8 The world this week The EconomistJuly 22nd 2017
Other economic data and news
can be found on pages 70-KKRpromoted two executives,
Joseph Bae and Scott Nuttall, to
senior leadership positions in
a succession plan that paves
the way for the eventual retire-
ment of its two remaining
founders, Henry Kravis and
George Roberts. It is the biggest
overhaul to the private-equity
firm’s management since
Jerome Kohlberg, the other
founder, left in 1987.The chief executive of
AkzoNobelstood down with
immediate effectbecause of
health issues. Ton Büchner had
recently defended the Dutch
paint and chemicals company
from a combative takeover bid
launched byPPG, an American
rival. The three-month tussle
had prompted a campaign by
one of Akzo’s biggest share-
holders to sack the chairman
for not consideringPPG’s offer.America’s big banksreported
their earnings for the second
quarter. Low market volatility
hit revenues from trading,
though this was somewhat
offset by income from rising
interest rates. Net income at
JPMorgan Chase came in at
$7bn, its best-ever quarterly
profit. Bank of America, Mor-
gan Stanley and Wells Fargo
also saw profits climb, to
$5.3bn, $1.8bn and $5.8bn
respectively; Citigroup’s in-
come dipped a bit, to $3.9bn.
Goldman Sachs suffered a 40%
slump in revenues from trad-
ing; its profit slid to $1.8bn.Storing is not boring
In Asia’s biggest buy-out to
date, a Chinese consortium
offered S$16bn ($11.6bn) for
Global Logistic Properties,
which is based in Singapore
and is one of the world’s big-
gest warehousing companies.
The growth of e-commerce in
Asia has increased the demand
for warehouse space.China’s economygrew by
6.9% in the second quarter
compared with the same three
months last year. That was
better than had been expected
and above the annual target of
“around 6.5%” set by the gov-ernment earlier this year.
Separate data showed steel
production at a record in June.
That gave American and Chi-
nese officials something to
chew on as they met in Wash-
ington for inconclusive bilat-
eral talks.Dalian Wanda, a Chinese
conglomerate, rejigged an
agreement to sell its hotels and
tourism projects to Sunac
China, a property developer,
after credit-ratings agencies
raised concerns about the
financing. Dalian will instead
sell the hotels to a property
developer in Guangzhou, and
Sunac will buy the tourism
assets. The share prices of
Wanda-controlled companies
and of Sunac sank amid re-
ports that the Chinese govern-
ment was scrutinising both
firms’ heavy debt load.Keen as mustard
McCormick & Company, an
American producer of spices
and herbs that counts Thai
Kitchen and Schwartz among
its labels, offered to pay $4.2bn
for the food business ofReck-
itt Benckiser, a British con-
sumer-goods group that is
refocusing itsbusiness on its
other products. McCormick
gains control of brands such as
French’smustard and Frank’s
RedHot sauce in the deal.Britain’s annual inflation rate
dropped slightly in June to
2.6%, reversing the trend of
accelerating prices since the
vote last June to leave theEU.
The figure was a surprise:
analysts had expected an
increase of nearly 3%. The
fourth successive monthly fall
in transport costs, especially
motor fuels, wasthe biggest
factor behind the drop. Lower
inflation eases the pressure on
the Bank of England to raise
interest rates for the first time
since 2007.The British government pro-
posed that the state pension
ageshould increase from 67 to
68 between 2037 and 2039,
seven years earlier than
planned. The change will
affect workers born between
1970 and 1978, who will have to
wait an extra year to claim
their state pension. The ad-
justment is designed to keep
costs undercontrol.The Vision Fund, a $93bn fund
set up by SoftBank, announced
its first investments in tech
startups. The beneficiaries
included a firm that is devel-
oping technology to grow
crops indoors and a robotics
company. The disbursements
came in the week that Ameri-
ca’stechnology industryrose
above the stockmarket peak it
had reached during the dot-
com bubble in 2000, as mea-
sured by the S&P 500 ITindex.The number of worldwide
subscribers to Netflixcrossed
the 100m mark for the first
time, to 104m. In another first,
just over halfof the video-
streaming service’ssubscribers
live outside the United States.The great firewall of China
China’s internet censors par-
tially blocked WhatsApp, the
latest move in a broad crack-
down on foreign media.
WhatsApp’s users woke to find
they were unable to send
images, including those of
Winnie the Pooh, who was
also banned in China this
week in response to an
internet meme that has gone
viral comparing the winsome
bear to the country’s president,
Xi Jinping.Business British inflation
Source: ONSConsumer prices
% change on a year earlierBREXIT VOTE2015 16 170123