Headlines

More than 600,000 people in Britain will be laid off in 2009, making next the worst year for job losses in 18 years, a leading personnel group forecast on Monday. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's annual report predicted that, including people who lose their jobs for other reasons such as contracts ending, the country's economic slowdown will push 1 million more people into unemployment by the end of next year than were out of work in October of this year, the Associated Press reported.

China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. has asked the South Korean government to help secure new loans for Ssangyong Motor Co., an official said Friday, as South Korea's smallest automaker struggles to stave off a potential liquidity crisis, the Associated Press reported. SAIC, one of China's biggest automakers, holds a majority stake in troubled Ssangyong Motor, which has been buffeted by falling sales and red ink.

The Financial Times reported that, as a symbol of the extraordinary boom of the past decade, the rise of the big emerging economies rivalled the soaring US housing market. China led the way, followed at a slower pace by the likes of India and Brazil. Though they tried to insulate themselves against the boom-bust cycle by building up foreign exchange reserves, no amount of inoculation could render them completely immune to the virulence of the financial contagion that swept the world in September and October.

Export-reliant Asian economies showed more signs of weakness on Friday, with Japan's industrial output diving at a record pace and South Korea warning it faces an "unprecedented crisis" as global demand wilts, Reuters reported. Even the once unstoppable Chinese economy is feeling the strain, with companies recording a sharp slowdown in profit growth in the first 11 months of the year. On top of Japan's steep fall in industrial output in November, core consumer inflation fell faster than forecast last month, putting the shrinking economy on course for a spell of deflation next year.

The dairy company at the center of China's tainted milk scandal has about $160 million in debt, state media reported Thursday, a day after the company confirmed it was bankrupt, The Wall Street Journal reported. Sanlu Group Co. faces 1.1 billion yuan ($161 million) of net debt and a branch of the Shijiazhuang City Commercial Bank applied to a court to have Sanlu declared bankrupt, according to Xinhua News Agency. The Intermediate People's Court of Shijiazhuang, a city in Hebei province where Sanlu is based, accepted the bankruptcy filing, Xinhua said.

The risk of default by Brazil’s biggest companies increased as the global credit crisis spread to the country, O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper reported. The credit rating of Brazilian companies with more than 800 million reais ($337 million) in revenue jumped from 4.5 to 5.3, Estado reported, citing Serasa Experian, the biggest credit- rating firm in Latin America. A bigger number indicates a higher probability of default, according to the newspaper. Serasa downgraded 34 of the 276 companies it rated, Estado said. Individual credit ratings by Serasa are confidential.

Fresh from a $30.6 million default, Ecuador's government has issued $700 million in new bonds to help finance next year's budget, local media reported Thursday. The Ecuadorean Social Security Institute bought all the new bonds, in line with regulations that require it to invest half its funds in government debt, according to the Guayaquil newspapers El Universo and Expreso.

The demand for gold in India reached an all-time high in the third quarter of 2008, reported Channel NewsAsia. With uncertainty in the financial markets, people in India have started relying on gold as a safe investment option. According to the World Gold Council of India, US$6.1 billion worth of gold was sold in the third quarter of 2008 in India, a jump of 66 percent compared to last year. The global demand for gold leapt by 18 per cent in the third quarter, boosted by sales in India.

Ssangyong Motor Co., the South Korean unit of China's largest carmaker, rose the most in three days in Seoul on an Edaily report that the Korean company may get financial aid from parent SAIC Motor Corp. this week, Bloomberg reported. A high-level official from SAIC will be arriving in Seoul tonight and will receive a briefing on the business tomorrow, Internet media Edaily said, citing an unidentified official at Ssangyong. The Pyeongtaek, South Korea-based automaker temporarily suspended production from Dec. 17 to reduce inventory as the global financial crisis weakened demand.

A Chinese court has declared bankrupt the company at the center of a scandal over tainted milk, blamed for killing six children and sickening almost 300,000 more, one of the company's owners said Wednesday. New Zealand's Fonterra Group said that a court in Shijiazhuang, in China's Hebei province, had issued a bankruptcy order against Sanlu Group Co. in response to a petition from a creditor, the Associated Press reported. The receiver will have six months to conclude the sale process.