Business

PARIS — Google on Tuesday announced a new plan to stop using small files known as cookies to track people's web browsing habits, after its previous proposals were roundly criticised. 

US tech giants are under huge pressure to overhaul the way they collect data -- Google was fined 150 million euros ($169 million) by France earlier this month over its cookie policies.

Privacy campaigners have pushed hard against the use of cookies, which transmit users' information often to dozens of companies each time they visit a website.

But the files form the backbone of the online advertising industry that has proved hugely profitable for Google and their customers.

The company said on Tuesday it would trial a new system called "Topics", which it said would protect privacy while continuing to allow targeted advertising.

Chrome users will still be tracked and the websites they visit and advertising partners will be given three topics -- broad themes supposed to correspond to their interests -- based on the user's browsing history.

However, the firm said the process of generating topics would take place entirely on the user's device -- even Google itself will not have access.

Advertisers will only be able to retain the topics for three weeks, and Chrome users will have the option of opting out entirely.

"Topics" replaces an earlier idea floated by Google called "Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) ", which caused consternation among advertisers and the media industry.

Critics said the FLoC system would allow Google to hoard user data for itself and cut third parties out of the loop.

"Topics was informed by our learning and widespread community feedback from our earlier FLoC trials, and replaces our FLoC proposal," said senior Google official Vinay Goel.

Internet companies have faced stricter rules since the EU passed a massive data privacy law in 2018 obliging firms to seek direct consent of users before installing cookies on their computers. 

Privacy campaigners have filed hundreds of complaints against companies including Google and Facebook arguing that they make it much easier to opt in than to opt out.

NEW YORK — General Motors announced on Tuesday plans to invest $7 billion in the US state of Michigan as it converts assembly plants and builds batteries for the transition to electric vehicles (EV).

Calling the announcement "the largest single investment in GM history," the auto giant said the push in its Midwestern home state would create 4,000 new jobs and retain 1,000 more positions.

GM has previously projected that it will double revenues by 2030 as it ramps up EV production. The company expects 50 per cent of its North American capacity to be EVs by that date.

"Today we are taking the next step in our continuous work to establish GM's EV leadership by making investments in our vertically integrated battery production in the US, and our North American EV production capacity," said Chief Executive Mary Barra. 

"These investments also create opportunities in Michigan for us to bring our employees along on our transition to an all-electric future."

The biggest component is $4 billion to remake the Orion Assembly plant north of Detroit to enable production of new EVs such as the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. 

GM is also spending $2.6 billion to build a new battery plant in the city of Lansing, with the rest going to enhance to assembly plants in the area.

The announcement was applauded by President Joe Biden, who said his administration "has been laser focused on making sure that America leads the manufacturing future of electric vehicles."

Biden, who toured GM's Detroit-area EV plant in November, hailed the $7.5 billion for new EV charging stations included in a $1 trillion infrastructure bill he signed into law last year.

But another Biden initiative to establish higher tax credits for EVs built in union shops like those at GM looks uncertain given congressional gridlock over his Build Back Better social spending and climate change package.

WASHINGTON — Global equity markets that have see-sawed in recent weeks but show signs of "overvaluation" are at risk of a sharp correction as major central banks raise interest rates, a top International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said on Tuesday.

"We are certainly living in very turbulent times," said Gita Gopinath, the newly-installed number two at the IMF, adding that "markets look overvalued in several spots and there is a high level of exuberance".

Wall Street put in an especially dramatic performance on Monday, with the broad-based S&P 500 sinking 3.5 per cent before staging a recovery late in the day and ending with a modest gain.

The index jumped 27 per cent in 2021, but investors have become wary amid rising inflation which has prompted the Federal Reserve (Fed) to signal that a rate hike is coming soon, likely in March.

The Fed's exit from highly stimulative monetary policy is "needed given the strength of the recovery in the US and the inflation pressures that we are seeing", Gopinath told reporters.

"One would expect that as interest rates go up, we will see corrections in markets. The hope is that this will stay orderly." 

There remains a lot of uncertainty about how many times the Fed will raise rates to contain the price increases, and that will weigh on markets, she said.

But as long as the Fed's moves are "well telegraphed" and officials explain the rationale, "That should certainly help with having a more orderly correction in markets."

BEIRUT — Lebanese officials began much-delayed talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday on support measures aimed at lifting the country out of its worst-ever economic crisis.

"We hope the negotiations will be concluded as soon as possible, but given the complexity of the issues it is possible that other rounds will be held," Deputy Prime Minister Saade Chami, who heads the Lebanese delegation, said in a statement.

The talks are taking place online due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Lebanon is hoping to obtain a financial rescue package to rekindle an economy that has been in free fall for two years.

The previous government held several rounds of talks with the multilateral lender, but was unable to secure a bailout, amid a failure by the two sides to agree on the scale of financial losses stemming from the meltdown.

The current government opened a preparatory dialogue with the IMF last year and has settled on a figure of around $69 billion as its estimate for the financial sector's losses, ahead of the talks that began on Monday.

The country defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2020, the currency has lost around 90 per cent of its value on the black market and four out of five Lebanese are now considered poor by the United Nations.

Despite the country's shocking social and economic decline, Lebanon's ruling class has continued to stall reforms demanded by foreign donors ahead of any assistance.

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati met on Monday for the first time since mid-October, after months of political horsetrading between its rival factions.

"In this first round of negotiations and over the next two weeks, we will discuss several topics, including the budget, the banking sector and the exchange rate," Chami said in the statement issued by Mikati's office.

TUNIS — Artificial intelligence (AI) firm InstaDeep, created on two laptops in Tunisia in 2014, has raised $100 million from investors, including Google and BioNTech, the company said on Tuesday.

InstaDeep will use the funding to develop its infrastructure, hire experts and speed up launching AI projects in "biotech, logistics, transportation and electronics manufacturing", it said in a statement.

AI is a branch of computing that builds machines capable of tasks that would normally need human-like intelligence, in everything from virology to transport.

InstaDeep said it had worked with German pharma firm BioNTech to create an immunotherapy lab making use of AI, as well as an AI-powered early warning system for detecting high-risk coronavirus variants.

The firm has also applied AI to complex train scheduling challenges for German railway firm Deutsche Bahn.

InstaDeep chief Karim Beguir said the firm saw "wide-ranging opportunities to deploy our AI products to tackle complex real-world problems".

According to US news channel CNBC, a survey of technology executives found that 81 per cent believed artificial intelligence would be very or critically important to their companies in 2022.

LONDON — Airlines must operate more flights in Britain this summer as demand recovers from the pandemic — or lose lucrative take-off and landing slots, the UK government warned on Monday.

Carriers operating in Britain are currently using about 50 per cent of their slots as the sector continues to recover from the long-running COVID crisis.

This has helped to ensure that airlines have avoided carbon-intensive "ghost flights" — with none or few travellers during pandemic restrictions.

Carriers operating in Britain have traditionally been required to use 80 per cent of their slots, but the target was suspended owing to COVID.

From the end of March, carriers must use slots at least 70 per cent of the time in order to keep them, the Department for Transport (DfT) said in a statement on Monday.

But airlines will also "benefit from added flexibility over when they are justified not to use them", the DfT said.

During the pandemic, the rule had been eased "to provide financial stability to the sector and prevent environmentally damaging ghost flights", added Aviation Minister Robert Courts. 

"As demand for flights returns, it's right we gradually move back to the previous rules while making sure we continue to provide the sector with the support it needs."

Monday's news was welcomed by London airports.

The move "strikes the right balance between driving recovery and promoting competition", said a Heathrow spokeswoman.

The aviation sector was slammed by the COVID-19 health emergency that started in early 2020, grounding planes worldwide and decimating demand for air travel.

Recovery has been hampered by frequent changes to travel restrictions and testing requirements following the emergence of the Omicron variant late last year.

WASHINGTON — Blocks from the White House, an unassuming edifice in downtown Washington that once held offices used by the US Department of Justice is set to be converted into homes for hundreds of people.

The transformation of the vacant office space is among a surge of "adaptive reuse" projects that swept the US property market in 2021, where developers bought hotels and offices that were struggling to get business and announced plans to turn them into apartments.

"The market spoke, and it said the value was greater for a conversion than for it continuing as office space," said Michael Abrams, managing director of Foulger-Pratt, the property development firm that is turning the 14-storey building on New York Avenue into 255 apartments.

A survey by apartment listing service RentCafe found about 20,100 apartments were built out of converted properties in the United States last year, almost double the number converted in the year prior.

Such conversions could offer a way forward for US downtowns, which haven't been the same since office workers fled as COVID-19 broke out nearly two years ago, leaving landlords and local businesses struggling.

"The slow office market recovery is just going to make it that much more expensive to carry vacant office buildings," Abrams said.

Conversions may also play a role in easing a shortage of affordable housing, particularly in cities like Washington, where notoriously high rents are a feature of life.

"From the overall perspective, we just need increased supply. By having more supply, both the home price growth will come down and the rents will come down," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors.

Even more expensive 

Despite the downturn caused by COVID-19, the median price of existing homes climbed 15.8 per cent over the course of 2021, and by last month supply had hit an all-time low, according to NAR data, likely exacerbating a crisis of affordable housing that predated the pandemic.

As of 2017, 48 per cent of tenants were considered "rent burdened" by the US Government Accountability Office — meaning they paid more than 30 per cent of their income on rent — a figure that had risen 6 percentage points over the preceding 16 years.

The United States, meanwhile, has a glut of offices. With many of them dating to the 1980s, they are now too old to be attractive to companies, said Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at Brookings Metro.

With their designs centered around outdated needs like space for file cabinets, "Really just the entire building is obsolete", she said in an interview.

Corporate pullout 

Marc Ehrlich, chief investment officer at Rose Associates, which has converted New York City offices into housing, said such projects tend to be "well-located properties that need a higher and better use".

One of his firm's latest undertakings is the transformation of an office once used by telecommunications firm AT&T into a place people want to live.

Lacking amenities like covered parking, the building is unlikely to attract commercial tenants, Ehrlich said.

However, the new apartments will feature co-working spaces, since many tenants will likely want to continue working from home, he said. 

In Washington, developers are pouncing on properties formerly rented by the region's top employer, the federal government. 

This includes The Wray, an office building used by the State Department, but which has been totally renovated to house apartments.

The only signs of its former use are in the lobby, where the tiles are original, as is a directory listing the names of State Department offices once based there.

"The pool of tenants that goes back into these buildings is dramatically diminished, and that's what's putting the stress on that tier of property, that's what's creating the opportunity," said Abrams.

Adaptive reuse projects tend to demand high rents, Loh said, since they often require expensive renovations such as the construction of new bathrooms in buildings where they were once communal.

While expanding inventory has been shown to relieve price pressures elsewhere in the housing market, "This isn't a solution to the housing crisis," she added.

"This is a solution to revitalise areas like downtowns that are super dominated by places like office spaces."

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka consumer prices shot up a record 14 per cent in December, surpassing a previous high of 11.1 from a month earlier, official figures showed on Saturday as food and fuel shortages worsen.

Senior ministers warned parliament last week of a growing food crisis with rice harvests due in March expected to be drastically lower after an agrochemical import ban last year saw farmers abandoning more than 30 per cent of agricultural land.

The country’s tourism-dependent economy has been hammered by the pandemic with the government imposing broad import restrictions to avert a foreign exchange crisis, triggering a shortage of essential goods.

The Census and Statistics Department said year-on-year inflation in December was the highest since the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) was established in 2015.

It said food inflation also hit a record 21.5 per cent, up from 16.9 per cent in November and 7.5 per cent a year ago.

The use of substandard organic fertiliser and pesticides has sharply reduced vegetable and fruit crop yields. 

After intense farmer protests, the government lifted its agrochemical import ban in October, but banks are still short of dollars to finance imports.

Supermarkets have been rationing milk powder, sugar, lentils and other essentials for months with a top official warning last month of more restrictions to feed those most in need.

But agriculture ministry secretary Udith Jayasinghe was sacked hours after calling for a formal rationing scheme to ensure that mothers, the elderly and the sick could be fed in the months ahead.

Sri Lanka's foreign reserves have tanked since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in 2019, going from $7.5 billion to $3.1 billion at the end of December. The current figure is enough to finance less than two months of imports.

International rating agencies have downgraded Sri Lanka over fears of default on its $35 billion foreign debt. The government has insisted it can meet the obligations.

TOKYO — Tokyo stocks closed higher on Thursday, bouncing back from sharp losses in the previous session as China's central bank cut key lending rates, brightening market sentiment.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 1.11 percent, or 305.70 points, to 27,772.93, while the broader Topix index gained 0.98 percent, or 18.81 points, to 1,938.53.

The dollar fetched 114.48 yen in Asian trade, against 114.33 yen in New York late Wednesday. 

Gains in Tokyo shares were "a reaction to yesterday's losses", Makoto Sengoku, senior equity market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities, said

Aside from the rebound, there were some positive factors at play, he said: "China cut key rates, and investors are reacting positively to that."

On Wednesday, the Nikkei fell more than three per cent as market heavyweight Sony plummeted on news of Microsoft's plans to buy US gaming giant Activision Blizzard.

The ongoing semiconductor shortage, worries over US inflation and rising virus cases in Japan also weighed on the market during Wednesday's session.

"I think yesterday's fall was excessive. But the market did face many negative factors," Sengoku said.

On Thursday, Sony Group shares rebounded 5.84 per cent to 13,135 yen after plunging nearly 13 per cent in the previous session. 

Toyota, which had previously fallen on news that it no longer expects to meet its annual production target, rose 1.71 per cent to 2,342.5 yen, while Panasonic edged up 0.03 per cent to 1,293.5 yen.

WASHINGTON — After Microsoft announced it would spend tens of billions of dollars to buy a video game company, World Bank President David Malpass on Wednesday drew a contrast between the deal and the amount of money rich nations have pledged to help poor countries facing higher debt loads. 

"I was struck this morning by the Microsoft investment -- $75 billion in a video gaming company" compared to just $24 billion over three years in aid for the poorest countries, Malpass said, referring to donations allocated in December by 48 high- and middle-income governments.

"You have to wonder, is this the best allocation of capital?" he said of the Microsoft deal in a discussion at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

"There has to be more money and growth flowing into the developing countries."

Microsoft on Tuesday announced the purchase of US gaming giant Activision Blizzard, the firm behind hits like "Call of Duty."

Malpass has called on the richest nations in the Group of 20 to provide more debt relief to the world's least-developed countries that qualify for interest-free loans.

A G-20 debt service suspension initiative expired at the end of 2021, and this year alone, those countries must pay $35 billion in debt service.

"The debt payments are staggering," and it has become a "compounding" problem, Malpass said.