Moet-Hennessy and one-third by its Chinese partner, winemaker VATS.
"I dream one day to go back to France with a bottle of red wine produced in the region of Shangri-La and I can say it's the best wine in the world," Navarre said in announcing the venture last year.
Moet-Hennessy's wine portfolio includes the vaunted Ch. Cheval Blanc and Ch. d'Yquem, the world's most coveted dessert wine. Its champagnes include Dom Perignon, Moet & Chandon and Krug - and it is developing vineyards in Ningxia Hui autonomous region in north-central China with a view to producing China's first ultra-premium sparkling wine.
Neither DBR nor Moet-Hennessy plans to market its Chinese wines under existing brands. Both say they want to give the wines a unique Chinese identity a strategy that is questioned by some within the Chinese wine industry.
"If they don't put their brand on it then people won't buy it at a very high price," says Monica He, who works with wine importer Menvis in Beijing.
Growing thirst
DBR's and LVMH's investments into China aim to capitalise on China's growing thirst for premium wines, but could also help their extensive line-ups of mid-priced wines and spirits.
Chinese consumers are drawn to either high-end or cheap wine, leaving a gap in the middle of the market. By producing a Chinese "halo" wine marque, the French winemakers could draw drinkers to their imported mid-range lineup.
The French investors do not have plans to produce still white wines in China, as red wine and champagne are more fashionable for upwardly mobile Chinese wine drinkers.
China is the world's fifth-largest wine consumer, according to a study last year for VINEXPO, an annual wine trade show that alternates between Bordeaux and Hong Kong. The study forecast annual consumption growth in China and Hong Kong at 54.3% between 2011 and 2015, or a billion more bottles every year.
China's wine market is dominated by a few large local producers that make bulk and mid-priced wine, and some premium-priced wines selling for more than $100 a bottle, but these are usually considered far inferior to much cheaper imported wines.
Can China produce something at the highest level?
"The potential there is to make something very, very good," says Jim Boyce, who follows China's wine industry on his blog Grapewallofchina. "There are a lot of people who've been telling me for years that Yunnan is where it's going to happen."
Meanwhile, Beijing and Brussels are in talks to end their trade dispute over wine, with a settlement seen as likely after the two sides struck a deal last week in a separate row over Chinese solar panel exports to Europe. Beijing had launched its investigation into European wine sales after the European Union moved to impose steep import duties on Chinese solar panels.
US hiring slows, but jobless rate falls
US employers slowed their pace of hiring in July but the jobless rate fell anyway, mixed signals that could make the Federal Reserve more cautious about drawing down its huge economic stimulus programme.
The number of jobs outside the farming sector increased by 162 000, the Labour Department said on Friday.
That was below the median forecast in a poll of 184 000. Compounding that miss, the government also cut its previous estimates for hiring in May and June.
At the same time, the jobless rate fell two tenths of a point to 7.4%, its lowest in over four years. Gains in employment fueled some of that decline, but the labor force also shrank during the month, robbing some of the luster from the decline in the unemployment rate.
The data reinforces the view that the job market is inching toward recovery, with the broader economy still stuck in low gear.
"The US economy is grinding along for the better, but it's going to be a long and slow grind," Tanweer Akram, an economist at ING US Investment Management in Atlanta, said ahead of the report.
The question is whether the pace of job gains is enough for the Fed to feel the US economy is ready to get by with less support. The US central bank currently buys $85 billion a month in bonds to keep borrowing costs low.
The stimulus program has lowered interest rates, spurring growth in the country's beleaguered housing market and boosting car sales. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last month the U.S. central bank would likely reduce the level of monthly purchases by the end of the year, and end them by mid-2014.
The Fed's policymaking committee wrapped up a two-day meeting on Wednesday without any change to the program. The panel's statement, however, referenced new factors that could be seen as risks to growth: a recent rise in mortgage rates and persistently low inflation. Central bank policymakers next meet in September.
Structural concerns
The growth in payrolls left the three-month average gain at 175 000. Many economists believe even hiring around that level could lead the Fed to trim its bond buying in September.
But Friday's jobs report could also entertain darker views on the economy.
For one, analysts wonder if the pace of job creation can be sustained given slower-than-expected economic growth.
Gross domestic product, a measure of the nation's economic output, grew at a mere 1.4% annual rate in the first half of the year, down from 2.5% in the same period of 2012.
Most economists expect GDP will accelerate in the second half of this year, which would make it more plausible for the current hiring trend to continue.
But the fact that job creation has been relatively robust despite weak output might point to a frightening possibility: perhaps the economy's growth potential has fallen.
This would mean less output is needed to create jobs, but that incomes would grow at a slower pace over the long run. The prospect of such a structural shift worries economists and investors.
"It's something we have been talking about a lot," Jeffrey Cleveland, a Los Angeles-based economist at investment management firm Payden & Rygel, said ahead of the report.
Friday's report showed the average work week declined to 34.4 hours, while average earnings slipped 0.1%.
China opposed to US sanctions on Iran
China, Iran's largest trading partner and top oil customer, repeated its opposition on Friday to tougher US sanctions on Iran after the House of Representatives approved a bill aimed at halting Iran's oil exports.
The bill seeks to cut Iran's oil exports by a further one million barrels per day to near zero over a year, an attempt to reduce the flow of funds to Tehran's disputed nuclear programme. The legislation provides for heavy penalties for buyers who do not find alternative supplies.
"China has long advocated resolution through dialogue and negotiations and opposes unilateral sanctions from one nation based on its domestic laws," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a faxed statement .
"In particular, it opposes sanctions that will hurt the interests of a third party," it added, without elaborating.
The success of any toughening of the sanctions will depend on China, Iran's top customer, which has repeatedly said it opposes unilateral sanctions outside the purview of the United Nations.
China reduced oil purchases from Iran by 21% last year, but that was partly on account of differences in the first quarter over the renewal terms of annual contracts and shipping delays.
Chinese oil industry officials have said refiners are likely to cut shipments 5% to 10% this year from last. They cut imports 2% in the first six months of the year.
China has consistently advocated resolving the dispute over Iran's nuclear programme through talks and has opposed what it views as unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union made outside the framework of the United Nations.
Japan policies involve risks - IMF
A failure of the economic policies promoted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would take a toll on the global economy, the International Monetary Fund said late Thursday.
Abe has advocated aggressive monetary easing steps to reinvigorate the world's third-largest economy and pull it out of the deflation that has lasted more than a decade.
The IMF has supported the policies, and said in a report released in Washington that Abe's economic programme, so-called Abenomics, "would have clear positive net growth spillovers on the global economy."
However, the report added that without structural reforms, fiscal consolidation, and the achievement of a new inflation target, output in Japan could decrease by 4% after 10 years.
The IMF simulations suggested that global output losses could reach 2% of GDP if investors in Japan were to reconsider the risk of their investments, leading long-term interest rates to rise 2 percentage points, the report said.
EU signs off on China solar deal
European Union officials endorsed a deal on Friday to settle a dispute with China over solar panels, the biggest trade row to date between the two powers, after winning almost unanimous backing from member states.
The agreement will be officially published on Saturday and takes effect on August 6. Chinese firms who agree to its terms will avoid duties that the 28-nation EU had planned to impose.
In a statement, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it had received almost unanimous support but declined to give details on any possible abstentions.
"We can't go into details. A huge majority of member states voted in favour. No member state voted against," a Commission spokesman said.
The EU trade chief and his Chinese counterpart agreed late last month to set a minimum price for panels from China near spot market prices.
European solar panel makers have accused China of benefiting from huge state subsidies, allowing them to dump about €21bn ($27.79bn) worth of below-cost panels in Europe last year.
The EU had planned to impose hefty tariffs from August 6 but, wary of offending China's leaders and losing business in the world's No. 2 economy, a majority of governments, led by Germany, opposed the plan, allowing for the compromise deal.
Europe is China's most important trading partner, while for the EU, China is second only to the United States. Chinese exports of goods to the bloc totalled €290bn last year, with €144bn going the other way.
Fukushima water rises above barrier
Radioactive groundwater at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has risen to levels above a barrier being built to contain it, highlighting the risk of an increasing amount of contaminated water reaching the sea, Japanese media report.
The Asahi newspaper, citing data from a meeting of a task force working on the Fukushima clean-up at Japan's nuclear regulator, estimated that the contaminated water could swell to the ground surface within three weeks.
The latest revelation underscores the hurdles facing Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) 2-1/2 years after a massive earthquake and tsunami destroyed the Fukushima plant, triggering the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
One of Tepco's biggest challenges is trying to contain radioactive water that cools the reactors as it mixes with about 400 tons of fresh groundwater pouring into the plant daily.
Tepco has been injecting a chemical into the ground to build barriers to contain the groundwater, but the method is only effective in solidifying the ground from 1.8m below the surface, whereas data from test wells shows the contaminated water has risen to one metre below the surface, the newspaper said.
NZ milk powder scare over botulism
China halted imports of all New Zealand milk powder, New Zealand's trade minister said on Sunday, after bacteria that could cause botulism found in some dairy products raised food safety concerns that threatened its $9.4bn annual dairy trade.
Global dairy trade giant Fonterra said on Saturday it had sold contaminated New Zealand-made whey protein concentrate to eight customers in Australia, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Saudi Arabia for use in a range of products, including infant milk powder.
Nearly 90% of China's $1.9bn in milk powder imports last year originated in New Zealand, so a prolonged ban could result in a shortage of dairy products in China.
Foreign-branded infant formula in particular is a prized commodity in China given consumer distrust of Chinese brands after a series of domestic food safety scandals.
New Zealand's neighbour Australia was caught up in the ban after some of the contaminated whey protein concentrate was exported there before being sent on to China and elsewhere.
"The authorities in China, in my opinion absolutely appropriately, have stopped all imports of New Zealand milk powders from Australia and New Zealand," said New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser.
Ingredient
"It's better to do blanket protection for your people and then wind it back when we, our authorities, are in a position to give them the confidence and advice that they need before doing that," he said.
There was no official word of a ban from Chinese authorities on Sunday.
Chinese state radio said on Saturday that Fonterra was notifying three Chinese firms affected by the contamination.
Some of China's biggest food and beverage companies are said to be customers of Fonterra, using its milk powder as an ingredient in everything from confectionery to cheese on frozen pizza.
Fonterra is a major supplier of bulk milk powder products used in formula in China but it had stayed out of branding after Chinese dairy company Sanlu, in which it had held a large stake, was found to have added melamine often used in plastics to bulk up formulas in 2008.
More than six children died in the industry-wide scandal and hundreds were made sick.
Goldman, LME face legal challenge
The London Metal Exchange and Goldman Sachs have been named as co-defendants in a US class-action lawsuit alleging anti-competitive behaviour in aluminium warehousing, said Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx).
Goldman on Wednesday tried to diffuse years of frustration over long waiting times and inflated prices at metals warehouses across the world by offering immediate access to aluminium for end users holding metal at its Metro warehouses.
Criticism of banks that own commodity assets and trade raw materials has ratcheted up in recent weeks, with the US Department of Justice starting a preliminary probe into the metals warehousing industry, sources said.
Britain's financial watchdog is also investigating the LME's warehousing system.
The lawsuit alleges "anti-competitive and monopolistic behaviour in the warehousing market in connection with aluminium prices", LME owner HKEx said in a statement on Sunday.
The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, filed on Friday in the US District Court in Michigan, is Superior Extrusion an end user of aluminium.
"LME management's initial assessment is that the suit is without merit and LME will contest it vigorously," HKEx said.
Customers and US lawmakers have accused Goldman and other warehouse owners of artificially inflating waiting times to boost rents for warehouse owners and lift metal prices.
London Metal Exchange aluminium for three months delivery closed at $1 809 per ton on Friday.
