24 hours of economics in 240 words! An economic snapshot number 22

For January 13^th

0:32 a.m.  There was an 8% rise in Scottish tourist numbers in the first 9 months of last year.

1:09 a.m.  Samsung and LG have both been fined £25.2million after the Fair Trade Commission decided the firms were price fixing some appliances.

6:58 a.m.  China’s inflation data was released revealing CPI was 4.1% in the past month, with an annual rate of 5.4%

7:43 a.m.  Ted Baker has seen a sales rise of 15.7% from a year ago, helped by a 7.3% rise in new retail space, describing it as “excellent”.

Sarkozy has reasons to look worried as France has had its
AAA rating downgraded!

9:13 a.m.  Invensys shares have plunged 22%, to 176.90 pence, after delays on it’s eight nuclear systems set up were forecast to cause profits to fall by £40million.

9:45 a.m.  Solway Structural Steel has announced plant closures, which are to affect 80 staff.

10:23 a.m. Novartis is to cut 1,960 jobs after the loss of one of its primary patents and lower sales.

1:14 p.m.  Apple has ended its iPhone 4S sales in China, for the time being, as large crowds disrupted its launch event.

3:40 p.m.  Npower is to cut the price of its gas by 5% from the 1^st of February.

4:51 p.m.  ITV Studios will close its base at Norwich, resulting in the loss of 35 jobs.

5:21 p.m.  SAP’s profits rose 10% in the 4^th quarter, higher than expected.

10:57 p.m. France has lost its AAA rating after Standard & Poor’s review downgraded many EU governments, including Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and Italy.