BMW sale slidly fall

The German group BMW said Friday that 2009 sales slipped by 4.7 per cent as the luxury car market was hit by the global recession, but added it expected to sell more than 1.3 million autos this year. Group sales fell to 50.68 billion euros ($70.64 billion), according to a statement that provided provisional results. Final results are to be published on March 17, and should show the group achieved a pretax profit last year, it said.

Mukesh Ambani, Mittal among world’s powerful bil lionaires

Mukesh Ambani and steel baron Lakshmi Mittal have been featured by the US magazine Forbes among the world's most powerful billionaires. The Forbes has named influential people across the world which have great wealth plus political power as well as industrial might. 'A few plutocrats have the mix of money, industrial might and political prowess to earn a spot among the world's most powerful billionaires,' the magazine stated. The list includes the likes of Michael Bloomberg who is the mayor of New York City and also owns 88 per cent of news and data giant Bloomberg LP. Forbes estimates his fortune at $17.5 million. Others on the list are billionaire Sebastian Pi era who won Chile's presidential election, media and banking titan and prime minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi and Lebanonese premier and industrial heir Saad Hariri. About Mukesh Ambani, Forbes stated: 'Ambani controls oil and gas conglomerate Reliance Industries. With a market value of more than $73 billion, the firm is India's biggest independent company.' Besides, the world's largest steel maker Lakshmi Mittal has also been named in the list and has a market value of $65 billion.

Samsung Electronics back in profit

Samsung Electronics Co returned to profit in the fourth quarter as demand for flat screen televisions and mobile phones helped push sales to a record high, underlining Samsung's rise to the top tier of global technology companies. The company, a major producer of consumer electronics products and components that make them work, earned 3.05 trillion won ($2.64 billion) in the three months ended December 31 on a parent basis, it said in a statement Friday. Samsung does not release a consolidated net profit figure. Samsung said, however, that sales on a consolidated basis — which includes the performance of its overseas and domestic subsidiaries excluding financial businesses — reached a record 136.29 trillion won or nearly $118 billion at Friday's exchange rate.

Eurozone unemployment problem rise

One in 10 workers across Europe's core euro currency area is now unemployed, according to new European Union data issued on Friday that showed Spain bearing the brunt of a jobless recovery. The human cost of structural economic adjustment post-recession could be seen when the seasonally- adjusted unemployment rate for the 16 euro countries hit a miserable 10 per cent in December. The EU's Eurostat agency estimated that an extra 87,000 people fell out of work in the weeks before Christmas — down from the 102,000 people joining the benefit queues in November. It was the highest rate since the currency was launched a decade ago and up from a downwards-revised 9.9 per cent in November. Initial figures for November published earlier this month had pegged the eurozone rate at 10 per cent. Across the 27-nation EU, the rate hit 9.6 per cent in December, up from 9.5 per cent and corresponding to 163,000 more people unemployed. The statistics agency says more than 23 million people were out of work across the world's biggest open trading bloc, 15.763 million of whom were in the eurozone. That meant that in the last year, 4. 628 million people joined the ranks of the jobless, 2.787 million of whom were in the core euro area. Spain's rate hit a massive 19.5 per cent, although only very slightly up from the previous month. Separate data from Madrid showed that the unemployment rate in Europe' s fifth-largest economy soared to 18.83 per cent throughout the fourth quarter of 2009, with a total of 4.326 million people out of work, up more than one million from a year ago. Experts have repeatedly expressed fears of a 'double-dip' recession on the Iberian peninsula — itself struggling with huge deficits way above EU targets.

Microsoft in profit

Microsoft said Thursday that second- quarter net profit hit a record $6.66 billion on unprecedented revenue driven by demand for the new Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft reported that its revenue surged 14 per cent to $19.02 billion in the fiscal quarter that ended December 31. 'We saw record revenue and record profit, driven by strong demand for Windows 7 and PCs,' Microsoft chief financial officer Peter Klein said during a conference call with analysts.