marking-the-end

Video: NBER Says U.S. Economic Recession Ended in June 2009: Video

by on September 20, 2010

Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) — The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research said the recession ended in June 2009, marking the end of a recession that lasted 18 months, the longest since World War II. Bloomberg’s Margaret Brennan reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

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Video: NBER Says U.S. Economic Recession Ended in June 2009: Video

China’s Wen Rebuffs Calls for Yuan Appreciation, Opposes `Finger Pointing’

by on March 13, 2010

By Bloomberg News March 14 (Bloomberg) — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao rebuffed calls for the yuan to appreciate and said his nation opposed “finger-pointing” on currencies. “I don’t think the yuan is undervalued,” Wen said at a press conference in Beijing marking the end of China’s annual parliamentary meetings. “A stable renminbi exchange rate in the midst of the global financial crisis has played an important role in the global economic recovery.” U.S. President Barack Obama is pressing for a stronger Chinese currency as part of efforts to rebalance the global economy. Central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said March 6 that while crisis policies, including the yuan’s peg to the dollar, will end “sooner or later,” China must be cautious on the timing. “We oppose countries’ pointing fingers at each other and even forcing a country to appreciate its currency, because that won’t help renminbi exchange-rate reform,” Wen said, using another word for the yuan. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said global economic growth would be about 1.5 percentage points higher if China stopped restraining the value of its currency and running trade surpluses. Twelve-month non-deliverable yuan forwards climbed 0.3 percent to 6.6290 per dollar last week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gain was the most in two months. Yuan Appreciation The yuan’s spot rate rose 21 percent between July 2005 and July 2008, when the government halted its advance to protect exports. The central bank may allow the currency to strengthen 3.4 percent to 6.6 yuan per dollar by the end of this year, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 25 analysts. Krugman said China’s currency policy has a “depressing effect” on economic growth in the U.S., Europe and Japan, as measured by gross domestic product. If China’s currency, the yuan, were not undervalued, it would have a “significant” impact on the global recovery, he said in a March 12 speech in Washington. “If we could get some change in China’s currency policy, it would help the world,” Krugman said. — Michael Forsythe , Eugene Tang , Li Yanping . Editors: Paul Panckhurst , John Liu To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Forsythe in Washington at mforsythe@bloomberg.net

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China’s Wen Rebuffs Calls for Yuan Appreciation, Opposes `Finger Pointing’

Baghdad Suicide Attack Kills at Least 13 Shiite Pilgrims, Injures Dozens

February 1, 2010

By Caroline Alexander Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — At least 13 Shiite Muslim pilgrims were killed and another 38 wounded in a suicide bombing in Baghdad, state-run al-Iraqiya television said. Agence France- Presse later put the toll at 41 dead and 106 injured. The bomb went off today in a crowd in the capital’s northeastern neighborhood of Bab al-Sham, al-Iraqiya said. The attacker was a woman who struck a refreshment stall, AFP said. The pilgrims were among more than 30,000 Shiites who have arrived in Iraq for Arbaeen, an annual observance marking the end of 40 days of mourning for the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein, the state-run al-Sabah newspaper said. They are heading on foot to Shiite holy sites in the southern city of Karbala. Shiite pilgrims have been targeted in previous years by al- Qaeda-linked groups in an attempt to fuel tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Iraqi security forces last week deployed 15,000 policemen to protect pilgrims, the privately owned Aswat al-Iraq news agency reported. Arbaeen this year falls on Feb. 15, an already tense period just three weeks before national parliamentary elections. U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned that militants may increase attacks in the run-up to the vote, set for March 7. The U.S. administration has emphasized the need for Iraq to cement gains in democracy as it plans for the withdrawal of American combat troops, due to begin this year and be completed in 2011. Hussein’s death, in a battle in Karbala in A.D. 680, was a key event leading to the split between Sunni and Shiites. To contact the reporter on this story: Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net .

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