Investigation of Motive Enhance China Japan Bond Purchase

Tokyo – Japanese Finance Minister said Thursday Yoshihiko Noda, the government is monitoring closely China’s increased purchases of Japanese government debt and will check in Beijing about his motivations.”We are giving careful attention” to the recent increase in purchases related to China against the Japanese government bond (JGB), “Noda said in a session of the parliamentary committee of financial problems, reported Dow Jones Newswires.

“I do not know the true intention” regarding China’s increasing appetite for JGB.But Tokyo plans to “work together closely (with Beijing) and assesses the point,” he said.China, in July, buying Japanese bonds worth 583.1 billion yen (6.9 billion dollars), Japan’s finance ministry said Wednesday, when the Asian giant will continue to increase purchases of Japanese debt.

This figure is higher than the value of securities purchased in June, 456.7 billion yen.The news came after the yen, Wednesday, 15 highest-reaching new year against the dollar. Currency traders said the yen berdenomiasi China’s purchase of property, even by itself too small to boost the yen, it can support the increase in the currency indirectly.

For the first half of this year, China bought debt worth 1.73 trillion yen, almost seven times over a full year’s record of about 253.8 billion yen in 2005.In May alone China investors buy Japanese government bonds net worth 735.2 billion yen.China seeks to diversify its investments out of the big bucks and Europe since the beginning of the financial crisis.Most bonds are purchased by the government of China is estimated to be used to manage foreign currency reserves.

This increase is in conjunction with the re-doubt recovery in the United States and Europe, and indicates China’s store more foreign currency reserves which as a result continues to expand into the Japanese bonds are relatively stable.With approximately 95 percent is held by domestic investors, the risk did not pay the debt of Japan is considered much smaller than the countries hit by the-debt, even though its public debt approaching 200 percent of gross domestic product, the highest among developed countries.

China’s foreign exchange reserves have swelled in recent years, soaring to a record 2.454 trillion dollars at the end of June.These reserves, has become the world’s largest, grew 15.1 percent from a year ago, China’s central bank said in its website.One way Beijing is diversifying its investment through an independent wealth fund China Investment Corp., which handles about 300 billion dollars and has invested heavily in resource companies.(AFP)

German Parliament at the end of last week approved the budget for 2010, with record levels of new loans

BERLIN German Parliament at the end of last week approved the budget for 2010, with record levels of new loans. This was done because the largest countries in Europe were trying to bounce back from last year’s recession the worst in six decades.As quoted by the AFP, Saturday (20/3/2010), 313 votes from MPs who agreed to 256 for the new budget. Where in the budget will be adan new debt worth 80.2 billion euros (USD108, 3 billion), which is two times the amount of loans obtained in Germany in 2009 and then.

Germany’s budget deficit this year is a maximum of twice as much as permitted by the EU fiscal rules, which increased to as much as six percent of gross domestic product (GDP) of Germany which for 3.3 per cent in 2009.Although demiikian, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble insisted he will bring the German deficit back below the upper limit of three percent in 2013.

He said that if Germany fails to comply with the rules, then the Germans will collapse, along with their European single currency, the euro. The current budget must be approved by the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat.In 2009, the German economy experienced a contraction of five percent. Berlin hopes for the economy can grow as much as 1.4 percent this year.

Greece must take further measures to reduce the deficit or it will face sanctions, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker

ATHENS Greece must take further measures to reduce the deficit or it will face sanctions, Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker was quoted as saying by a Greek newspaper.Greece has until March 16 to convince EU finance ministers and the executive European Commission that proposed measures to cut its budget shortfall this year to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product from 12.7 percent in 2009 are sufficient.”Greece must intensify its efforts and move to further actions to reduce its deficit,” Juncker, who heads the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, told Eleftherotypia newspaper.

“If it doesn’t convince us then it will possibly face sanctions. Greece must understand that the taxpayers in Germany, Belgium or Luxembourg are not ready to fix the mistakes of Greece’s fiscal policy,” Juncker said.”Euro zone finance ministers have agreed that more efforts are required from Greece,” he said.Juncker, who is also Luxembourg’s prime minister, said euro zone finance ministers had discussed ways to help Greece.”Luxembourg is also ready to help Greece on a bilateral level, if Athens asks for it. We must first be convinced that the measures are serious and tough. The Greek government must focus on further spending reduction and on the ways to increase revenues,” he said.(Reuters)

Stock futures were modestly positive on a snowy Friday morning ahead of a wave of economic data

Stock futures were modestly positive on a snowy Friday morning ahead of a wave of economic data, including the second reading on the nation’s fourth-quarter gross domestic product. As of 6:45 a.m. in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average future gained 26 points, or 0.25%, to 10342, the S&P 500 futures were up 2.9 points to 1105.20 and the Nasdaq 100 futures gained 3 points to 1816.50. Investors will get the Commerce Department’s GDP report at 8:30 a.m. today, which economists expect the report will show the U.S. economy grew at a 5.7% annualized pace during the last three months of the year. The 5.7% growth is same pace that was reported in last month’s GDP report.

Last month’s GDP report showed the economy was helped greatly by business inventory adjustments, which gave investors pause about how well the U.S. economy was improving. Wall Street will be looking to see if consumer spending, which makes the largest percent of the nation’s economy, picked up more than originally reported. Other economic reports out this morning include the Chicago Purchasing Managers index at 8:30 a.m.. the University of Michigan consumer sentiment report at 9:55 a.m. and the National Association of Realtors existing home sales report.Economists expect that consumer sentiment rose slightly to a reading of 73.9 in February while existing home sales increase to a 5.5 million unit pace in January.

A modest decline in the U.S. dollar helped commodities rise overnight, with oil up 0.3% to $78.42 a barrel and gold up 0.25% to $1,111.20 a troy ounce. Also on the agenda today is the earnings results from government-owned insurer American International Group (AIG). While few analysts cover the company anymore, Wall Street expects AIG to report a loss of $3.94 a share last quarter excluding special items. On Thursday, the Dow fell 53.13 points, or 0.51%, to 10321.03, the Standard & Poor’s 500 sank 2.30 points, or 0.21%, to 1102.94 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 1.68 points, or 0.08%, to 2234.22. The FOX 50 slid 3.30 points, or 0.41%, to 797.41.

Being Too Fat Illegal in Japan Now

In Japan, being thin isn’t just the price you pay for fashion or social acceptance. It’s the law.So before the fat police could throw her in pudgy purgatory, Miki Yabe, 39, a manager at a major transportation corporation, went on a crash diet last month. In the week before her company’s annual health check-up, Yabe ate 21 consecutive meals of vegetable soup and hit the gym for 30 minutes a day of running and swimming.

“It’s scary,” said Yabe, who is 5 feet 3 inches and 133 pounds. “I gained 2 kilos [4.5 pounds] this year.”In Japan, already the slimmest industrialized nation, people are fighting fat to ward off dreaded metabolic syndrome and comply with a government-imposed waistline standard. Metabolic syndrome, known here simply as “metabo,” is a combination of health risks, including stomach flab, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, that can lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Concerned about rising rates of both in a graying nation, Japanese lawmakers last year set a maximum waistline size for anyone age 40 and older: 85 centimeters (33.5 inches) for men and 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) for women.

In the United States, the Senate and House health care reform bills have included the so-called “Safeway Amendment,” which would offer reductions in insurance premiums to people who lead fitter lives. The experience of the Japanese offers lessons in how complicated it is to legislate good health.

Though Japan’s “metabo law” aims to save money by heading off health risks related to obesity, there is no consensus that it will. Doctors and health experts have said the waistline limits conflict with the International Diabetes Federation’s recommended guidelines for Japan. Meantime, ordinary residents have been buying fitness equipment, joining gyms and popping herbal pills in an effort to lose weight, even though some doctors warn that they are already too thin to begin with.

The amount of “food calories which the Japanese intake is decreasing from 10 years ago,” said Yoichi Ogushi, professor of medicine at Tokai University and one of the leading critics of the law. “So there is no obesity problem as in the USA. To the contrary, there is a problem of leanness in young females.”

One thing’s certain: Most Japanese aren’t taking any chances.Companies are offering discounted gym memberships and developing special diet plans for employees. Residents are buying new products touted as fighting metabo, including a $1,400 machine called the Joba that imitates a bucking bronco. The convenience store chain Lawson has opened healthier food stores called Natural Lawson, featuring fresh fruits and vegetables.

Under Japan’s health care coverage, companies administer check-ups to employees once a year. Those who fail to meet the waistline requirement must undergo counseling. If companies do not reduce the number of overweight employees by 10 percent by 2012 and 25 percent by 2015, they could be required to pay more money into a health care program for the elderly. An estimated 56 million Japanese will have their waists measured this year.

Though Japan has some of the world’s lowest rates of obesity — less than 5 percent, compared to nearly 35 percent for the United States — people here on average have gotten heavier in the past three decades, according to government statistics. More worrisome, in a nation that is aging faster than any other because of long life spans and low birth rates, the number of people with diabetes has risen from 6.9 million in 1997 to 8.9 million last year.

Health care costs here are projected to double by 2020 and represent 11.5 percent of gross domestic product. That’s why some health experts support the metabo law.“Due to the check up, there is increased public awareness on the issue of obesity and metabolic syndrome,” said James Kondo, president of the Health Policy Institute Japan, an independent think tank. “Since fighting obesity is a habit underlined by heightened awareness, this is a good thing. The program is also revolutionary in that incentivizes [companies] to reduce obesity.”

Though the health exams for metabolic syndrome factor in blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, weight and smoking, waist size is the most critical element in the Japanese law — and perhaps the most humiliating.The hesitancy of some Japanese to expose their bare stomachs to the tape measure has led the government to allow the tape measures to be administered to clothed patients. Those who elect not to strip down are permitted to deduct 1.5 centimeters from their results.

The crudeness of the system has alarmed some doctors. Satoru Yamada, a doctor at Kitasato Institute Hospital in Tokyo, published a study two years ago in which several doctors measured the waist of the same person. Their results varied by as much as 7.8 centimeters.“I cannot agree with waist size being the essential element,” Yamada said.Perhaps more astounding, even before Japanese lawmakers set the waistline limits last year, the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) amended its recommended guidelines for the Japanese. The new IDF standard is 90 centimeters (35.4 inches) for men and 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) for women. But the Japanese government has yet to modify its limits.On the day of her exam, Yabe arrived at the clinic at 8:30 in the morning. The battery of tests lasted an hour. The result: her waist was 84 centimeters — safely under the limit. She had shed 6.5 pounds thanks to her diet and exercise.

A week later, however, Yabe was back to eating pasta and other favorite foods.“I want to keep healthy now, but I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe in December, I will have many bonenkai [year-end parties]. And next summer I will drink beer, almost every day.”