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China Inflation hits 11-year high of 7.1 percent

By Times Wires
Published February 20, 2008

BEIJING

China's inflation rose to its highest level in more than 11 years in January after devastating snowstorms worsened food shortages, according to data reported Tuesday, and analysts warned there might be sharper increases to come. Consumer prices in January climbed 7.1 percent from the same month last year, driven by an 18.2 percent rise in food costs, the National Bureau of Statistics reported.

GENEVA

No. 2 Swiss bank suspends traders

After seeming to have skirted the worst of the mortgage issues plaguing the financial sector, Credit Suisse revealed Tuesday that it had suspended a "handful" of traders for overvaluing assets and would take a $1-billion hit to its first-quarter results. Switzerland's second-largest bank said the mispricing of asset-backed securities led to an overvaluation of about $2.85-billion. Several traders are being investigated, but an outright fraud had not been detected.

JACKSONVILLE

Winn-Dixie sales post modest gain

A year after emerging from bankruptcy, Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. said sales in stores open more than a year inched up 0.5 percent. The Jacksonville grocer reported net income of$4-million, or 8 cents a share, on revenue of $2.2-billion. The period reported this year was not comparable to the year-ago quarter because the company had been out of bankruptcy only eight weeks.

Raleigh, N.C.

Progress looks into nuke plants in N.C.

Progress Energy Carolinas, the North Carolina-based sister utility to St. Petersburg's Progress Energy Florida, asked federal regulators for permission to build a new nuclear plant in North Carolina. On Tuesday, the utility filed a license application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a process expected to take more than three years. The Carolinas utility said the application doesn't mean that it has definitely decided to build. If the company goes ahead, it will build two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, the same plants the Florida utility plans to build in Levy County. The application to the NRC deals largely with safety and operational information. It doesn't address how much the project will cost.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif.

Publisher offers buyouts to 1,100

The publisher of the Oakland Tribune, the Contra Costa Times and more than a dozen other daily and weekly papers in the San Francisco area is offering buyouts to almost all its employees. The 1,100 employees will have about two weeks to decide if they want to apply for a buyout. If not enough people take the offer, layoffs would follow.

WASHINGTON

T-bill rates fall

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell. The Treasury Department auctioned $24-billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 2.200 percent, down from 2.250 percent last week. An additional $22-billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 2.040 percent, down from 2.080 percent last week.

[Last modified February 20, 2008, 01:15:58]