In today’s Business English News lesson, we look at the situation in Europe as the Eurozone begins to recover. Since emerging from its longest-ever recession last summer, the Eurozone recovery has been muted at best. While recent reports show some positive signs, the region still has a long way to go in addressing some of its imbalances.
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Microsoft has been busy since CEO Steve Ballmer announced his retirement last summer. On top of buying Nokia, introducing a new tablet lineup, and tweaking Windows 8, they searched high and low for a viable replacement for Ballmer. Even with the recently announced hiring of Satya Nadella as CEO, last year may have been Microsoft’s annus horribilis.
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As we usher in the New Year, it’s worth taking a moment to see how this year’s major business themes have played out. While smatterings of growth and dips in unemployment have brought relative stability to Europe and the US, analysts at Nomura foresee policy changes that may reshape global prosperity in the long-term.
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Explore the impact of Big data on business in this Business English News lesson.
By now, odds are you’ve heard the term “Big Data”. The thousands upon thousands of giga, tera, and peta bytes that are collected everywhere around us has caused concern for some, and jobs and wealth for others.
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The global financial spotlight is focused squarely on China with its economy and banking system beginning to show signs of weakness. Interest rates hit all-time highs, while the central bank stood by and watched, as Reuters reports.
The People’s Bank of China has engineered a tightening of cash in money markets after seeing interest rates spike to 25 percent or higher for some deals. This was done in order to try to rein in excessive credit growth, especially in the lightly-regulated “shadow banking” sector.
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