Finance topics

Hearst Corp’s Houston Chronicle is cutting 12 percent of its staff, the newspaper said on Wednesday, as publishers continue to suffer from the weak advertising environment.

The layoffs will include about 90 people in the newsroom, the paper said in its online edition. No one at Hearst could immediately be reached for comment.

The Chronicle is the ninth-largest U.S. newspaper by weekday circulation and the seventh-largest by Sunday circulation, according to the U.S. Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The job cuts — announced to employees on Tuesday by Chronicle Publisher Jack Sweeney — are part of an effort to reduce costs amid unprecedented change in the newspaper industry, the paper said.

Last week, Hearst eliminated the print edition of its ailing Seattle Post-Intelligencer, moving it online.

And Hearst has said it would close the San Francisco Chronicle unless it gets significant concessions from its unions, including the ability to cut staff paydayloan.

It secured concessions from one of its largest unions, and talks continue with the other, a Hearst spokesman said on Tuesday.

Faced with falling advertising spending and a worsening economy, newspaper publishers are struggling to rein in expenses and offload debt quickly enough to survive.

Earlier this week, the New York Times Co said it planned to sell the Times Daily newspaper of Florence, Alabama, to a regional publisher.

Newspaper publishers are also contending with declining circulation as their readers move to the Internet, where most news is free.

(Reporting by S. John Tilak in Bangalore and Robert MacMillan in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Read more

Less than a month after lambasting European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet for failing to keep up with Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to stem the recession, foreign-exchange traders are glad he’s behind the curve.

The 16-nation currency strengthened 7.7 percent versus the dollar since February, after tumbling 9.3 percent in the first two months of the year. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc. are advising investors to buy euros.

Traders are looking past forecasts from Germany’s Kiel- based IfW institute for the European Union economy to shrink 3.3 percent this year, and snapping up currencies where central bankers are resisting calls to purchase debt securities as a way of lowering interest rates and pump cash into their financial systems. Those options are becoming scarce after Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke joined the Bank of England, Bank of Japan and Swiss National Bank in so-called quantitative easing.

“The dollar is a sell near term versus those currencies where quantitative easing is off the table,” said John Normand, head of currency strategy at JPMorgan in London. “The top on euro-dollar will come when the ECB looks likely to join the quantitative easing crowd. For now, it’s content to stay on the sidelines.”

The euro will probably rise 2.8 percent to $1.40 in a month after soaring 5.1 percent last week as long as the ECB refrains from purchasing assets, Normand predicted. The dollar will rebound to $1.30 by June, he said.

Euro Index

The Euro Index, which tracks the currency against the dollar, pound, yen, Swiss franc and Swedish krona, climbed 2.7 percent to 118.53 since March 16. The euro gained 0.5 percent today to $1.3652 as of 11:17 a.m. in London.

The Fed said March 18 that it plans to expand its balance sheet by as much as $1.15 trillion as it buys up to $300 billion of U.S. government bonds and steps up purchases of mortgage securities. Bernanke’s goal is to reduce consumer borrowing rates such as those for mortgages and encourage banks to lend in an effort to boost the economy.

The trade-weighted Dollar Index, measured against the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swiss franc and Swedish krona, posted its biggest one-day drop since 1971, tumbling 2.69 percent, and fell 4.1 percent last week to 83.841. It was down 0.6 percent at 83.35 today.

“This is a historic moment — the start of debasement of the world’s reserve currency,” wrote Alan Ruskin, head of international currency strategy in North America at RBS Greenwich Capital Markets Inc. in Greenwich, Connecticut. “It feels to many participants that in the grand sweep of history we are witnessing the end of ‘Rome’ on the Potomac.”

Shrinking Economy

U.S. gross domestic product shrank 6.2 percent last quarter, the most since 1982. The Congressional Budget Office said March 20 that President Barack Obama’s administration will generate a budget deficit of $1.85 trillion this year, and expenses will exceed revenue by a total $9.27 trillion between 2010 and 2019. That’s about $2.3 trillion more than the administration forecast. At 8.1 percent, the unemployment rate is the highest in more than a quarter century.

The flood of dollars also increases the chances for quicker inflation in the global economy, spurring demand for commodities and currencies of raw materials producers. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of commodities is up 22.4 percent since Feb. 18 to 375.5260, and last week posted its biggest gain in two months, rising 8.6 percent.

Commodity Currencies

“Quantitative easing across the board will diminish the fiat currencies as a store of value,” said Lee Hardman, a foreign-exchange strategist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in London. “Investors may then seek refuge in harder currencies such as commodities.”

Hardman recommends Norway’s krone, the Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar. Demand for Australian coal, iron ore and wool drove 17 consecutive years of economic expansion. Norway is the world’s fifth-largest oil producer and New Zealand relies on sales of milk powder, butter, cheese and aluminum.

Australia’s dollar climbed 4.4 percent last week to 68.69 U.S. cents, while the krone rallied 6.5 percent to 6.3773, the biggest gain since 1973 and the most among the 16 most-traded currencies. New Zealand’s dollar appreciated 6.4 percent to 55.87 U.S. cents. Melbourne-based BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s largest mining company, climbed 1.6 percent to A$32.18 on the Australian stock exchange.

Trichet, 66, took over the ECB from the Netherlands’ Wim Duisenberg in November 2003. Under his watch, the euro appreciated to a peak of $1.6038 in July 2008 from about $1.15.

‘Behind the Curve’

The currency began to slide as the ECB waited until October 2008 to cut interest rates as the global economy slowed, more than a year after Bernanke began slashing borrowing costs installment payday loans. The ECB’s main rate is 1.5 percent, compared with a target range of zero to 0.25 percent for the Fed.

A drop in two-year German bund yields in February to the lowest relative to longer-maturity debt since 1997 was a sign that the ECB needs “to wake up to reality,” Komal Sri-Kumar, chief global strategist at Los Angeles-based TCW Asset Management, which oversees about $118 billion, said last month.

“European policy makers are behind the curve,” said Neil Mackinnon, chief economist and partner at ECU Group, a London- based hedge fund with about $1 billion in assets. “The European economy will sink deeper into depression.”

While the ECB has refrained from quantitative easing, the European Union has taken other steps to bolster the economy. EU leaders said March 20 that they will double to 50 billion euros ($68 billion) a credit line for countries in financial distress.

‘Follow the Fed’

Even Mackinnon says the euro rally may be short-lived as the ECB cuts its main refinancing rate close to zero. He expects the currency to depreciate to $1.245. None of the 53 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg forecast the currency will return to its previous high of $1.6038.

“All major central banks will have to follow the Fed and adopt quantitative easing,” said Mackinnon, a former economist for the U.K. Treasury. “If the European policy makers are hoping they will get a free ride on the U.S. stimulus, hoping they will look more prudent, they are deluding themselves.”

Trichet said March 17 in a speech to business leaders in Paris that his policy of loaning banks unlimited funds is sufficient for now.

“In the context of the euro area, guaranteeing firms and households a steady access to credit largely means ensuring the banking system has appropriate liquidity,” Trichet said. “In the euro area, it is natural for ‘credit easing’ to be implemented primarily through the participation of banks.”

‘Turning Point’

In a March 19 report titled ‘Sprint to Print,’ Morgan Stanley recommended selling the dollar against the euro, forecasting it will depreciate to $1.45 in a year.

“This move may mark the turning point for the dollar,” wrote Morgan Stanley currency analysts led by Sophia Drossos and Ron Leven in New York. “The Fed’s action exposes the dollar to its vulnerabilities, but this leaves the euro and the yen facing appreciation.”

Citigroup’s London-based global head of currencies, Jim McCormick, said in a research report to clients last week that the euro may rise to $1.40. “We’ve been selling dollars and we’re now adding to that short,” he wrote in the report.

Samarjit Shankar, a director of strategy for the global markets group in Boston at Bank of New York Mellon, which administers more than $23 trillion, also predicts $1.40.

Buying Euro Calls

“You have Bernanke taking a page from Greenspan’s book and reflating assets,” said Shankar. Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan cut interest rates to 1 percent in 2003, the lowest level since World War II, to boost growth after the 2001 recession. The ECB takes “a very orthodox, almost straitjacketed approach,” he said.

Werner Eppacher, head of foreign exchange at Deutsche Bank AG´s DWS Investment unit in Frankfurt, said he bought call options on the euro versus the dollar and used forwards to bet on the common currency gaining versus the greenback.

Calls give the buyer the right to purchase an asset at a predetermined price, and forwards are agreements to trade a currency pair in the future.

“The U.S. is facing more structural problems than other regions,” Eppacher said. “As soon as we have some moderation in financial markets, the conversation will go back to U.S. households deleveraging and external deficits, fiscal deficits, money printing.”

He predicts the euro will rise to $1.40 in six months, and the Australian dollar will appreciate to 75 U.S. cents.

“The euro is not rising on its own merits,” said Hans- Guenter Redeker, the London-based global head of currency strategy at BNP Paribas SA, France’s biggest bank. “The U.S. is exporting its expansionary monetary conditions abroad, which ultimately is very positive for equity markers and is going to be very positive for risk takers.”

Source

DETROIT — A public tiff between Italian automaker Fiat SpA and Chrysler LLC apparently ended Friday when Chrysler rescinded a statement on its website that Fiat would be responsible for part of Chrysler’s debt if the two companies join forces.

Chrysler, in a Web video on Thursday explaining why an alliance for the two companies would be good for Chrysler and the country, said Fiat would be responsible for 35 percent of what Chrysler owed to the U.S. government.

But Fiat on Friday denied that it would be responsible for any of Chrysler’s debt.

The two companies are talking about an alliance in which Fiat would take a 35 percent stake in Chrysler in exchange for Fiat’s small-car technology.

Chrysler, in a statement issued Friday, reversed the claim and said Fiat would become an equity holder.

"To clarify, this does not mean Fiat would assume responsibility for any of Chrysler LLC’s debt," the statement said.

Fiat Group said Friday that it "intends to make absolutely clear that the proposed alliance will not entail the assumption of any current or future indebtedness to Chrysler cash advance."

The Chrysler video featured CEO Robert Nardelli saying that the company can be viable on its own, but a deal with Fiat would enhance that viability.

Fiat is discussing trading its small-car and small-engine technology for a 35 percent stake in Chrysler in a noncash deal. The deal would help Chrysler bring badly needed small cars to its showrooms while helping Fiat re-enter the American market with the Alfa Romeo brand and the update of the iconic Fiat 500.

In the video, Chrysler said an alliance with Fiat would help it leapfrog five or six years ahead in development of fuel-efficient and clean-air technology.

Any deal with Fiat is contingent upon the company gaining U.S. government approval of its viability plan and the release of additional government loan money to Chrysler.
=”clear:both”>

Source

The Treasury Department will pump up to $5 billion in financing into troubled auto parts suppliers to prevent an auto industry collapse that could undermine the government’s work to restructure General Motors and Chrysler.

The funds, announced Thursday, will be made available from the government’s Troubled Assets Relief Program in a financial entity similar to a revolving credit. Duppliers would be eligible for financing auto parts they have shipped to carmakers but have not yet received payment.

U.S. automakers — General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. — will have the option of using the program and designate the companies that need financing, giving them a large role in determining which parts suppliers will survive.

GM and Chrysler, which have received $17.4 billion in government loans, said they would use the program. Ford, which has not sought the government aid, said in a statement that it would not participate "as we remain viable and expect no issue with continued payments to our suppliers."

The action was intended to help with the cash flow needs and stability of distressed auto suppliers, whose collapse could lead to the disruption of car production by the Big Three.

Members of the auto task force, who spoke on condition of anonymity because their discussions have been private, said the financing was a first step in restructuring the car industry. They expect to provide a framework for revamping GM and Chrysler by March 31.

"The program will provide supply companies with much needed access to liquidity to assist them in meeting payrolls and covering their expenses, while giving the domestic auto companies reliable access to the parts they need," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said fast cash loans.

Officials said foreign automakers with U.S. operations would not be eligible for the so-called "supplier support program."

American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., Visteon Corp. and Lear Corp. have all warned in recent weeks that they could be forced to file for bankruptcy if business didn’t pick up soon. And Delphi Corp., GM’s former parts division, is still trying to restructure itself after more than three years under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Parts suppliers told Treasury that the estimated March 2009 payments to suppliers from the Big Three automakers are $2.4 billion, compared with an average of $8.4 billion per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, threatening their industry.

Suppliers who ship parts to car companies typically receive payment for those shipments about 45 to 60 days later. Under normal credit conditions, suppliers sell or borrow against those commitments to pay their workers and fund their operations.

But banks have been unwilling to extend credit to suppliers because of the uncertainty of the auto companies, so the government entity will help parts suppliers access financing.

Under the program, auto companies will be required to pay a 5 percent fee of up to $250 million to join. Suppliers will have to agree to terms and pay a small fee to participate. Suppliers will be able to sell parts they have not yet been paid for into the government program at a modest discount.
=”clear:both”>

Source

The work of defusing the most dangerous bets placed by American International Group Inc was largely concluded long before the company gave bonuses to employees it said it needed to retain to avoid a financial meltdown, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing documents and interviews.

In testimony before Congress on Wednesday, AIG chief executive Edward Liddy said the payment of $165 million in retention bonuses was necessary because the departure of key employees could result in catastrophic losses.

The bonuses have sparked outrage from the White House to Main Street since AIG is surviving on three federal bailouts worth up to $180 billion. The Obama administration and lawmakers are looking for ways to recoup the money.

The Washington Post said AIG used almost $50 billion from the Federal Reserve to end contracts with other financial firms by the end of 2008 in a move to extricate the company from a central role in the U.S. financial system with minimal collateral damage same day payday loans.

The most explosive contracts largely were the creations of AIG’s Financial Products unit, and employees of that division — the recipients of the controversial bonuses — worked through the fall to unwind old deals, the report said.

By the end of December, the outstanding volume of risky and highly complex derivatives had been reduced to roughly $13 billion from $78 billion, the Post said, citing the company’s financial filings.

Two Financial Products executives were cited as saying the hardest work has been completed and their focus has shifted to the resolution of a vast but less risky portfolio of bets on more straightforward financial instruments.

A company spokeswoman told the Post that when Liddy made his comments at Wednesday’s hearing, he simply wanted underscore the seriousness of the remaining challenge.

Read more

Advisers to bondholders of General Motors Corp said on Monday they have presented a framework plan to U.S. President Barack Obama’s autos task force and the ailing No. 1 U.S. automaker that provides the company’s best chance for an out-of-court restructuring.

In a statement, advisers to the ad hoc committee of GM bondholders said the framework plan for a debt-to-equity exchange was “consistent with the government’s restructuring requirements under the terms” of emergency government loans provided to the automaker.

“It (the framework) provides the best chance … of completing an out-of-court restructuring by securing a high level of acceptance among a diverse group of GM bondholders — from mutual funds to pension funds to retail bondholders,” the statement added.

The plan, which was presented to the autos task force and GM several weeks ago, “is one of several options on the table that seeks to achieve a successful out-of-court restructuring,” the statement said.

The statement from bondholders came the same day task force adviser Steve Rattner was quoted in a Detroit Free Press newspaper interview as saying bondholders were being “quite difficult” in talks intended to cut GM financing costs.

Rattner also was quoted as saying the United Auto Workers had been “very constructive” in talks with GM and Chrysler over restructuring payments due union retiree healthcare trusts.

Rattner also told the newspaper that bankruptcy was not the task force’s goal, saying it was “never a good outcome for any company, and it’s never a first choice.”

A representative from Treasury could not be reached immediately for comment.

GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner was in Washington on Monday to meet with task force members, according to a person familiar with the meeting who was not authorized to speak publicly free credit score. The meeting was described as ongoing fact-finding by the panel.

Wagoner also met with the German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg on Monday night. Guttenberg told reporters after the talks that GM appeared willing to help Europeans in saving the automaker’s Opel Unit.

Guttenberg, in Washington ahead of a meeting Tuesday with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, said it was essential for GM to find a private investor. One scenario could involve GM taking a minority stake.

Guttenberg said there were still many open questions that needed to be addressed.

Germany is open to the possibility of helping Opel but has said it needed to be sure no state support would find its way to GM, which is seeking more bailout help from the U.S. government to survive. Opel has said it needs financial support to survive.

GM bondholders face pressure under the terms of the automaker’s bailout from the U.S. government to reduce by two-thirds the roughly $27 billion they are owed, through an exchange for new equity in a recapitalized company.

Bondholders have balked at those proposed terms, saying they are unfair given the payout terms being offered to workers represented by the United Auto Workers union and the remaining debt at GM.

GM and No. 3 U.S. automaker Chrysler LLC — 80 percent controlled by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP — face a March 31 deadline when the autos task force must decide whether the companies can be restructured successfully. 

Read more

OPEC’s decision on Sunday to resist new supply cuts laid the ground not just for cheaper oil to help heal the economy, but for warmer relations with the world’s biggest energy consumer.

Two days after U.S. President Barack Obama called Saudi King Abdullah, OPEC said it would stick to existing supply targets, even though fuel inventories have swollen and oil prices are much lower than it would like.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said the weakness of the world economy, which effectively receives a financial stimulus from cheaper oil, was a central motivation.

It also gave a tentative welcome to the new U.S. administration.

“I don’t want to say that I voted for Obama, but we can see a different tone … that we didn’t see in the past,” OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri told reporters.

“We have seen a positive approach. They are ready for dialogue and we are ready for dialogue and ready for talk.”

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he was pleased with OPEC’s latest output decision, although he restated the U.S. commitment to ending its dependence on foreign oil.

For OPEC, as for the rest of the world, the real issue was the economy, analysts said. Sheer self-interest dictated the group needed to avoid the kind of damage to growth that would only further limit energy consumption no fax payday loan.

“At the moment, getting the world back on its feet is more important than lifting the oil price by a further $10 a barrel,” said Lawrence Eagles of JP Morgan in New York.

“The world economy is crucial. Short-term gain would be to the long-term detriment of OPEC.”

But analysts also said any gentle pressure from Obama, as opposed to from former president George W. Bush, might have been less disruptive to the producer group’s debate, making consensus easier to achieve.

As well as U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s members include established U.S. adversaries Venezuela and Iran, who went along quietly with Sunday’s OPEC decision.

G20 MEETING

Sunday’s talks against the backdrop of oil prices around $45 a barrel and shrinking demand as the weak world economy saps energy consumption stood in marked contrast to a meeting in Vienna almost exactly a year ago.

Before the meeting in March 2008, Washington had said even a modest output increase would help to calm oil markets, but OPEC instead kept supplies steady. In response, prices leapt to what was then a new record above $100 a barrel. 

Read more

My ears perked up when I got a complaint about the Canadian Automobile Association, a consumer-based organization with five million members across Canada (I’m one of them).

The CAA does good work, but seems to have slipped on black ice in a recent membership promotion.

It ran television ads showing a female driver whose car needed service at night in an unfamiliar part of town. She was rescued by a CAA truck.

The ads said the cost of membership was $53 plus GST. But Frank Chow spotted an error in calculating the 5 per cent GST on the CAA’s website.

While the total should have been $55.65, new members were being charged $56.15 (a 50-cent premium).

He sent an email to the CAA’s national office on Feb. 17, but never got a reply. He also pointed out the discrepancy to someone at the CAA booth at the Canadian International Autoshow.

After seeing the TV ad again and checking the CAA website, only to find it had not been changed, he contacted me.

Jason Ballantyne, public affairs manager for CAA’s south central Ontario club, quickly confirmed that Chow was correct and new members had been overcharged.

Catherine Cepin Grant, vice-president of corporate marketing, apologized to him in writing for what she said was an inadvertent pricing error at the website.

"A $10 express renewal discount was applied after tax (specifically on the $10 discount), instead of what was supposed to be before tax (in other words $10 plus GST = $10.50 discount)," she wrote.

"This is the $0.50 difference to which you refer, and which results in a total price of $56.15 versus the $53 + GST promotional price of $55.65 you rightly expected."

A refund would be credited immediately to the account of every new member who had paid too much, Grant said.

She offered Chow a free one-year upgraded CAA membership in appreciation for his help in uncovering the errors online payday advance.

No thanks, he replied. He’d rather give the money to charity – specifically, the Star Fresh Air Fund.

"Without Ms. Roseman’s assistance, the CAA may have had to face more serious consequences than a red face."

He did ask a few questions, however:

Why did the CAA say his Feb. 17 email had gone astray when he had been sent back an email right away acknowledging receipt?

And why did Grant need his address and telephone number in order to send his free membership card?

"If you can immediately credit the account of every affected new member for the overcharge, why would you not know that I’m one of those who you overcharged?" he replied.

"Now I’m wondering if indeed every affected account will be given a $0.50 credit."

In explaining the confusion, Grant said: "When you took out your membership on March 4, the name that you provided us and the one that we issued your new membership under was Mr. FKP Chow. This is how we missed the fact that you were already a member."

She made two promises to him:

1. The amount credited to the new members who were overcharged will be more than the original 50-cent discrepancy.

2. The CAA will donate the cost of an upgraded membership ($99 plus GST) to the Star Fresh Air Fund.

Let’s hope they get the GST right this time.

Ellen Roseman’s column appears Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. You can reach her by phone at 416-945-8687; by fax at 416-865-3630; or by email at eroseman @ thestar.ca.

Source

NEW YORK–Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to an epic fraud that robbed investors worldwide of billions of dollars, avoiding eye contact with swindled investors before he was led out of court with his hands cuffed behind his back.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin denied bail for Madoff, 70, and ordered him to jail, noting that he had the means to flee and an incentive to do so because of his age.

Madoff spoke steadily in court as he addressed the judge before his guilty plea was accepted.

"I am actually grateful for this opportunity to publicly comment about my crimes, for which I am deeply sorry and ashamed,” he said.

"As the years went by, I realized my risk, and this day would inevitably come. I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for my crimes.”

Madoff did not look at any of the three investors who spoke at the hearing, even when one of them turned in his direction and tried to address him.

After arguments began as to whether Madoff should remain free on bail, his lawyer Ira Sorkin described the bail conditions and how Madoff had, "at his wife’s own expense," paid for private security at his $7 million penthouse.

Loud laughter erupted among some of the more than 100 spectators crammed into the large courtroom on the 24th floor of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. The judge warned the spectators to remain silent quick payday loans.

The fraud turned a revered money man into an overnight global disgrace whose name became synonymous with the current economic meltdown.

Madoff described his crimes after he entered a guilty plea to all 11 counts he was charged with, including fraud, perjury, theft from an employee benefit plan, and two counts of international money laundering.

Prosecutors say the disgraced financier, who has spent three months under house arrest in his $7 million in Manhattan penthouse, could face a maximum sentence of 150 years in prison at sentencing.

Madoff explained his scheme by telling the judge that he believed the fraud would be short-term and that he could extricate himself.

The plea came three months after the FBI claimed Madoff admitted to his sons that his once-revered investment fund was all a big lie – a Ponzi scheme that was in the billions of dollars. Since his arrest in December, the scandal has turned the 70-year-old former Nasdaq chairman into a pariah who has worn a bulletproof vest to court.

The scheme evaporated life fortunes, wiped out charities and apparently pushed at least two investors to commit suicide. Victims big and small were swindled by Madoff, from elderly Florida retirees to actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel.

Source

Chinese businesses are slightly less worried about the economic outlook and their prospects than they were three months ago, according to a quarterly survey by the central bank.

The survey of more than 5,500 firms showed that, while businesses saw the economy as being significantly worse in the first quarter than the final three months of 2008, their expectations about growth in the second quarter improved somewhat.

They also saw their own businesses improving in the April-June period, the People’s Bank of China said on its website.

The index measuring businesses’ assessment of the economy in the first quarter registered -38.6 percent, which the central bank said was close to the lowest ever since the survey began in 1993 instant payday loans. The outlook for the second quarter was a touch better at -31.6 percent.

The survey also showed that businesses were more satisfied about access to bank loans in the first quarter, though that sub-index was still in negative territory at -15.8 percent.

However, Chinese enterprises have felt the pinch from sharp declines in both domestic and overseas orders. The sub-index measuring domestic orders dropped by 4 percentage points to -10.7 percent, while the overseas order gauge sank 5 percentage points to -17.8 percent.

(Reporting by Langi Chiang and Aileen Wang; Writing by Jason Subler)

Read more