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BRUSSELS — Eurozone public finances improved in 2013 as the economy finally turned the corner on a record recession but total debt levels remained dangerously high, official data showed on Wednesday.

The average eurozone government deficit — the shortfall between revenue and spending — came in at 3 per cent of output last year.

That was in line with the European Union (EU) ceiling and down from 3.7 per cent in 2012, the Eurostat statistics agency said.

The overall figures are broadly in line with growing signs that the worst of the eurozone debt crisis, which at one point threatened to destroy the euro, is over although several member countries will be applying budget rigour and deep economic reforms for years to come.

Public finances in bailed out Greece and Portugal sent signals of marked improvement on Wednesday, Spain signalled faster recovery, and France — seen as lagging on reforms — detailed new policies to put its economy in shape. 

Total accumulated debt increased to 92.6 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), up from 90.7 per cent, rising even further above the EU 60 per cent limit.

The continued increase in total debt levels reflects the high cost of the economic slump and debt crisis as governments borrowed heavily in an effort to stabilise their economies.

Christian Schulz at Berenberg Bank said the figures were positive overall, showing that the debt crisis austerity programmes were “paying off”.

Adjusted figures excluding the cost of bank recapitalisation efforts were even better, giving a 2.8 per cent deficit for last year, Schulz remarked in a note.

“With growth returning, increasing tax revenues and falling [spending] should drive the eurozone’s deficit even lower in coming years,” he argued. 

For the full 28-nation EU, the average public deficit was 3.3 per cent, down from 3.9 per cent, while total debt increased to 87.1 per cent of the GDP from 85.2 per cent, Eurostat pointed out in a report based on submissions by the EU member states. 

Germany best, 

France lags 

Powerhouse economy Germany once again put in the best performance, with its public finances in balance last year.

In marked contrast, France, struggling for growth and under pressure from Brussels to meet the 3 per cent target, stood out with a deficit of 4.3 per cent. 

France was supposed to have kept the 2013 deficit to 4.1 per cent but with the economy in difficulty, the EU in June agreed to give Paris two extra years, until 2015, to bring it back down to the EU ceiling. 

In Paris, the government announced Wednesday a new programme to get the deficit down to 3.8 per cent this year and 3 per cent in 2015 by cutting spending and boosting the economy.

French public spending, equal to 56.7 per cent of economic output this year, will fall to 53.5 per cent in 2017. 

Other EU countries coming in above the 3 per cent limit were led by Slovenia on 14.7 per cent. 

Twice-bailed out Greece had a deficit of 12.7 per cent, Ireland 7.2 per cent, Spain 7.1 per cent, non-euro Britain 5.8 per cent, Cyprus 5.4 per cent, with Croatia and Portugal on 4.9 per cent and Poland on 4.3 per cent.

The European Commission said separately that Athens had achieved a 2013 primary budget surplus — the balance before interest and stripping out bank support and other payments — equal to 0.8 per cent of the GDP.

This was a significant achievement, meeting a key target for its international creditors to  consider additional help.

The EU’s 3 and 60 per cent deficit and debt limits are regarded as prudent targets, the levels states should maintain so they are not overly vulnerable to crises and can manage the public finances in a sustainable fashion.

However, the majority of the 28 member states have breached those limits repeatedly, and for many years in some cases, and were forced to pay a heavy price by the debt crisis.

Wednesday’s figures showed Ireland with total debt of nearly 124 per cent of the GDP while Portugal, also bailed out with Dublin, was on 129 per cent.

Greece, only now returning to growth after six years in a recession which has shrank the economy by a quarter, is saddled with a staggering debt mountain equal to 175 per cent of GDP, Eurostat said.

Even Germany, held up as the model for all others, has total debt at 78.4 per cent, falling, while France is on 93.5 per cent and rising.

Britain, one of the fastest growing major economies, came in at 90.6 per cent for 2013.

AMMAN — Jordan Telecom Group’s (JTG) general assembly on Wednesday approved the recommendation of the board of directors to distribute JD52.5 million dividends to shareholders at a rate of  JD0.21 per share. JTG’s financial statements showed a drop in assets to JD618.2 million in 2013 compared to JD642.2 million in 2012. After-tax profit declined to JD51.7 million last year compared to JD83.2 million in 2012. 

PARIS — Visitors to France should be allowed to shop till they drop seven days a week, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday, weighing into a fierce debate over restrictions on Sunday trading.

"Tourism is an absolutely key sector in France: seven per cent of jobs, with considerable room for growth," Laurent Fabius told RTL radio.

Fabius, who now also handles the trade and tourism portfolios following a government reshuffle, said: "The tourist who comes on a Sunday and goes to a store that is shut is not going to come back on Thursday.”

"For tourists, shops must be open (on Sundays)," he added, saying workers would be duly compensated.

Retailers in France can only open on a Sunday under very specific conditions and recent court rulings have forced some flagship stores on the Champs-Elysees in Paris to end late-night shopping that was hugely popular with tourists.

The rulings were the result of legal action taken by trade unions in defence of the principle that late-night and Sunday working should be exceptional rather than the rule.

But they infuriated those employees who want the extra hours and higher pay that come with such shifts.

The issue of trading hours is part of a broader debate about France's competitiveness and a perceived lack of flexibility in its labour market which some say hinders job creation.

A parallel legal battle over the right of DIY stores to open on Sunday was resolved by the Socialist government deciding to allow them to keep doing so until mid-2015, to allow time for a revamp of the law.

Union representatives were critical of Fabius' wading into the debate, but the French Trade Council, which represents retailers employing 3.5 million people, welcomed the minister's comments.

"It is distressing to see tour operators organising departures from Paris on a Saturday evening to go to neighbouring, more open countries, thereby depriving France of significant sales and the associated jobs," said the council's president, Gerard Atlan.

AMMAN — Jordan Customs announced this week in a press statement the  release of an improved version of the “Golden List Programme” aimed at further facilitating the trade of goods with other countries. 

“This revised form will enable Jordanian trading companies to strengthen their competitive edge in both domestic and international markets,” the statement said. 

The Golden List Programme, launched in August 2005 and now revised with the support of USAID’s Fiscal Reform II Project (FRPII), is a Jordan Customs programme that gives preferred operator status to companies that demonstrate low risk as well as a strong compliance history with certain customs requirements. 

“By facilitating trade transactions for these companies, Jordan Customs not only encourages good corporate citizenship amongst trading companies, but also promotes international best practice in trade across borders,” the statement added. 

According to Jordan Customs, 45 Jordanian companies are presently enrolled in the Golden List Programme, benefiting from reduced cargo processing times, enhanced security of their goods and better risk management.

In order to incentivise more Jordanian companies to join the programme, Jordan Customs is introducing new mechanisms that include revised and less stringent requirements and more benefits. 

“The Golden List Programme is one of our signature initiatives that seek to facilitate trade and increase competitiveness of Jordan’s economy,” Jordan Customs Director General Munther Abdel Qader Al Assaf said in the press statement. 

“The revised programme we are launching today is crucial for expanding the membership base of Jordanian compliant companies,” he added. “By joining this preferred list, Jordanian companies can also enjoy other perks provided by foreign countries linked up with the programme by virtue of bilateral and multilateral agreements.” 

The revaluation of the Golden List Programme was realised with technical support from USAID’s FRPII, particularly in the marketing and outreach campaign as well as the revision of the membership criteria and implementing the consultation channels with Golden List companies and other members of Jordan’s private sector. 

“Our partnership with Jordan Customs in implementing trade facilitating programmes such the Golden List amongst others is a success story untold. Jordan has significantly improved its trade across borders. According to the World Bank Doing Business report, Jordan’s ranking in trading across borders has improved from 77 in the 2011 report to 57 in the 2014 report, essentially jumping 21 positions,” FRPII’s Chief of Party Roberto Toso commented. 

A number of Golden List companies have also been recognised for their exceptional compliance and cooperation at the Jordan Customs launch. 

The companies include Petra Engineering Industries, Haider Murad & Sons Investment Group, Amman Drugs & Trading Co. Ltd. Adatco, Arab Potash Company, EAM Maliban Textiles (Jordan) Private Limited, Munir Sukhtian Group and Manaseer Group Oil and Gas.

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwaiti telecom giant Zain said Monday its net profit rose 7.5 per cent on year in the first quarter of 2014, mainly on the back of returns from new technology investments. Zain announced a net profit of 55.9 million dinars ($198.9 million) in the first three months of the year compared with 52 million dinars in the same period of 2013. Revenues increased 4.7 per cent to $1.1 billion at March 31, from $1.05 billion a year ago, it indicated in a statement. Income from data services recorded a healthy 27 per cent growth during the past 12 months as a result of huge investments in new technology, the company said. In the past 12 months, the company added 2.6 million new clients, and its total subscribers rose to 46.2 million across eight countries. Zain said it secured two major loans of $800 million and $250 million in the past two months, with the latter borrowed on the basis of Islamic Murabaha. Both deals were arranged by international and regional banks. Besides Kuwait, Zain has operations in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. It also manages a unit in Morocco.

WASHINGTON — US newspapers suffered further revenue declines in 2013, seeing only mixed success in a transition to digital, according to industry figures.

Total newspaper industry revenue amounted to $37.59 billion in 2013, a 2.6 per cent drop from $38.60 billion in 2012, according to a report released Friday by the Newspaper Association of America.

In one positive sign, the data showed a 3.7 per cent increase in circulation revenues to $10.87 billion, helped by digital subscriptions and "paywalls".

The figures showed revenue from all digital sources including advertising, circulation and marketing, rose 5.8 per cent and accounted for 12 per cent of total industry revenue.

But newspapers continued to see declines in print advertising, which has long been their most important revenue source. 

Advertising in the traditional printed daily and Sunday newspaper decreased 8.6 per cent to $17.3 billion. Digital advertising only partly offset that, rising 1.5 per cent to $3.4 billion.

Poynter Institute researcher Rick Edmonds said the overall performance of the industry was the best since 2006.

But Edmonds noted that because the trade association made changes in how it calculates figures, using different sources of revenue in the computation, "total industry revenue figures for the last two years cannot meaningfully be compared to those for earlier years".

"Though digital ad revenue gains again failed to make up for print revenue losses, there was mildly encouraging news on that front," Edmonds said in a blog post.

"Despite continued downward pressure on prices and tough competition from digital giants with virtually no news operations, the industry eked out a gain," he added.

Others say the figures don't tell the full story of the bleak state of the newspaper industry.

"I think what this report says is that the newspaper business has to find ways to innovate itself out of the mess in which it finds itself," indicated Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University.

"Although these figures are not calamitous, they are not all that impressive either," he said.

Kennedy added that advertising "is never going to come back in the way it has in the past, because businesses no longer need newspapers to reach their customers. The Internet gives them a lot of different ways to reach their customers".

According to Alan Mutter, a former newspaper editor who now is a consultant specialising in new media ventures, total ad revenues for the newspaper industry have been cut in half since a 2005 peak at $49 billion.

Mutter said the key problem for newspapers is that they are not keeping pace with the competition for digital advertising — as most of the revenue shifts to non-media companies like Google or Facebook.

"Digital advertising rose a mere 1.5 per cent to $3.4 billion in 2013 at the same time that digital sales surged 17 per cent across all digital categories in the United States," Mutter wrote in a blog post.

"Back in 2003, newspapers had a 14 per cent share of the national digital advertising market. In 2013, they had barely eight per cent of the market," he pointed out.

Mutter said "the ongoing inability of newspapers to compete effectively in this emerging marketplace may be an even bigger problem than the traumatic collapse in print advertising that they have suffered over the last eight years."

LONDON — China's annual demand for gold could jump around 20 per cent by 2017 as more of its increasingly wealthy population seek new ways to make money, the World Gold Council (WGC) predicted last week.

The forecast by the WGC comes after China became the world's largest gold-consuming nation in 2013, overtaking India.

Annual demand for gold in the form of jewellery, coins and bars is set to hit "at least 1,350 tonnes by 2017", the WGC indicated in a report on China.

That would represent a rise of nearly a fifth from the country's record consumption of 1,132 tonnes last year.

"The traditional appeal of gold to the Chinese people and consumers' optimistic outlook for prices should result in private sector demand from all sources climbing to at least 1,350 tonnes by 2017," the London-based council said.

Gold prices slumped by nearly a third last year as investors abandoned the perceived safe haven investment in favour of stocks and other riskier bets.

But global demand for gold in jewellery grew to its highest for 16 years as consumers in Asia and the Middle East scrambled to take advantage of the lower prices.

In China, rising demand for the yellow metal has also been driven by the growth of its increasingly-wealthy middle class, high levels of savings and restrictions on other investments.

Still, the council warned that a possible slowdown in the world's second-largest economy as it moves away from rapid export-led growth could dampen gold demand.

"China faces important challenges in moving from an investment and export-led growth model to a more balanced one in which private consumption plays a larger part," said the body.

"Although the risks associated with this economic transformation should not be underestimated, on balance this process should result in a considerably higher level of consumer spending, which ought to favour the jewellery sector," it added.

One of the report's authors, Alistair Hewitt, noted that Chinese gold demand had tripled in the decade to 2013.

And he predicted that the Chinese gold market would continue to develop over the course of the next few years, driven by cultural affinity, the increase in income and government support.

"There is a huge groundswell of people becoming wealthier, that have more money to spend on jewellery and more savings to invest," he told AFP. 

"For many people, gold is the preferred form for savings amid volatile stock markets, overvalued property and low interest rates being offered by banks," Hewitt said.

LONDON — The fragmented UK wealth management sector is shrinking as firms quit, bulk up or look to service a more profitable slice of the country's growing number of rich clients, to cope with costly new regulations.

There were 147 firms managing 554 billion pounds ($918.92 billion) of business in the sector, including private banks, private client investment managers, full service wealth managers and execution only brokers, at end-2012 according to industry data provider ComPeer.

This month saw Rathbones Brothers, Jupiter Fund Management, Pictet & Cie, Berenberg Bank and Deutsche Bank's fund arm all shaking up their operations.

New rules brought in last year, as part of global efforts to make markets safer, are squeezing the profits of the smaller players in particular. Wealth advisors have to take more exams and systems must be in place to monitor client accounts. Commission based selling was also banned.

"We see the business is becoming more regulated and the cost of that regulation is the same for a 300 million pound firm like ours and a 3 billion pound firm, and so you need extremely robust processes in place," said Charles MacKinnon, chief investment officer at Thurleigh Investment Managers.

"To be a mom and pop sitting in one room is no longer viable for this business," MacKinnon added, in the week it agreed to merge with Ingenious Asset Management to create a firm with 1.8 billion pounds in assets.

Total compliance spend in the wealth management sector rose 10.7 per cent to 153.5 million pounds between 2010 and 2012, ComPeer pointed out.

"This [regulation] puts pressure on the smaller players particularly," said Numis Securities analyst David McCann. "The large players have the advantage that they have the fixed costs largely covered already."

Among the deals this month, Rathbones bought some assets off Deutsche and Jupiter, looking to sell more generic products to the "mass affluent".

Deutsche Bank decided to focus on tailored investments for ultra-high net worth and high net worth clients — worth $100 million-plus and at least $1 million respectively, according to the Boston Consulting Group.

"It's about volume versus margin," McCann indicated. "The larger customers are likely to be much higher margin but there are just fewer of them. Both models can work."

Jupiter decided to exit the sector completely and instead focus on its core mutual fund business, while both German private bank Berenberg and Swiss private asset manager Pictet & Cie, said they would expand their London-based operations for the super rich.

In the past, Royal bank of Scotland (RBS)-owned private bank Coutts has been rumoured to be up for sale, but new RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan has committed to keeping and growing the business instead.

London is where most wealth managers will seek to retain a presence, given it has more dollar millionaires than any other city in the world, at 339,200, research firm New World Wealth pointed out.

"London is very much seen as a place where wealth is growing and that by definition should encourage wealth managers to have some sort of operation here," said Stuart Duncan, analyst at Peel Hunt.

"A lot of wealth managers, not just Rathbones, would like to take advantage of the opportunity to consolidate the market because there are a lot of smaller wealth managers around," he added.

AMMAN — Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said this week that Jordan's economy is recovering and moving steadily forward despite the global financial crisis and the Syrian infighting.

During a meeting with a delegation from the Union of Arab Banks participating in the 2014 Annual Arab Banking Conference 2014, Ensour said the economic measures taken by the government to deal with the economic challenges have helped the Kingdom avert a range of difficulties. 

The prime minister hailed social security, which Jordan has succeeded to preserve, as the major goal of growth, development and prosperity noting that  economic instability is an integral part of the whole instability witnessed in many Arab states.

The premier said the Arab world ranked at the bottom of the international growth indexes despite possessing all what is needed to achieve self-sufficiency, development and prosperity, adding that this has to be a motivation for more cooperation and joint efforts.

He told the bankers that Jordan has been always forced to change plans in order to deal with the developments arising from the turbulent surroundings, beginning with the Palestinian dilemma and now the Syrian crisis, stressing that the Kingdom is in need of support from all Arab states to be able to continue its pan-Arab nationalist role.

AMMAN — Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) Governor Ziad Fariz revealed this week that new specialised bodies are on the table to fund small-and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), if banks are unable to do so. 

Speaking at the Annual Arab Banking Conference on Wednesday, he called on the private sector to support innovative and creative projects indicating that banks’ financing of SMEs’ investment expenditures do not exceed 10 per cent.

"The increasing regional and international attention towards micro-projects and SMEs makes it imperative that banks develop measures to fund such projects," he stressed, underlining the role that banks have in development and in achieving financial stability within the objectives of economic growth. 

“By adopting CBJ policies, Jordan's banks created a more solid banking system, which enhanced their adaptability to face internal and external shocks,” the governor said.

According to Fariz, the current regional and international economic challenges compel Jordan to adhere to best economic practices in order to avoid possible economic shocks in the future.

He credited the national programme for economic reform as an efficient security that safeguarded the Kingdom's economy despite regional and international turbulences.

The governor indicated that regaining trust in Jordan's economy and the  increase in foreign reserves to their highest levels (JD8.78 billion) were the main fruits of reforms.

Fariz told participants in the conference that high fuel prices and repetitive cuts in the Egyptian gas placed a heavy burden on the local economy during the past few years. 

The increasing influx of Syrian refugees and the accompanying requirements exacerbated the situation, he remarked.

“The economic reform project, which started in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund two years ago and is to continue, addressed the increase in the government's spending and sought to diversify the Kingdom's energy sources, in addition to helping the National Electric Power Company reduce its losses," the governor concluded.