Business

LONDON — Amazon will create 7,000 permanent jobs in the UK by the end of the year, the American e-commerce giant announced on Thursday in a boost for Britain's virus-hit economy.

"The company will add a further 7,000 new permanent roles by the end of 2020 across more than 50 sites, including corporate offices and two new fulfilment centres," Amazon said in a statement, adding that its total permanent UK workforce will number more than 40,000.

While a number of British retailers have axed thousands of jobs following the country's lockdown, others are creating vast amounts of new positions to cope with a surge in online shopping.

Amazon, which had already created 3,000 new permanent UK roles this year, added on Thursday that it will offer more than 20,000 seasonal positions across the country ahead of the festive period.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma hailed the Amazon announcement, with UK unemployment set to surge after the government next month ends its Covid-19 furlough scheme that is paying wages for millions of private-sector workers.

"While this has been a challenging time for many businesses, it is hugely encouraging to see Amazon creating 10,000 jobs in the UK this year.

"This is not only great news for those looking for a new job, but also a clear vote of confidence in the UK economy as we build back better from the pandemic," Sharma added.

LONDON — Anglo-Dutch consumer giant Unilever on Wednesday unveiled a 1 billion-euro plan to remove fossil fuels in the production of cleaning and laundry products which have experienced soaring demand from coronavirus-fearing consumers.

The initiative, worth the equivalent of $1.2 billion, will replace all the carbon derived from fossil fuels used in the production of some of Unilever's best-known products by 2030, it said in a statement.

Unilever aims to transform the sustainability of its best-known brands, including washing detergent Persil, Cif household cleaner and Domestos bleach, under its "Clean Future" project.

"Clean Future is our vision to radically overhaul our business. As an industry, we must break our dependence on fossil fuels, including as a raw material for our products," Unilever home care boss Peter ter Kulve said in the statement.

The company has been boosted this year as the coronavirus pandemic and global lockdowns spark major changes in consumer behaviour, with people spending far more time at home and being much more concerned about hygiene.

"We've seen unprecedented demand for our cleaning products in recent months and we are incredibly proud to play our part, helping to keep people safe in the fight against Covid-19," Kulve said.

"But that should not be a reason for complacency. We cannot let ourselves become distracted from the environmental crises that our world — our home — is facing. Pollution. Destruction of natural habitats. The climate emergency.

"This is the home we share and we have a responsibility to protect it," he said.

NEW YORK — The battle for online supremacy is on as Walmart announced on Tuesday the coming launch of a membership programme that provides free delivery as the world’s biggest retailer takes direct aim at e-commerce behemoth Amazon.

The long-discussed Walmart+ will start September 15, charging $98 annually or $12.95 a month to provide free delivery as soon as the same day along with discounts on fuel and other features.

The service will compete with Amazon’s “Prime” programme, which offers free delivery within two days with a comparably-priced subscription that also provides free and premium-priced video and entertainment offerings.

Walmart’s announcement highlighted the need to meet consumer needs in a fast-evolving economy especially amid the upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic that has fueled a surge in tech adaptations for the work- and shop-at-home world.

“Life feels more complicated than ever. Walmart+ is designed to make it easier — giving customers an option not to have to sacrifice on cost or convenience,” Walmart chief customer officer Janey Whiteside said.

“We have always been a champion for the right item at the right price, but now it’s more than that. We have the right shopping solutions at the right time, too.”

The launch of Walmart+ comes as the global retail giant has teamed with Microsoft in an effort to acquire TikTok, the Chinese-owned short-form video app that has come under fire from President Donald Trump.

The app has been at the centre of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing since Trump signed an executive order on August 6 giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance.

Big e-commerce push 

Walmart+ replaces the retail giant’s “Delivery Unlimited” subscription service that offered home delivery of more than 160,000 items.

It is the latest step in the major ramp-up into e-commerce, propelled by Walmart’s 2016 purchase of Jet.com for $3.3 billion, and billions of dollars in additional investment to develop smartphone applications, revamp supply chains and roll out curbside pickup of groceries and other items at thousands of US stores.

The new service also will provide members with discounts of up to five cents a gallon at Walmart gasoline stations.

It offers a “scan and go” feature that lets consumers pay for items by scanning them with a smartphone application for a “quick, easy, touch-free payment experience”, Walmart said on its website.

A successful acquisition of TikTok with Microsoft could open up additional possibilities, allowing Walmart a marketing platform with TikTok users, who tend to be younger shoppers who turn to the Internet for lifestyle trends and are not generally big Walmart consumers.

The potential gold mine of younger users’ data also could help Walmart compete more strongly with online retail rival Amazon, analysts say.

The purchase of TikTok could give Walmart a key entertainment platform after earlier efforts stumbled. In April, Walmart’s video-on-demand service Vudu announced it would be sold Fandango Media, which is part of Comcast.

Amazon and Walmart have enjoyed strong results during the coronavirus pandemic as consumers have increasingly relied on e-commerce to order groceries online either for delivery or curbside pickup.

Walmart also has benefited from its status as an “essential” store that was permitted to stay open during spring lockdowns while authorities forced other stores to close.

Last month, Walmart reported higher quarterly earnings, due partly to a 97 per cent surge in US e-commerce sales.

Shares of Walmart jumped 4.1 per cent to $144.62 in morning trading.

NEW YORK/PARIS — Wall Street stocks paused near record levels on Monday ahead of key economic data later in the week, with a newly-tweaked Dow index edging lower.

The final session of a heady August opened on a lackluster note as markets await employment data and updates on the manufacturing and services sectors in the coming days.

About 15 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4 per cent to 28,539.83.

The broad-based S&P 500 was essentially flat at 3,507.31, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.3 per cent at 11,729.11.

In Europe, stock markets eased lower in quiet trade on Monday after the US Federal Reserve (Fed) signalled it would keep interest rates at unprecedented lows for as long as it takes to get through the coronavirus crisis.

London was closed for a public holiday, leaving Paris and Frankfurt to set the tone with very slight drops in afternoon exchanges.

“Cheap central bank money is going to continue to support the stock markets,” said independent analyst Timo Emden in Frankfurt.

The Fed’s pledge of trillions of dollars in support has been key to stock market gains since the massive virus-induced sell-off in March.

US Fed chief Jerome Powell on Thursday went even further, saying the US central bank would focus on growth and jobs from now on rather than on inflation, meaning that interest rates and controlling inflation would be a secondary consideration.

Stephen Innes at AxiCorp noted that during the financial crisis, the US began cutting interest rates in mid-2007 and did not lift them until more than eight years later.

He felt it might take just as long to see them hiked again.

Meanwhile, Asian shares were mostly lower, with Hong Kong down one per cent as Shanghai dipped 0.2 per cent, both having jumped more than 1 per cent earlier.

Tokyo rose more than 1 per cent, shrugging off concerns over who would succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after news that US investment legend Warren Buffett had bought huge holdings in top Japanese companies.

Positive service sector data in China helped offset slower manufacturing figures and offered reassurance the world’s number two economy is emerging strongly from the coronavirus crisis.

BEIJING — The owner of popular video app TikTok said on Sunday it will “strictly abide” by China’s new export rules, which could potentially complicate a sale of the business as demanded by US President Donald Trump.

TikTok has been at the centre of a diplomatic storm between Washington and Beijing, and Trump signed an executive order on August 6 giving Americans 45 days to stop doing business with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance — effectively setting a deadline for a sale of the app to a US company.

But China’s commerce ministry published new rules on Friday adding new items including “civilian use technology” to rules controlling the import and export of restricted technology.

The new regulations could make it more difficult for Bytedance to sell the wildly popular video app, which features clips of everything from dance routines and hair-dye tutorials to jokes about daily life and politics.

Bytedance said in a statement it would “strictly abide” by China’s technology import and export law and its restricted export technology list “to handle business relating to the import and export of technology”.

The move marked the first time China has adjusted its list of technologies subject to export bans or restrictions since 2008, adding 23 new items.

An interview with a professor in official news agency Xinhua on Saturday suggested the change could mean Bytedance has to get approval from the Chinese government to sell its technology to an American company.

Earlier this week, TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer quit the company, days after TikTok filed a lawsuit challenging the crackdown by the US government.

TikTok — which has been downloaded 175 million times in the US and more than a billion times around the world — argued in the suit that Trump’s order was a misuse of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act because the platform is not “an unusual and extraordinary threat”.

SANTIAGO — Unemployment in Chile has reached a new record high of 13.1 per cent, the national statistics institute said on Friday.

Unemployment rose by 5.6 percentage points in the rolling May-July quarter compared to the same period in 2019.

The statistics institute said it was the highest figure since 2010, when the body changed its calculation method.

That means that more than a million people are out of work, leaving 8.1 million employed after the loss of 1.8 million jobs over the last year.

However, the unemployment figure does not take into account the 760,000 people that took advantage of a government initiative launched in March to protect jobs affected by the coronavirus pandemic by allowing the temporary suspension of contracts and access to unemployment insurance.

The institute said that taking into consideration those unemployed, those on the government scheme, and those not looking for work but able to, then the number of people out of employment rises to 30 per cent of the potential workforce.

"These are the most severe figures... that we've had in the history of our country," said Labour Minister Maria Jose Zaldivar.

The institute said that of those still employed, a third have reported a drop in their income.

"The numbers speak for themselves and show why this has to be the priority," said Finance Minister Ignacio Briones, while asking Congress to approve laws that would reactivate the economy by creating jobs.

Chile is one of the worst-affected countries in Latin America by the coronavirus, with 400,000 cases and close to 15,000 deaths.

The Central Bank expects the economy to shrink by 7.5 per cent in 2020.

SEOUL - South Korea's central bank slashed its growth forecast on Thursday, predicting the world's 12th-largest economy will shrink more than one per cent this year as it braces for a surge of coronavirus infections.

The country had been largely returning to normal after mostly bringing its outbreak under control, but multiple cluster infections in recent days have raised fresh fears over a nationwide pandemic.

Its trade-dependent economy has been battered by the impact of the virus on the rest of the world.

The economy is now expected to shrink 1.3 per cent in 2020, the Bank of Korea said, its second downward revision in four months having lowered its outlook in May to a 0.2 per cent contraction, from an earlier forecast of 2.1 per cent growth.

"The recovery of domestic economic growth is likely to be slower than previously forecast, largely due to the domestic resurgence of COVID-19," the bank said in a statement.

"Uncertainties around the future path of GDP growth are also judged to be very high," it added.

The latest figure would represent the worst performance since 1998, when the economy shrank 5.1 per cent in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.

The latest projection came as South Korean authorities battle several new coronavirus clusters -- mostly linked to Protestant churches -- reporting 441 new infections on Thursday, the latest in a series of near-six-month highs.

Even so the OECD club of developed economies is predicting the South will record the best -- or least bad -- economic performance among its 37 members in 2020.

The Bank of Korea left its key interest rate unchanged at a record low of 0.5 per cent, citing economic fallout from the pandemic.

LONDON — Britain's economy will lose about £22 billion ($29 billion, 24 billion euros) this year on the coronavirus-induced collapse of global travel, which could imperil 3 million jobs, an industry body forecast on Wednesday.

International visitor spending could plunge by 78 per cent from 2019, equating to a loss of £60 million per day or £420 million a week, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) predicted in a key report.

"Travellers and tourists are staying away from the UK in droves because of continuing uncertainty around travel restrictions designed to curb the spread of COVID-19," the WTTC stated.

It continued: "The severe impact on UK travel and tourism is laid bare by WTTC as the economic fallout from coronavirus continues to burn its way through the sector.”Nearly 3 million jobs in the UK supported by travel and tourism are at risk of being lost in a 'worst case' scenario mapped out by WTTC economic modelling."

The country’s economy shrank by one fifth in the second quarter, more than any European neighbour, as the lockdown plunged the country into its deepest recession on record.

Tourists remain reluctant to visit because Britain is the European country worst hit by the coronavirus.

'Years to recover' 

Travel has also been discouraged after the UK government recently re-imposed quarantine on those returning from countries including Austria, Croatia, France, The Netherlands and Spain.

The WTTC added on Wednesday that London has been hardest hit by the travel collapse because around 85 per cent of tourist spending in the capital is from foreign visitors.

"The economic pain and suffering caused to millions of households across the UK, who are dependent upon Travel & Tourism for their livelihoods, is evident from the latest figures," added WTTC President Gloria Guevara in the report.

"The lack of international travel caused by the pandemic could wipe out more than £22 billion from the UK economy alone... from which it could take years to recover. 

"It could also threaten London's position as one of the world's premier hubs for business and leisure travel which could see other destinations take over.

"We urgently need to replace stop-start quarantine measures with rapid, comprehensive and cost-effective test and trace programmes at departure points across the country."

British tourism's lobbying body VisitBritain had forecast on Tuesday that the number of foreign tourists will plummet by 73 per cent in 2020 to 11 million people on the back of the pandemic, which has grounded aircraft worldwide.

SHUBRA BELOULA, Egypt — At midnight, Eman Mehanna switches on her headlamp and begins her day's work picking jasmine flowers, as their powerful fragrance wafts far across the fields in Egypt's fertile Nile Delta.

Egypt's Gharbiya region is the heartland of its jasmine harvest. The aromatic oils extracted for perfumes from here make up over half the global supply, according to international trade figures.

"We have been picking jasmine since we were children," Mehanna said, gathering blossoms by hand in the village of Shubra Beloula, around 100 kilometres north of the capital Cairo.

The white petals, plucked from densely-packed rows of chest-high green bushes of "royal jasmine" — Jasminum grandiflorum — burst out of her wicker basket.

During the harvest season from June until November, picking begins around midnight and finishes a few hours after dawn each day.

It is a tough job, but a hard-working picker can harvest as much as 5 kilogrammes of petals a day.

While it is cooler to work after dark, the key reason harvesting is done at night is because it is only then that the flowers fully open.

"You really need to concentrate on looking for the blossoming flowers," Mehanna said. "We leave the closed ones for the following day."

After dawn, she swaps her headlight for a hat to shade her from the burning sun.

Petals to paste 

Egypt and India dominate the production of jasmine extract for perfumes, making up around 95 per cent of supply, according to the International Federation of Essential Oils and Aroma Trades (IFEAT).

Jasmine trade is estimated to pull in some $6.5 million annually for Egypt, providing income to around 50,000 people, IFEAT says.

In Egypt, more than 90 per cent of jasmine fields are in Gharbiya governorate, fed by the rich minerals and waters of the Nile, shortly before the river reaches the Mediterranean Sea.

Farming is concentrated in the neighbouring districts of Qutur — where the village of Shubra Beloula is located — and Basyoun, otherwise famous as the birthplace of Egyptian and Liverpool football star Mohamed Salah.

On either side of a dusty road are lush green fields dotted with gleaming white flowers.

Early in the morning, the pickers unload their baskets into crates, which are then stacked high onto pickup trucks and taken for processing.

The Fakhry essential oils factory handles around 70 per cent of the region's floral production.

One of the first steps is to compress and grind the delicate blossoms down.

From that paste, the precious scented oils can be extracted by distillation.

"This was the first essential oils factory established in Egypt," factory floor manager Badr Atef told AFP, as he supervised the weighing and handing over of petal-packed crates.

Tough work 

The scent of flowers is intense.

According to Atef, factory owner Ahmed Fakhry was inspired to farm jasmine when, as a young student in the 1960s, he visited the town of Grasse, the birthplace of French perfumes, on the Cote d'Azur.

Returning to Egypt, Fakhry introduced his new perfume knowledge and set up commercial jasmine farming and processing.

"Now 20 tonnes of jasmine flowers are picked daily" in Egypt, Atef said, estimating that some 400 hectares of the scented plant are farmed in the Gharbiya region.

From all those flowers, some 5 tonnes of dense jasmine paste is finally produced each year.

Egyptian farmers have long complained that the low production costs of their big rival India drive their prices down.

But the economic impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic has been harder still, with demand dropping sharply, farmers said.

Picking flowers is back-breaking work.

"Stand in the sun for a couple of minutes, and you'll see how hard this job is," said 60-year-old picker Waafa, who refused to harvest flowers this year because prices were too low.

Even on a good year, some pickers earn little more than a couple of dollars a day for hours of work, income Waafa slammed as "measly".

"Everything is expensive nowadays," she said.

But others say that jasmine-picking season is a time they enjoy.

"The sweetness is when we're all together picking," said Mehanna. "We swap stories and have fun."