Business

LONDON — Uranium prices are expected to outperform other commodities in 2016 and beyond as a global climate change deal and growing demand from Asia bolster the prospects of the nuclear industry.

The metal that powers nuclear reactors has been gradually recovering from a sharp decline in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster in 2011, and has gained this year as several other commodities slumped due to oversupply and concerns about Chinese economic growth and US monetary tightening.

It is expected to climb further, according to analysts, after governments forged a landmark agreement to reduce green gas emissions at a global climate summit in Paris last month, a move that supports nuclear power generation and in turn uranium.

Nuclear power stations currently provide around 11 per cent of the world's electricity but the share is likely to increase as China and India expand their capabilities.

China, seeking to reduce its dependence on polluting coal, plans to build six to eight nuclear power plants a year for the next five years, and India aims to generate 25 per cent of its electricity from nuclear by 2050, up from 4 per cent in 2013.

Meanwhile, Japan is restarting four reactors, which may accelerate the country's return to atomic energy.

"The China boom is only now happening and while 'nuclear' might still be a toxic word, nuclear power generation is recovering towards pre-Fukushima levels," said Macquarie analyst Stefan Ljubisavljevic.

"It might not be popular, but it does provide the clean and consistent base-load power generation that many nations are seeking," he added.

Prospects of higher demand and strategic stockpiling from US utilities sent spot prices  to an average of $39 a pound in 2015, up 18 per cent from $33 last year, making it the best-performing metal of the year and one of the few commodities to post a yearly increase.

Crude oil, the most traded commodity by far, lost 35 per cent of its value this year, while benchmark base metal copper fell 26 per cent and gold dropped 9.4 per cent. Cocoa bucked the trend, with a 12 per cent rise.

Both Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BofA-ML) and BMO Capital forecast uranium prices will rise to test $60 a pound by 2018.

Uranium deals

Kazakhstan, the world's biggest uranium producer, has just signed cooperation agreements with Chinese companies to build a nuclear fuel plant in the central Asian country, while Canada's Cameco, the world's largest listed uranium mining company, signed a five-year deal in April to supply fuel to Indian nuclear reactors.

BofA-ML analyst Oscar Cabrera expects uranium prices to continue to advance after 2018, thanks to the increasing demand from emerging markets China and India.

Uranium prices plunged after a major earthquake and tsunami in Japan disabled the power supply of three Fukushima reactors, causing a meltdown and the release of radioactive material in March 2011. From around $60 before the disaster, they hit a nine-year low of $28 in 2014.

Although the steep price decline resulted in mining cuts and delays and cancellations of projects, stockpiles remain large.

Analysts' estimates of the global market surplus range from 20 million to 27 million pounds in 2015, which they say is likely to fall to between 7.5 million and 10 million by 2020.

Around 150 million pounds of uranium are estimated to have been consumed in 2015, according to data from the World Nuclear Association.

Kazakhstan is the world's biggest uranium producer, followed by Canada and Australia, while the United States is the biggest consumer, followed by France and China.

BofA-ML forecasts consumption will rise to just below 200 million pounds by 2020.

"Uranium has proven to be a pretty good place to hide for resource and energy-focused investors," said BMO Capital Markets analyst Edward Sterck, adding: "I think it will continue."

SYDNEY — Global miners are battling to stay afloat after enduring one of the toughest years in recent times, with tumbling commodity prices and supply gluts set to force more closures and massive cuts in 2016, analysts say.

China's once insatiable appetite for commodities, boosted by an unprecedented investment boom in the world's second-largest economy, has waned, with its shift towards consumption-driven growth dampening demand.

At the same time, large producers have continued to lift output levels, which critics say is designed to flood the market and push out smaller competitors, accelerating the decline in prices.

The iron ore price sank below $40 in early December, its lowest since May 2009, thermal coal prices are 80 per cent off their 2008 peak, while world oil prices have spiralled down to an eight-year low. 

The sharp falls have ravaged the bottom line of miners across the world, pushing smaller players to the brink while tearing billions of revenue out of the government budgets of resources-dependent economies such as Australia.

Even major players such as London-listed Anglo-American has had to slash its workforce by almost two-thirds and shut loss-making mines amid the deepening rout, while Swiss giant Glencore is planning to trim its debt by cutting investment and selling assets.

"You only need to look at any share price to know it's been an absolutely shocking year for commodity markets and for mining companies," indicated CLSA's head of resources research Andrew Driscoll.

Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton, one of the world's largest miners, has seen its Australian share price dive by more than 40 per cent this year, while stocks in rival Rio Tinto have dropped by 26 per cent.

Rio's Chief Executive Sam Walsh said the firm's competitors were in so much trouble that they were "hanging on by their fingernails".

"Sooner or later the adjustment will take place," Walsh told Bloomberg Television this month.

End of commodities super-cycle      

The slump comes on the back of a commodities supercycle over the past decade, led by China but also fuelled by other resources-hungry developing nations growing their economies at a rapid pace, which pushed prices to record levels.

But as miners borrowed heavily and ramped up output, they overestimated the growth in demand, analysts said.

"They've added far too much capacity for that new, more moderate demand outlook, so we have surpluses in every commodity," indicated UBS commodities analyst Daniel Morgan.

"I think it's definitely one of the toughest years the mining industry has faced in many years," he said, noting that the woes were comparable to previous slumps sparked by the 2007-08 global financial crisis, the 1997 Asian financial crisis and even the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Goldman Sachs said last week the iron ore sector might need to "hibernate for an extended period", predicting that prices would stay below $40 for three years.

The International Energy Agency said in mid-December that "the golden age of coal in China seems to be over", with demand slowing as the East-Asian nation turns to cleaner energy sources.

Meanwhile, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries recently left its output ceiling unchanged despite crashing energy prices in a move likely to further depress the market.

"We had the big party from 2005-2011, and now we are suffering the big hangover," said Breakaway Research senior resources analyst Mark Gordon. 

"The so-called supercycle was a real anomaly in history, so the upward trend was an anomaly, and the downward trend is also an anomaly," he added.

More shutdowns, cost-cutting      

With demand projected to soften along with China's slowing economic growth, the adjustments have to come from the supply side, according to analysts.

They warned that miners have been too slow to shut operations even as their revenues and cash reserves are severely eroded, in part due to the dive in energy prices that have helped push down costs.

This meant shutdowns were likely to accelerate next year as cash losses become too significant to avoid.

"I think that sets us up for some sort of supply-driven improvement in markets in the second-half of the year as sufficient supply exits, the markets rebalance and prices can start migrating up the cost curve," Driscoll indicated.

"[There's] a bit of light at the end of the tunnel but if you are a high-cost producer, if you've got too much debt, then things will remain very challenging," he said.

Separately,  the Tongmei Group is typical of the lumbering and inefficient state-owned firms that dominate cities in China's industrial heartlands

Coated in thick black dust, hundreds of miners emerge from deep underground after another shift gouging out the coal that fuelled China's boom and its choking pollution, an industry now crippled by oversupply, but whose companies are seen as too big to fail.

The firm is the lifeblood of Datong, a city of 3 million people. It employs some 200,000 staff with nearly a million family dependents, housing and entertaining its workers and even running hospitals.

And it is in trouble.

For decades coal has been the backbone of the northern province of Shanxi, providing livelihoods for millions of miners, while private jet owning bosses became notorious for their nouveau riche lifestyles.

China's consumption of the fuel doubled in the decade to 2014 as the economy soared, reaching more than four billion tonnes a year.

Now some observers say China's coal demand may have peaked, a confluence of economic growth slowing to its lowest rate in 25 years and Beijing starting to reduce the carbon-dioxide-spewing fuel's share of the national energy mix.

That has dragged coal prices down to their lowest level in a decade, putting the squeeze on Tongmei.

But manager Liu Congying says despite the shrinking market, he has little choice but to supply even more, the mine operates 24 hours a day with a maximum output of 6,000 tonnes an hour.

"If we didn't increase production, we could not continue to run the business as we do now... including paying wages," said Liu. "It's clearly not a sustainable policy".

Social stability 

Relatively poor Shanxi's population is nearly 40 million, more than Canada's, and official statistics show its gross domestic product grew just 2.8 per cent this year.

Many of China's giant state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are unviable and plagued by overcapacity, with reports in September saying a mining group in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang will sack 100,000 workers, in what analysts called a taste of the pain to come.

Liu, who began toiling in the pits five decades ago, denied that Tongmei planned layoffs, telling AFP: "We need to preserve social stability."

But the firm is "probably running out of money", said industry analyst Zhang Zhibin.

He and other industry insiders think that China's coal consumption has peaked and may even decline in the next few years.

That is a potential boon to China's attempts to reduce smog and cut greenhouse gas emissions, but a disaster for cities such as Datong.

"We will see bankruptcies in the sector in the next few years," Zhang added.

China's Premier Li Keqiang this month called for a "cut back on overcapacity in traditional industries as well as a large number of zombie enterprises", in remarks state-run media said were directed at coal and steel.

But there are few signs the government is willing to turn off the financial taps and risk widespread unemployment, with the potential for anger and unrest, anathema to the Communist Party.

"The state sector is inefficient and wasteful," indicated Joe Zhang, an SOE manager turned commentator. "But it has a central role in the Chinese social fabric."

Golden carp

In his company-funded flat, equipped with central heating and an aquarium for golden carp, a miner surnamed Xu said: "Our homes are much better than before."

His daughter played in front of a flat-screen television.

Xu's pay rose nearly tenfold in the good years after the late 1990s to peak around 6,000 yuan ($930) per month, but this year he has seen a 15 per cent cut.

Shanxi officials are trying to diversify by boosting tourism and luring manufacturers away from China's coast.

Meanwhile, Tongmei is moving into electricity and chemical production.

Even so, the buzzcut 38-year-old scoffed at the idea that service industries such as tourism could be his city's future.

"Who will we serve? If tens of thousands of us start up businesses, who will buy our products?" he asked. "We have nothing here apart from coal."

BELEK, Turkmenistan — Turkmenistan hailed last week the completion of a $2.5 billion gas pipeline connecting its abundant eastern gas fields to the Caspian Sea while potentially expanding Europe's energy security options.

The approximately 800-kilometre long East- West pipeline could connect the isolated state possessing the world's fourth largest gas re-serves with markets in the West via an ambitious link that would traverse the Caspian.

"With the completion of the East-West pipe-line, cooperation with our European partners acquires a new quality," said Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov at the opening ceremony at the Belek compressor station, some 500 kilometres northwest of the capital, Ashgabat.

The East-West pipe-line may prove an important component of a bigger link planned by the European Union (EU), Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia that would funnel natural gas along the floor of the Caspian before connecting with pipelines threading into Europe.

The Trans-Caspian pipeline is expected to cost around $5 billion and could carry as much as 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually in the direction of the EU. The pipeline would provide Europe with an opportunity to lessen its dependence on Russia- sourced gas.

'Strength of companies' Berdymukhamedov said the East-West link had been built "by us on our own thanks to the strength of our national companies" despite previous foreign interest in building the vital link.

"This clearly demonstrates our economic and financial potential and the capacity of our country," Berdymukhamedov added. Turkmenistan's lack of infrastructure has left it dependent on pipelines connecting it to Russia and China for the bulk of its exports in the past.

Brussels' energy chief, Maros Sefcovic, said during a May visit to Ashgabat that the Trans- Caspian pipeline might come online by the end of 2019, although it is unclear who will build a link that faces opposition from littoral states Russia and Iran.

Other efforts to involve Turkmenistan in the EU's energy system including via the long-planned Nabucco pipe-line have come to nothing in the past. Turkmenistan, which sends up to 90 per cent of its natural gas east to China, has also begun building a $10 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India link expected to help ease energy deficits in South Asia.

The country's once- booming energy relationship with former master Russia has virtually collapsed since energy giant Gazprom confirmed its intention to wind down imports of Central Asian gas, with Turkmenistan blasting the company as an "un-reliable partner" earlier this year. But Igor Sechin, who heads Russia's top oil company, Rosneft, and is known as a close ally of President Vladimir Pu-tin, attended the opening of the East-West pipeline.

AMMAN — The Jordan Chamber of Commerce (JCC) is scheduled to hold the activities of the Jordanian-Saudi economic forum and the eighth meeting for the Jordanian-Saudi Business Council on January 5, on the sidelines of the 15th session meetings for the joint Jordanian-Saudi economic committee.

JCC President Nael Kabariti said the forum will be a platform to enhance Jordanian-Saudi cooperation and boost relations among private sector commissions.

He stressed the importance of benefiting from such meetings to showcase available investment opportunities, especially in the sectors of IT, tourism, health, economic consultation, finance, real estate, contracting, infrastructure and education.

Kabariti voiced the Jordanian private sector's appreciation of Saudi Arabia's supporting stance and continuous backing to Jordan through grants, investments and employment. He said the value of Saudi investments in the Kingdom surpassed $10 billion, distributed on several vital sectors.

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia will seek to diversify its sources of income and improve the efficiency of government spending as it strives to reduce its dependence on oil revenue, which has plunged since last year, King Salman said on Wednesday.

The world's top oil exporter is expected to announce on Monday that it has run a big deficit this year, and Riyadh's approach to an era of expected low crude prices is closely watched both inside the kingdom and global energy markets.

Salman's comments precede what is expected to be a more detailed roster of economic proposals outlined in next week's budget announcement, and in a "transformation plan" to be revealed by his son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in January.

"The kingdom is committed to implementing programmes to diversify sources of income and decrease dependence on oil as a main source of revenue," Salman said in the text of his annual address to the Shura Council setting out policy goals.

"Our vision for economic reform focuses on raising the efficiency of government spending, taking advantage of economic resources and increasing returns on government investments," he added.

The council is an appointed body that debates new laws and advises the government on policy. King Salman, 79, read out a brief statement on live television but his main address was then distributed in paper form to council members and later published on state media.

Noting the volatile economic conditions and lower oil prices in his speech, Salman stated that Riyadh's fiscal policy was based on "preserving stability and balance between revenue and spending on big development projects".

He continued that reforms would also aim to create an attractive environment for increased investment by both Saudi and foreign companies, simplify procedures and boost employment.

The monarch reiterated Saudi Arabia's support for a stable oil market, which he said would protect the interests of current and future generations, and added that the kingdom was committed to continuing oil and gas exploration.

VIENNA — The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sees only a gradual improvement in the global oil crude market, with prices recovering to above $70 per barrel after four years, according to a report released Wednesday.

With the global benchmark oil price touching an 11-year low of $36.04 on Monday, the oil group which produces a third of the world's crude foresees a "gradual improvement in market conditions as growing demand and slower than previously expected non-OPEC supply growth eliminate the existing oversupply and lead to a more balanced market".

OPEC, in its annual World Oil Outlook report, bases its reference scenario on $70.70 for a barrel of crude in 2020 and $95 in 2040.

Those projections represent a sharp drop in market value compared to last year's report, which predicted a nominal price of $110 for the rest of this decade.

The oil market has been rife with drama over the past year and a half as OPEC abandoned its policy of cutting production to support prices, with the price of a barrel of crude plunging more than 60 per cent.

Led by Saudi Arabia, the group instead aimed to preserve its market shares and push out growing competition from higher-cost shale rock producers in the United States.

OPEC nations, which are highly dependent on oil for government revenues, may be in for a longer haul than they had bargained for initially.

The report sees shale oil production only starting to "plateau" at 5.6 million barrels per day by 2025 and then decline.

And low oil prices are only leading to short-term boost in demand.

"The impact of the recent oil price decline on demand is most visible in the short term. It then drops away over the medium term," noted the group.

It projected the world's total crude demand to hit 97.4 million barrels per day by the end of the decade, an increase of 500,000 barrels per day compared to its forecast from last year.

And while demand for OPEC oil is also set to increase more than previously forecast over the next five years, it will still remain below current production levels.

The group sees demand for its output reaching 30.7 million barrels per day by 2020, an increase of 1.7 million barrels compared to last year's projections. It is currently pumping 32 million barrels per day.

OPEC expects its current market share to increase by four points to 37 per cent by 2040.

Minsk — Despite its state-controlled economy, Belarus has become an unexpected top performer in information technology (IT), with its programmers developing such worldwide hits as the World of Tanks game and mobile messenger app Viber.

More than 38,000 people work in the IT sector and the value of its companies' exports is growing by 40 to 50 per cent per year. It is expected to reach $800 million (740 million euros) this year.

The small ex-Soviet state of 9.5 million wedged between Russia and the European Union has been ruled by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko for more than two decades, its moribund economy propped up by Moscow.

Yet Belarus has encouraged the growth of IT companies with tax breaks. The developers of computer programmes have relatively high salaries and have become an elite, one that is sometimes willing to voice political opposition.

It was Belarusian programmers along with Israelis with Belarusian roots who developed the Viber free phone call app, working for Viber Media, which was started by two Israelis and has now been sold to Japan's Rakuten.

The best-known Belarusian IT company, Game Stream, created the World of Tanks game, played by more than 100 million people around the world.

Viktor Novochadov, the director of Game Stream's studio Wargaming.net, spoke to AFP recently at an economic forum. An energetic man in a bright shirt and tie, he was bursting with enthusiasm about the prospects for Belarus.

He puts Belarus's computer technology skills down to the Soviet era, when the country housed "the most science-driven, advanced production and the most highly-qualified specialists".

Tax-free regime

The turning point for the IT industry came in 2005 when Belarus set up its Hi-Tech Park, where companies can work without paying any corporate taxes, Novochadov said.

"Many countries in the ex-Soviet space still have nothing similar to match our Hi-Tech Park," he added, noting that "these countries have already fallen far behind, maybe hopelessly behind."

"It's amazing, as often they have significantly more financial resources than we do, but as it turned out, that's not enough to develop the IT sphere successfully," he continued.

Almost entirely virtual, the Hi-Tech Park only has a handful of physical buildings close to the centre of Minsk. 

The rest of the 144 companies that are "residents" of the park have offices elsewhere in Minsk or in other cities. 

By offering career prospects and interesting projects, Belarus is now hiring programmers from abroad, Novochadov indicated. "Everything suits them here: the work, the pay and the prospects of career growth."

Ten per cent of employees at the tech park are German, French, British and South Korean, said its deputy director Alexander Martinkevich.

On the wall in his office is a map of Belarus where he marks the places he visits to give career talks on studying computer sciences, amid a shortage of qualified local staff.

'We are the intelligentsia’

At 24, Vadim is already a senior programmer at one of the companies in the Hi-Tech Park while still studying nights at university.

"I started programming in seventh grade. By the tenth grade, I realised this was going to be my work," he said.

He began working at 19 at a large company, one of the first developers of software support services.

His financial independence from the state also spells political independence, to some extent.

The programmer told AFP that he took part in an opposition rally ahead of October's presidential polls, but asked for his surname and company not to be mentioned.

"It's true that programmers took part in the protest against [a proposed] Russian military base, because we are the intelligentsia, and the intelligentsia should care about what happens in the country," he said.

"We aren't afraid we could get sacked. We will always find another job," said Vadim.

The in-demand Belarusian programmers, most of whom are under 30, enjoy a wide range of perks.

In a decade, the monthly salary for programmers at the tech park has risen from $236 to $2,000, higher than in other countries in the region, Martinkevich indicated.  "We are no longer seen as suppliers of cheap low-qualified labour."

The employees pay a fixed lower rate of income tax, 9 per cent instead of 13 per cent. 

They also get Western-style benefits packages, otherwise virtually unheard-of in Belarus whose economy is dependent on Russia and has had to devalue its currency several times to deal with the spillover from the Russian recession.

"As the country constantly devalues its currency and the economic crisis deepens, being a programmer in Belarus means making a success of yourself," said economist Pavel Daneiko

"These people have well-paid work, salaries pegged to the dollar and comfortable offices. They live in a different reality to the rest of Belarusians," he added.

NEW YORK — Brent crude oil prices hit their lowest in more than 11 years on Monday, while US crude flirted with seven-year lows on more signs that swelling global supply looked set to outpace tepid demand again next year.

Global oil production is running close to record highs and, with more barrels poised to enter the market from nations such as Iran and Libya, the price of crude is set for its largest monthly percentage decline in seven years.

Brent's premium over US crude narrowed further as the market braced for the end of a 40-year ban on US crude exports.

President Obama signed a law on Friday that will end the ban. US crude futures fell 53 cents at $34.20 by 1614 GMT after bouncing off an intraday low of $33.98.

Brent futures were down 61 cents at $36.27, falling as much as 2 per cent during the session to a low of $36.04 a barrel, its weakest since July 2004.

Brent has dropped nearly 19 per cent this month, its steepest fall since the collapse of failed US bank Lehman Brothers in October 2008. "The fundamentals are pretty bearish," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.

"Warm temperatures are killing the markets right now and the oversupply is weighing on prices." Heating oil futures fell to their lowest since July 2004 as US and European weather modes forecast warmer-than-expected weather through year end.

While consumers have enjoyed lower fuel prices, the world's richest oil exporters have been forced to revalue their currencies, sell off assets and even issue debt for the first time in years as they struggle to repair their finances.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, will stick with its year-old policy of compensating for lower prices with higher production, and shows no signs of wavering, even though lower prices are painful to its poorer members. "With OPEC not in any mood to cut production... it does mean you are not going to get any rebalancing any time soon," Energy Aspects chief oil analyst Amrita Sen said.

"Having said that, long term of course, the lower prices are today, the rebalancing will become even stronger and steeper, because of the capex [oil groups' capital expenditure] cutbacks... but you're not going to see that until end-2016," he added. Oil market liquidity usually evaporates ahead of the holiday period, meaning that intra-day price moves can become exaggerated. Those moves may be further exacerbated by the expiration of the front-month WTI contract on Monday. 

WASHINGTON — It's a new dawn for transport, lodging — and pretty much every service under the sun — and it's all about "sharing".

The so-called sharing economy gained traction across the globe in 2015 as Uber upended the taxi business, Airbnb disrupted the hotel sector and a host of online and mobile startups let people moonlight as chefs or handymen.

Many see great promise in the collaborative economy, starting with the people flocking to it as way to turn their car or apartment, spare time or hobby, into a source of revenue — with far great flexibility than a conventional job.

A PriceWaterhouse (PwC) study estimates that the "sharing" or "peer-to-peer" economy will explode from roughly $15 billion in worldwide revenues at the end of 2014 to $325 billion by 2025.

But critics worry the rising sector is an unregulated Wild West with few safeguards for either workers or consumers, and the trend has raised hackles from incumbents fearing for their survival — cue the taxi driver protests against Uber seen around the world.

Posting on the Uber forum under the handle DaveM, one driver describes a summer gig on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, as idyllic.

"I'm making good money. If I put in the hours I can get 18 rides a day," he writes. "Beach all day drive at night=happiness."

But user tales of woe collected on a website called AirbnbHell, tell another side of the story.

One lodging guest recounts: "When I got to the house and met the folks they seemed cool. When I went out for dinner, they stole all my stuff and locked me out. To make it worse, they sent me an e-mail saying God bless, Jesus loves you."

Who stands to benefit? 

Facilitated by smartphones and geolocation technology, the sharing model offers consumers vastly expanded choices and often lower prices.

Spearheaded by giants like Uber, present in at least 67 countries, and Airbnb which operates in 190 countries including Cuba, peer-to-peer platforms have the potential "to radically upend both how we consume goods and how we work to afford them", said the PwC report.

Notable platforms include Task Rabbit (running errands), Hourly Nerds (computer consultants), Thumbtack (home repairs), Bon Appetour (home-cooked meals) and Washio (laundry). Services such as Instacart, Postmates and Grubhub deliver meals or groceries.

"I see this as one stage in a progression representing how digital technologies are changing how we organise work, which has been going on for 30 years," said New York University (NYU) professor Arun Sundararajan, who specialises in the subject.

In the United States alone, some 18 million workers now earn a significant portion of their income outside of traditional employment, according to MBO Partners. And a study by financial software group Intuit found that 80 per cent of large corporations plan to increase their use of a "flexible workforce" in coming years.

Sundararajan says his research suggests people in digital labour markets often earn more than in traditional jobs.

"The evidence I have seen is that wages tend to go up when the work is related to physical presence," as is the case with transportation, delivery or home services, he told AFP. With services that can be outsourced to distant locations, such as web design or translation, wages often fell.

The people who stand to benefit most, said the NYU professor, are those struggling to make ends meet, and who are at or below median income.

"These are people who can afford to take a vacation because they can rent their place on Airbnb, who can afford their car payments because they drive for a ridesharing service," he added.  

Backers say the sharing platforms are largely self-regulating: users review providers for quality, providing incentives for good service while weeding out the bad ones. 

But that view is not universal, with Edith Ramirez, chairwoman of the US Federal Trade Commission, arguing recently that "targeted regulatory measures may be needed to ensure that these new business models have appropriate consumer protections".

Short-term gig work 

While many willingly embrace the job flexibility, meanwhile, the lack of a social safety net has raised concerns as traditional employment increasingly gives way to short-term "gig" work.

Increasingly vocal critics worry that the protections of the traditional employer-worker relationship, hard-won over the course of decades, could be lost in the process.

"This trend shifts all economic risks onto workers. A downturn in demand, or sudden change in consumer needs, or a personal injury or sickness, can make it impossible to pay the bills," says former US labour secretary Robert Reich on his blog. 

"It eliminates labour protections such as the minimum wage, worker safety, family and medical leave, and overtime. And it ends employer-financed insurance — Social Security, workers' compensation, unemployment benefits, and employer-provided health insurance," Reich adds.

New ideas are springing up to address the problem of job security, with startups joining labour activists to endorse efforts for a "flexible safety net" for this new type of worker.

A research report by Cornell University's Seth Harris and Princeton's Alan Krueger endorses the notion of a new classification of "independent workers" with portable social benefits.

Proponents of the sharing economy argue, however, that the sector is moving so quickly that it would be a mistake to impose new regulations without careful consideration.

"It's not clear that we have found the new models of labour that will dominate in the 21st century," Sundararajan said. "We have to be cautious about rushing into regulation."

NAIROBI — World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries agreed to abolish agricultural export subsidies after five days of talks in Nairobi, but failed to make progress on the long-stalled Doha round of negotiations aimed at lowering global trade barriers.

The 162-member body, meeting in Africa for the first time, on Saturday said a deal had been reached on the issue of farm export subsidies, with developed nations committing to remove their subsidies immediately and developing nations set to eliminate theirs by 2018.

WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo in a statement hailed the agreement as the "most significant outcome on agriculture" in the organisation's 20-year history.

US trade representative, Michael Froman, said the deal would "help level the playing field for American farmers and ranchers".

"The WTO's actions in this area will put an end to some of the most trade distorting subsidies in existence and demonstrates what is possible when the multilateral trading system comes together to solve a problem," he added.

The European Commission also praised the "landmark deal" as "good for fairer global trade".

"For those who had doubts, it proves the relevance of the WTO and its capacity to deliver results," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem said in a statement.

But the conference failed to mend stubborn divisions between poor and rich nations over how to overcome the Doha deadlock and even an additional, unscheduled fifth day of meetings in the Kenyan capital did nothing to end the impasse. 

The final declaration adopted Saturday said "many members" reaffirmed their "full commitment to conclude" the Doha Development Agenda goals. 

But it added: "Other members do not reaffirm the Doha mandates, as they believe new approaches are necessary to achieve meaningful outcomes in multilateral negotiations."

"Members have different views on how to address the negotiations," it continued.

The Doha round of trade negotiations was launched to great fanfare in the Qatari capital in 2001 with the aim of helping developing countries grow through improved trade access.

But since then, industrialised and developing nations have time and again failed to agree on the level of cuts on industrial good tariffs and agriculture subsidies.

The Nairobi gathering also agreed on a timetable for implementing a deal on getting rid of import duties on 201 high-tech products, whose annual trade is estimated at over $1.3 billion (1.2 billion euros) a year.

Two new countries, Liberia and Afghanistan, joined the WTO club last week, bringing the total number of members to 164.