14-11-2019

ECONOMY & BUSINESS
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019
10
Chinese consumers smash
'Singles' Day' shopping record
Khulna Zone of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited organized a get together and fair of Rural Development
Scheme customers at Daulatpur branch premises in Khulna recently. Abu Reza Md. Yeahia, Deputy
Managing Director of the Bank inaugurated the fair as chief guest. Md. Maksudur Rahman, Head of
Khulna Zone presided over the program while Zubair Azam Helali, Head of Rural Development Scheme,
Sheikh Syed Ali, Chairman, Bangladesh Jute Association and Sheikh Maruful Islam, Chairman, Dighalia
Upazila Parishad addressed as special guests. Sheikh Mamtaz Shirin, Vice Chairman of Dighalia Upazila
Parishad and Sheikh Mohammad Ali, ward councilor of Khulna City Corporation also addressed the program
among others.
Photo: Courtesy
Social Islami Bank ltd arranged a 02- day long workshop on "Investment Classification and Provision" in
its Training Institute at the Head Office recently. Quazi Osman Ali, Managing Director & CEO of the Bank
inaugurated the program. Officials working at the concerned desk of different Branches attended the
workshop.
Photo: Courtesy
Hong Kong officials fine UBS
for overcharging clients
Swiss banking titan UBS has been fined $51
million by Hong Kong authorities for
overcharging global customers for almost a
decade, saying it had failed to "act in its
clients' best interests" , reports BSS.
The city's Securities and Futures
Commission (SFC) said the company
manipulated the price of trades for bonds
and structured products from 2008 to 2015
and also applied excessive fees for some
clients between 2008 and 2017.
SFC chief executive Ashley Alder said in a
statement: "Although each overcharge
represented a fraction of each trade, UBS's
misconduct involved deception and a
pervasive abuse of trust resulting in
significant additional revenue for UBS to
which it was not entitled."
Officials said that UBS was found to have
falsified account statements by misreporting
the spread amounts for the trades.
"The SFC considers that UBS not only
failed to observe the fundamental and
overarching duty to act in its clients' best
interests but also abused the trust of
unsuspecting clients by failing to disclose
conflicts of interest and overcharging them
in opaque trades," it said in the statement
released Monday.
It added that the overcharge practices
affected about 5,000 Hong Kong-managed
client accounts in about 28,700
transactions.
UBS was fined HK$400 million ($51
million) and the SFC said the bank would
repay the full value of the overcharged
amount together with interest, which would
amount to about HK$200 million.
The bank was among a number of lenders
that were told in March to pay a combined
HK$787 to settle cases linked to their work
on initial public offerings in the city.
Quarter of German
firms in China planning
to leave: survey
Economic
growth in
Venezuela to
begin in 2020:
president
Venezuelan President
Nicolas Maduro vowed that
the economic growth in the
country would begin next
year, reports BSS.
"All data points to the fact
that 2020 will become the
year of the country's
economic growth," Maduro
said in a speech aired by the
state TV. According to the
president, "hyperinflation,
caused by the economic war,
is expected to slow down
next year."
Venezuela has been going
through an acute socialeconomic
crisis in the last
several years, accompanied
by hyperinflation and
currency devaluation.
This year the situation has
been further complicated by
the escalation of the
confrontation between the
government and the
opposition.
Chinese shoppers set new records for
spending during the annual "Singles'
Day" buying spree despite an economic
slowdown and worries over the US
trade war, with state media calling it a
sign of China's rising economic
strength, reports BSS.
E-commerce giant Alibaba said
consumers spent $38.3 billion on its
platforms on Monday during the
world's biggest 24-hour shopping
event, up 26 percent from the previous
all-time high mark set last year.
The growth rate slowed slightly,
however, from the 27 percent increase
last year and 39 percent in 2017.
Alibaba's main domestic competitor
JD.com, which holds an 11-day
promotion ending at midnight on
November 11, said early Tuesday it had
handled sales over that stretch totalling
$29.2 billion, which was up 30 percent.
US President Donald Trump has
repeatedly said his tariffs on Chinese
goods have put the country's economy
on the ropes.
But state-run Xinhua news agency
said the "Singles' Day" performance
UK economy avoids recession
with 0.3% quarterly growth
Britain's Brexit-facing economy avoided entering recession in
the third quarter with growth of 0.3 percent, official data showed
on Monday, reports BSS.
Gross domestic product rebounded in the July-September
period after a 0.2-percent contraction in the second quarter, the
Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in an initial estimate.
The technical definition of a recession is two straight quarters
of negative growth. Economic activity was propelled largely by
the construction and services sectors, while the production
sector was flat.
"GDP grew steadily in the third quarter, mainly thanks to a
strong July," said an ONS spokesman. "Services again led the
way with construction also performing well. "Manufacturing
failed to grow as falls in most industries were offset by car
production bouncing back," he added.
The third-quarter performance however fell short of market
expectations and the Bank of England's growth forecast - which
had both stood at 0.4 percent. And despite rebounding growth,
the ONS pointed to "signs" of a slowdown, as Britain readies to
leave the European Union on January 31.
bKash, FHI 360 ink deal for
strengthening 2400 mothers
Recently, bKash signed an agreement
with Family Health International (FHI
360), a US-based non-profit human
development organization to disburse
funds to 2400 lactating mothers under
USAID's Strengthening Multisectoral
Nutrition Programming through
Implementation Science Activity, a
press release said.
Mizanur Rashid, Chief Commercial
Officer of bKash and Jennifer Crum,
Chief of Party, FHI 360, exchanged the
proved China, once known as the
"world's factory" for its reliance on
manufacturing for export, had evolved
into a globally powerful consumer
market of its own.
"Where there is a market, that is
where the future lies," it said in a report.
"From the 'world's factory' to the
'world's market', a China that is
continually moving towards highquality
development will unleash
greater consumption potential in the
future, allowing China's dividends to
benefit the whole world."
Singles' Day, also called "11.11" for the
November 11 date, was originally set as
an unofficial day for unmarried
Chinese.
But Alibaba - which accounts for
more than half of China's e-commerce -
commandeered it as a discount sales
event akin to the late-November US
"Black Friday", which "Singles' Day"
now handily surpasses.
A range of other e-tailers and retailers
also have jumped in.
Alibaba's one-day promotion on its
Taobao and Tmall platforms began at
agreement on behalf of their respective
organizations. Masrur Chowdhury,
Head of Govt. Project & Business Sales;
A.T.M. Mahbub Alam, GM, Business
Sales; Mehmud Ashique Iqbal, DGM,
Key Accounts; Md. Somel Reza Khan,
Relationship Manager, Commercial
from bKash and Khandaker Irshad
Mahmud, Finance and Operation
Director, Nazmus Sadat, Monitoring,
Evaluation and Learning Advisor, and
Dr. Ayan Shankar Seal, Technical
midnight Sunday following a flashy
stage show in Shanghai headlined by
Grammy-winning US pop star Taylor
Swift.
China's economy is in an extended
slowdown exacerbated by the US trade
war, and the Singles' Day fire sale is
viewed as a snapshot of consumer
sentiment in the world's second-biggest
economy.
Consumers gave little indication of
worry, charging out of the gate with $1
billion spent via Alibaba platforms in
the first 68 seconds.
US-listed Alibaba earlier this month
said revenue growth in its most recent
financial quarter slowed to 40 percent,
from 54 percent in the same quarter
last year.
Analysts however, note that it would
be difficult for Alibaba to maintain past
growth rates forever, and that
consumption should remain solid in
the future, facilitated by factors
including technology and the
government's push to encourage
domestic consumption as an economic
driver.
Bank of France forecasts
weaker Q4 growth
The French economy is
tipped to grow by 0.2 percent
in the fourth quarter, a slight
easing seen also across the
wider eurozone, Bank of
France data showed Tuesday,
reports BSS.
The bank's preliminary
forecast put business activity
in the second biggest
eurozone country at a weaker
pace than the 0.3 percent rate
of expansion notched up
since January.
On Thursday, the European
Union cited uncertainty
related to trade conflicts,
heightened geopolitical
tensions, persistent weakness
in the manufacturing sector
and Brexit as it slashed its
2019 growth forecast for the
entire 19-member eurozone
to just 1.1 percent.
In July, the EU had forecast
a slightly higher growth rate
of 1.2 percent.
Based on a monthly survey
of business leaders, the
French slowdown is likely to
result from weaker activity in
the construction and
industrial sectors, a central
bank statement said.
For the entire year, the
central bank and the national
statistics institute INSEE
forecast growth of 1.3 percent,
down from the 2018 figure of
1.7 percent.
Advisor from FHI 360 were also
present at the signing ceremony.
FHI 360 has worked in Bangladesh
for the last 40 years and has conducted
more than 100 projects in family health
& nutrition segment. Besides providing
wide range of human development
assistance, FHI 360 has also been at the
forefront of helping Bangladesh move
toward the digitization of payments
and financial services, says a press
release.
Nearly a quarter of
German companies
operating in China are
planning to relocate all or
part of their business out
of the country, according
to a study released
Tuesday with many
blaming rising costs,
reports BSS.
The German Chamber of
Commerce's annual
survey of 526 member
firms in China found that
23 percent have either
already decided to
withdraw production
capacity in the country or
are considering it.
One-third of those
companies have planned
to leave China entirely.
The rest will transfer
part of their business and
production overseas,
largely to lower-cost
countries like India or in
Southeast Asia.Operating
costs in China have been
rising as the country seeks
to rebalance its economy
from an export and
investment-led model to
one driven by consumer
spending.
Of the 104 companies
that have decided to leave
or are considering to, 71
percent cite the rise in
production costs -
particularly for labour.
A third blamed an
unfavourable public policy
environment and one in
four said the China-US
trade war is having an
impact.
"Business expectations
have dropped to their
lowest level in years," the
study warned, with only a
quarter of companies
surveyed expecting to
meet or exceed their goals
this year.
And more than a third
said Beijing's efforts to
"level the playing field" for
foreign companies are
"insufficient".
"Competition has to be
fair," said German
Ambassador Clemens von
Goetze at the launch of the
study Tuesday.
"Foreign companies,
including German
companies, and Chinese
companies should play on
a level field."
The ambassador also
said German companies
had been "not so well
informed" about China's
huge Belt and Road
Initiative - a $1 trillion
global investment drive -
and said they had not been
able to benefit from the
economic potential of the
project.
Recently ONE Bank Ltd and mBill Systems Limited signed a strategic Agreement for bill payment middleware services. Under the
Agreement OK Wallet and Agent Banking customers will be able to pay various utility bills instantly. Rozina Aliya Ahmed, ADMD &
Head of Liability Marketing of ONE Bank Limited and Md. Zahidur Rahman, Managing Director of mBill Systems Limited signed the
agreement on behalf of their respective Organizations. Gazi Yar Mohammed, Head of MFS & Agent Banking of ONE Bank Limited
and Anjuman Parvin, Director & CHRO of mBill Systems Limited along with other high officials of both organizations were also present
in the ceremony.
Photo: Courtesy