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Briefing
i lstom in €7.5bn Bombardier train dealA
The French high-speed rail supplier has agreed to
buy the Canadian the group’s train unit as it seeks to
bulk up in the face of Chinese competition and
growing demand in Europe.— PAGE 11; LEX, PAGE 10i K rejects Paris ‘level playing field’ pushU
David Frost, London’s chief negotiator, has insisted
Britain will never agree to EU oversight of its
rulemaking in exchange for a post-Brexit trade deal.
France wants to harden the bloc’s stance.— PAGE 4i inimum wage productivity gain hailedM
New research has shown that
Germany’s minimum wage has
driven workers from smaller to
larger companies, helping to
increase the country’s
productivity overall.— PAGE 2i hyssenkrupp narrows €16bn lift raceT
The ailing German industrial group has shortlisted
two private equity consortia, one led by Blackstone
and Carlyle, the other by Advent and Cinven, in the
battle for its elevators business.— PAGE 11i U seeks to enforce Libya arms embargoE
The bloc’s foreign ministers have agreed to set up an
operation with ships, aircraft and satellites to close
off maritime smuggling and gather intelligence. The
UN embargo has been widely breached.— PAGE 4i urkey fund chief defends Erdogan roleT
Zafer Sonmez has told the FT the sovereign fund
needs a “determined political mindset”. Despite
investor and opposition criticism, the president, the
fund’s chairman, is “aware of everything”.— PAGE 2i enaissance ahead of the Tesla curveR
SEC filings have shown that the secretive computer-
powered fund founded by billionaire Jim Simons
added 3.3m shares in the fourth quarter, ahead of
the carmaker’s surge.— PAGE 19; GERMAN SPAT, PAGE 4Datawatch
Big Brother
Is India following China’s lead on
data surveillance?— BIG READ, PAGE 7
TUESDAY18 FEBRUARY 2020 WORLD BUSINESS NEWSPAPER EUROPE
World Markets
STOCK MARKETS
Feb 14 prev %chg
S&P 500 3380.16 3373.94 0.
Nasdaq Composite 9731.18 9711.97 0.
Dow Jones Ind 29398.08 29423.31 -0.
FTSEurofirst 300 1683.73 1678.49 0.
Euro Stoxx 50 3853.33 3840.97 0.
FTSE 100 7433.25 7409.13 0.
FTSE All-Share 4147.10 4135.07 0.
CAC 40 6085.95 6069.35 0.
Xetra Dax 13783.89 13744.21 0.
Nikkei 23523.24 23687.59 -0.
Hang Seng 27959.60 27815.60 0.
MSCI World $ 2431.37 2429.89 0.
MSCI EM $ 1106.30 1106.07 0.
MSCI ACWI $ 580.06 579.74 0.CURRENCIES
Feb 17 prev
$ per € 1.083 1.
$ per £ 1.301 1.
£ per € 0.833 0.
¥ per $ 109.955 109.
¥ per £ 143.018 142.
SFr per € 1.063 1.
€ per $ 0.923 0.Feb 17 prev
£ per $ 0.769 0.
€ per £ 1.201 1.
¥ per € 119.087 119.
£ index 81.300 81.
SFr per £ 1.277 1.COMMODITIESFeb 17 prev %chg
Oil WTI $ 52.13 52.05 0.
Oil Brent $ 57.39 57.32 0.
Gold $ 1581.40 1575.05 0.INTEREST RATES
price yield chg
US Gov 10 yr 1.59 0.
UK Gov 10 yr 0.66 0.
Ger Gov 10 yr -0.40 0.
Jpn Gov 10 yr -0.04 -0.
US Gov 30 yr 114.77 2.04 0.
Ger Gov 2 yr 105.78 -0.66 0.price prev chg
Fed Funds Eff 1.55 1.55 0.
US 3m Bills 1.58 1.59 -0.
Euro Libor 3m -0.44 -0.43 0.
UK 3m 0.75 0.75 0.
Prices are latest for edition Data provided by MorningstarC L I V E C O O KS O N— SEATTLEBefore you die, please think about your
digital and genetic afterlife, research-
ers have urged.Expanding use of technology means
that people now leave a big body of per-
sonal information behind themwhich
requires careful handling, according to
researchers at the American Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Science
annualmeetinginSeattle.
Social media, apps and websites com-
pile large quantities of personal data
whilegenetic records live on in
biobanks. Yet there are no consistent
rulesaboutwhathappenstoallthisdata
afterdeath or who should have access to
it,severalresearcherssaid.
“There is a significant design fault
about how we are dealing with the
phenomenon of digital afterlife — withglobal implications,” said Faheem
Hussain, clinical assistant professor at
ArizonaStateUniversity.
“We have normalised talking about
safety and security of our data and pri-
vacy, but we should also start including
the conversation of how to manage data
afterwards,” he said. “It’s a bit tricky
because it involves death and no one
wantstotalkaboutit.”
Family and friends often struggle to
gain access to the deceased’saccount,
accordingtoDrHussain.
Facebook ill turn a user’s page into aw
memorialand users can appoint a leg-
acy contact to look after their account,
whileGoogle llows users to set up aa
trusted contact who will get access to
parts of their account. But these prepa-
rations only work if someone imple-
mentstherequiredsettingsinadvance.
Dr Hussain also found it was “quitecommon” for living people to take over
social media accounts of the deadand
then run them as if the owner were still
alive.“I can have a fake me living
happilyeverafter,”hesaid.
Our genetic afterlife also poses a
challenge, said Stephanie Malia Fuller-
ton, bioethics professor at the Univer-
sity of Washington School of Medicine,
because millions of people have
donated DNA o research and medicalt
biobanks and to consumer-oriented
testingcompaniessuchas23andMe.
“We don’t currently have a societal or
even global consensus about what we
should be doing with that information
afterwedie,”shesaid.
Society eededn more open discussion
aboutpostmortem digital and genetic
rights, while individuals should also
decide their own wishes, Prof Fullerton
andDrHussainbothargued.Soul searching needed over handling
the digital afterlife, scientists warn
© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2020
No: 40,326★
Printed in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Dublin,
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AnalysisiPAGE 3Files counter China’s claims
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North Macedonia Den
For small US
banks, the share
of customers
failing to fulfil
their credit card
payments within
30 days is higher
now than during
the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, big
banks have cut
their delinquency
rates to around
2.5 per centLate payments
Credit card loan delinquency rates
for insured US commercial banks ( )RecessionSmaller banks largest banksSources: Fed; Deutsche Bank ResearchTime check
Smartwatches are overtaking the
Swiss industry— JOHN THORNHILL ,PAGE 9
Game on
Manchester City in legal challenge
to football’s financial rules— PAGE 12
R O B I N H A R D I N G —TOKYO
Economists have warned that Japan is
on course for a technical recession, as
the impact of the coronavirusthreatens
tocompoundadirefinalquarterof
that saw the economy shrink at an
annualisedrateof6.3percent.
Gross domestic product data pub-
lished yesterday came in well below
analysts’ expectationsof a 3.7 per cent
decline,causingseveraltocuttheirfore-
casts for the first quarter of 2020 in
anticipation of a further contraction.
That implies Japan is facing a technical
recession, defined as two consecutive
quartersoffallingoutput.
The weak output data for the final
quarter of 2019 demonstrated that last
autumn’sriseinconsumptiontax ittheh
economyevenbeforethisyear’scorona-
virus outbreak shut down tourism from
China and disrupted supply chains for
Japanesecompanies.
The rise in consumption tax hit the
economy almost as hard as a similar
increase in 2014, suggesting that stimu-
lusmeasuresthatShinzoAbe,theprime
minister, had hoped would cushion the
impactofthetaxrisedidnotwork.
It also raised questions over whether
seven years of so-called Abenomics — a
mix of fiscal stimulus, loose monetary
policy and structural reforms — had
madeJapanmoreresilienttoshocks.
“Negative impact from the consump-
tion tax hike was much larger than
expected,” said Kiichi Murashima, chief
economist at Citi in Tokyo, whoexpects
the country to enter a technical reces-sion. “The outcome was completely
different from the consensus view six
monthsago.”
Japan’s Topix stock market barome-
tercloseddown0.89percent.
“According to our retail team, the
severity of the impact on department
store sales [in the first half of February]
was close to the one seen in the post-
Lehman period,” noted Takeshi
Yamaguchi, chief economist at Morgan
StanleyinTokyo.
Mr Yamaguchi cut his forecast for the
first quarter of 2020 from 1.2 per cent
growthtoa0.1percentcontraction.
Thedata put pressure onMr Abe and
the Bank of Japan to mount a policy
response.
Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet
secretary, said the decline was not asbad as 2014, blaming typhoons and a
warm winter for part of the impact on
consumption. “We’ll continue to exam-
ine the impact of the consumption tax
rise and the coronavirus outbreak to
ensure a suitable economic and fiscal
policy,”MrSugasaid.
Consumption ell at an annualisedf
rate of 11 per cent and was the main
cause of the output fall. Business invest-
mentalsofellata14percentpace.
There was no real bright spot in the
data. Final sales of domestic product,
which strips out inventory movements
to give the best reading of underlying
demand in the economy, fell at a 6.7 per
centrate.
Beijing tightens web access age 3p
Supertanker rates fall age 11p
Woes weigh on Oyo and Cathay age 12pJapan on brink of recession after
coronavirus caps dire end of year
3 Tourism and supply chains hit 3 GDP data below forecasts 3 Consumption tax takes toll
Facebook talks
Relationship
status tense
European commissioner Vera Jourova
greetsMark Zuckerberg n Brussels yes-i
terday, where theFacebook hief metc
senior EU officials to discuss regulation
ofsocialmediaplatforms.
Thierry Breton, who overseesthe
bloc’s atad strategy, criticised Face-
book’s approach, s aying the EU was pre-
pared to consider tighter regulation. Mr
Zuckerbergarguedagainstholdingface-
bookresponsibleforallcontent.
In a letter to the Financial Times,
financierGeorge Soros aid Mr Zucker-s
berg andSheryl Sandberg, Facebook
chief operating officer, should be fired
forfailingtostoppoliticaladvertising.
Full story age 2p
Letters age 8p
Lexpage 10
OlivierHoslet/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Shinzo Abe
had hoped
his stimulus
measures would
cushion the
impact of the
autumn tax rise