Friday newspaper round-up: IMF,Citigroup, BSkyB...

8th Oct 2010 06:36

The International Monetary Fund warned that attempts by countries to use their currencies as a "weapon" to further their own economic interests were counterproductive and could damage the world recovery.Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the fund's managing director, said that there was no "domestic solution to a global crisis" and that G20 nations needed to cooperate if they were to shore up a "fragile" world recovery, the Times reports.After the early united front to stem the global collapse in 2008, "the momentum [of economic co-operation] is decreasing", Dominique Strauss-Kahn said at the IMF's annual conference in Washington. "That is a real threat. Many do consider their currency a weapon. That is not good for the global economy," the Telegraph also reports.Europe has thrown its weight behind a tax on banking activities that officials say could raise €25bn (£22bn). The European Commission said yesterday that banks were "under taxed" and should pay more to repair the economies that they damaged during the financial crisis. The commission outlined its stance as European banking watchdogs prepare to impose tougher-than-expected rules on bankers' bonuses, despite warnings from some officials and industry groups that this could damage the continent's competitiveness against Asia and the US. They are thought to be leaning towards a cap on bonuses based on a multiple of an individual's salary, the Independent reports.Investors are betting that an aggressive push by the Federal Reserve to revive the US economy could drive up inflation, with Treasury bond markets pricing in the effects of a return to emergency monetary easing next month. Inflation expectations in the US have jumped sharply this week, with one measure rising to its highest level since late June. So-called breakeven inflation rates, which are the bond market's expectations of future inflation levels, have leapt on the growing belief that the Fed will initiate a fresh round of quantitative easing - in effect, pumping money into the economy - at the November meeting of its interest rate-setting committee, the FT reports.Citigroup was ordered to pay more than $11m to resolve allegations that it mishandled the accounts of Larry Hagman, the actor best known for his portrayal of the conniving Texas oil baron JR Ewing in the television soap opera Dallas. Arbitrators from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority found Citi liablein the case and directed the bank to pay Mr Hagman $1.1m in compensatory damages and $439,000 in legal fees.The panel awarded $10m in punitive damages to the charities of Mr Hagman's choice, the FT reports.Supplies of North Sea gas are set to tumble a further 9% this winter, forcing Britain to import more of the fuel from overseas than ever before, National Grid said yesterday. In its annual winter outlook report on the state of Britain's energy supplies, National Grid said that 55% of the gas used to heat homes and factories this winter would need to be imported from countries such as Norway, Qatar, Trinidad, Algeria and the Netherlands. That is the highest level on record and double the 27% level of imports recorded in 2007, the Times reports.More than 1,500 jobs will be cut at Sellafield, the sprawling nuclear site in west Cumbria, according to the GMB. The union, which has been locked in talks with the plant's management about a cost-cutting programme, said that 570 workers at the site would be made voluntarily redundant by the end of the year, while 300 agency staff would also be cut. A further 650 vacancies at the plant would be left unfilled, the Times reports.Mark Thompson, the director-general of the BBC, has called on the government to intervene in News Corp's attempt to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting. Mr Thompson, in an interview on US public service television, agreed there was potential for an abuse of power by Rupert Murdoch's UK companies if BSkyB, the UK's biggest broadcaster by revenue, came under the same ownership as News International, the country's largest newspaper group, the FT reports.