Business

LONDON — UK payrolls jumped in January as Omicron fears receded but workers' wage rises are failing to keep pace with soaring inflation, official data showed on Tuesday.

The number of UK workers on payrolls rose 108,000 to a record-high 29.5 million last month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

The UK's unemployment rate stood at 4.1 per cent in the three months to the end of December, unchanged from the quarter to the end of November, the ONS added.

"The number of employees on payrolls rose again in January... and is now well above pre-pandemic levels," said Sam Beckett, head of economic statistics at the ONS.

She added, however, that the number of people in employment overall was "well below" its pre-pandemic level.

"This is because there are now far fewer self-employed people," Beckett noted.

Tuesday's data revealed also record vacancy levels.

Average pay, excluding bonuses, grew 3.7 per cent in the quarter to the end of December — lagging near 30-year high UK inflation at 5.4 per cent.

The ONS on Wednesday publishes annual inflation figures for January, which is set to come in at an even higher level.

The Bank of England has said that Britain's annual inflation rate will peak at 7.25 per cent in April as energy prices in particular rocket.

"The outlook for real wages, and associated pressure on consumer spending, is set to get worse before it gets better," EY ITEM Club economist Martin Beck said following Tuesday's data.

The discovery of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in late November raised concerns about its potential effects on the global economy as countries restored some travel restrictions.

But the highly infectious variant has proven less deadly than its predecessors.

HANOI — Vietnam will lift coronavirus restrictions on international flights for fully vaccinated passengers from Tuesday, the country's aviation authority said in a statement.

The country has virtually closed itself to the world since March 2020 due to the pandemic, dealing a severe blow to its ‘vital’ tourism sector.

Authorities have slowly eased the curbs in recent months, with visitors trickling in under a bubble arrangement since November.

Starting Tuesday (17:00 GMT Monday), "Vietnam will lift restrictions on passenger carriage on scheduled flights and non-scheduled flights," the civil aviation authority said.

The statement, released on Sunday, did not say how many flights would be allowed to enter, but indicated arrivals could be permitted to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Anyone wanting to enter Vietnam must be fully vaccinated and will have to observe a three-day quarantine, either at home or in a hotel, according to regulations.

Travellers must still abide by existing entry-exit regulations and pre-pandemic healthcare requirements, the authority said.

More than 90 per cent of adults in the country have received two COVID-19 vaccine doses. The government is considering inoculating young teenagers as it accelerates the rollout of booster shots.

Vietnam is currently reporting around 20,000 new daily cases, and has recorded more than 2.5 million infections with nearly 39,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has moved four per cent of Aramco shares worth 80 billion dollars in the world's biggest oil exporter to the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, authorities said on Sunday.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, announced the move as part of efforts to recalibrate the oil-dominated economy.

The transfer is also the latest sign that Saudi Arabia wants to open up Aramco, the "crown jewel" of the Saudi economy.

The "transfer of four per cent of Aramco shares to the Public Investment Fund [PIF]... is part of the kingdom's long-term strategy to support the restructuring of its economy", the crown prince was quoted as saying by the state SPA news agency.

Crown Prince Mohammed said he wants the investment fund to have one trillion dollars in assets by the end of 2025. The fund is the centrepiece of official moves to end economic reliance on oil.

"The shares will bolster the fund's strong financial position and high credit ratings in the medium term, as the PIF relies on the value of its assets and the returns on its assets under management for its funding strategy," he said.

The crown prince stressed that the Saudi state would remain the dominant Aramco shareholder with a 94 per cent stake. Crown Prince Mohammed heads the PIF sovereign fund.

'Financial reform process' 

Prince Mohammed said in April last year that Aramco was in talks to sell a 1 per cent stake to a foreign energy giant.

"There is a discussion on the acquisition of 1 per cent [of Aramco] by one of the world's leading energy companies, and this will be a very important deal to boost Aramco's sales in that country," the crown prince said at the time.

Aramco previously sold 1.7 per cent of its shares on the Saudi bourse in December 2019, generating $29.4 billion in the world's biggest initial public offering.

It raised six billion dollars in Islamic bonds in June last year, so that it could pay dividends to the new shareholders.

But Aramco announced $30.4 billion in profit for the third quarter of 2021, a massive rise from $18.8 billion for the same quarter the previous year, as oil prices took off again.

In December, Aramco said it had signed a $15.5 billion lease agreement for its gas pipeline network with a consortium led by BlackRock Real Estate of the United States and Hassana Investment Company, a Saudi-state-backed investment management firm.

Aramco and its assets were once kept under a vice-like government control, long off-limits to outside investment.

But with the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed, who has been pushing his "Vision 2030" reform programme, the kingdom has shown readiness to cede some control.

"The kingdom is continuing its initiatives to pursue the economic and financial reform process that it has undertaken and is putting in place economic transformation plans," the crown prince was quoted as saying on Sunday.

LONDON — Britain on Friday said it had accepted changes proposed by Google to address competition and customer privacy concerns linked to online advertising, with the US tech company vowing to apply them globally.

"The commitments we have obtained from Google will promote competition, help to protect the ability of online publishers to raise money through advertising and safeguard users' privacy," the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) regulator said in a statement.

Google separately said it would "apply the commitments globally", adding "they provide a roadmap for how to address both privacy and competition concerns in this evolving sector".

The outcome follows a CMA investigation launched 13 months ago into Google plans prohibiting placement of third party "cookies" on its Chrome browser, a move that has angered some publishers and advertisers.

The European Union launched a similar probe in mid-2021.

The EU said Friday's announcement did not impact its own investigation, which remained ongoing.

"We do cooperate with competition authorities around the world. But this is done on a case by case basis," added EU Commission spokeswoman Arianna Podesta.

Critics have argued that the project — known as the "Privacy Sandbox" — would increase Google's dominance since the giant holds mountains of data on consumer behaviour that will be denied to others.

"The CMA has secured legally binding commitments from Google to address competition concerns over its Privacy Sandbox," the CMA added in its statement.

Going forward, it will "supervise Google to ensure the Privacy Sandbox is developed in a way that benefits consumers".

The CMA said its probe followed concerns that the proposals "would cause online advertising spending to become even more concentrated on Google, weakening competition and so harming consumers who ultimately pay for the cost of online advertising".

The watchdog added it had been concerned that the plans "could undermine the ability of online publishers, such as newspapers, to generate revenue and continue to produce valuable content in the future — reducing the public's choice of news sources".

The European Publishers Council on Friday filed an antitrust complaint against Google with the European Commission "to break the ad tech stranglehold Google currently has over press publishers, and all other businesses in the ad tech ecosystem".

Among Google's commitments agreed with the CMA is the non-removal of third-party cookies until the watchdog is satisfied that its competition concerns have been addressed.

Google has pledged also "to restrict the sharing of data within its ecosystem to ensure that it doesn't gain an advantage over competitors when third-party cookies are removed".

There are commitments also "to not self-preference its advertising services", according to the CMA statement.

WASHINGTON — After two weeks of talks, the International Monetary fund (IMF) said on Friday it has advanced efforts to secure an aid programme to help Lebanon overcome its "unprecedented and complex" economic crisis, but more work is needed.

The country will need fiscal reforms that ensure it can manage its debt load as well as measures to establish a "credible" currency system, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a statement at the conclusion of its virtual negotiation mission.

"During the mission, progress was made in agreeing on these necessary reform areas, although more work is needed to translate them into concrete policies," IMF team leader Ernesto Ramirez Rigo said.

The Washington-based lender launched talks last month to pull the Middle Eastern country out of its deepening economic crisis.

In 2020, Lebanon defaulted on its sovereign debt for the first time in its history.

Its currency has lost about 90 per cent of its value on the black market and four out of five Lebanese now live below the poverty line, according to the United Nations, a situation made worse by triple-digit inflation.

Ramirez Rigo said "strong upfront actions will be necessary to start turning the economy around and rebuilding confidence".

He also urged that "decisive action by the authorities is needed to tackle the deep-seated problem of corruption".

But any programme must include a fiscal plan that "allows the government to invest in critically-needed social spending to support the people", he added.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva last week described the country's situation as "very, very dire" and said that a comprehensive programme was required.

FRANKFURT — German industrial company Siemens ploughed ahead in the first quarter, booking an increased net profit despite the supply chain disruptions which have troubled many businesses, it said on Thursday.

The group, which makes products ranging from trains to factory equipment, made a profit of 1.8 billion euros ($2.1 billion) between September and December last year, up 20 per cent on the same period in 2020.

The company's revenues over the same period increased by 17 per cent to 16.5 billion euros, while its orders jumped 52 per cent to a value of 24.2 billion euros.

Siemens achieved the result "despite a continuing complex macroeconomic environment influenced by the coronavirus pandemic", the group said in a statement. 

Siemens had also avoided "major disruptions from increased supply chain risks", it said. 

Widespread bottlenecks -- affecting everything from raw materials like wood to key components like semiconductors -- have created a drag on industry and limited production.

"We had a very successful start into fiscal 2022," Siemens CEO Roland Busch said in a statement.

The Munich-based group's results "impressively demonstrate that we are a leader in accelerating digitalisation and sustainability," Busch said. 

Siemens, long a producer of heavy industrial equipment, has shifted its focus in recent years towards digital industries and the automation of factories.

The new strategy led Siemens to part ways with its energy subsidiary, which was introduced onto the stock market in 2020.

The group announced on Wednesday it was selling its mail and parcels business to fellow German group Koerber for 1.15 billion euros, as well as exiting its electric motors joint-venture with Valeo.

In January the group also sold its road signalling subsidiary for 950 million euros.

LONDON — Stock markets climbed on Wednesday on the eve of highly anticipated US inflation data, with sentiment buoyed by easing geopolitical tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

Sentiment has also been bolstered by easing COVID restrictions in many countries, with London's FTSE 100 hitting a two-year high as tourism stocks have taken off.

Oil prices rebounded from losses the previous day as US data showed stocks fell when analysts had expected an increase.

Nevertheless, investors remain cautious before Thursday's critical US inflation print for January.

Forecasts are for another pop up from the four-decade-high seven per cent seen in December, while a big miss in either direction could have big consequences for markets.

'Markets could get jittery' 

"Inflation figures from the US ... will be a major influence on the direction of markets as the figures will be digested by the Federal Reserve in its next decision on whether to raise interest rates or not," said AJ Bell analyst Russ Mould.

"With expectations that inflationary pressures are going to get worse in the near-term, markets could get jittery as we approach the data release."

A higher reading will pile pressure on the Fed to embark on a more aggressive tightening campaign — but a weaker figure would temper those worries.

"The inflation data has continued to rise faster than many anticipated and we're now in a situation where central banks are racing to catch up and get to grips with price pressures," said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.

"Many still expect we'll see an orderly return to inflation targets over the forecast horizon with moderate rate increases but the risk of inaction becomes far greater than the alternative."

With speculation swirling over the Fed's plans to battle soaring prices, global equities have fluctuated wildly since the start of the year as traders try to position themselves for a series of interest rate hikes that are likely to begin in March.

The prospect of the removal of cheap cash — which has pushed markets to record or multi-year highs — has particularly hit tech firms as they are more susceptible to higher rates.

However, the sector helped New York's three main indexes to healthy gains on Tuesday, and Asia followed suit.

Hong Kong led the way, jumping more than two per cent thanks to a 6.8 per cent surge in market heavyweight Alibaba after Japan's SoftBank allayed fears it was planning to offload some of its huge holdings in the e-commerce giant.

Earlier, Alibaba had taken a hit on speculation about the share sale, which compounded the Chinese firm's woes after suffering hefty losses owing to Beijing's crackdown on the tech sector.

Europe followed Asia's lead higher, with both Frankfurt and Paris posting climbing 1.6 per cent.

Wall Street also pushed higher, with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite climbing over one per cent.

"Stocks have experienced a lot of volatility in recent weeks due to worries about the Federal Reserve potentially hiking rates, and rising political tensions in Eastern Europe," said market analyst David Madden at Equiti Capital.

"But the fear factor surrounding those potential outcomes has declined, hence why we are seeing indices drive higher again."