Numerous Chinese Regions Affected by Typhoons
Typhoon Saola made landfall today in China”s Fujian Province, forcing the evacuation of 306,000 people, while Damrey, a similar disturbance, caused the same earlier in the Jiangsu, as indicated by reports from those territories.
Saola, weakened by a tropical storm, entered the city of Fuding at 06:50 local time (10:50 GMT), said the Fujian Meteorological Center.
According to forecasts, Saola will move northwest at a speed of 15 to 20 mph with heavy rain over the northern part of the province and neighboring Jiangxi
The source said local authorities called for preparation for natural disasters associated with this storm, including flooding and mudslides.
Saola previously hit Taiwan and the Philippines, killing five, with two missing and 16 injured in Taiwan. In the Philippines, 37 people died as a result of the cyclone.
Meanwhile, Damrey made landfall last night near Xiangshui District in Jiangsu Province, as well as in the coastal areas of Shandong with heavy rainfall.
In the latter, the city of Rizhao recorded 174 millimeters of rain.
This typhoon, the tenth this year, is moving northwest at a speed of 25 kilometers per hour. Strong winds hit the towns of Linyi, Qingdao and Weifang.
Several regions in China have been hit by torrential rains this summer, with record levels in some places.
Storms recorded over the past 27 days and their associated disasters caused 76 deaths and 30 missing persons, in addition to economic losses estimated at $1.69 billion dollars, as officially reported yesterday.
Argentina Settles Debts, Burying 2001/2002 Crisis
Argentina will pay more than $2 billion dollars to Boden 2012 bond holders today, in an action that according to Economic Minister Hernán Lorenzino, means the country is definitively putting the 2001-2001 crisis behind it.
If the action is viewed simply as a payment on a public debt, it would lose its true significance, said Lorenzino yesterday, when he emphasized that the commitment is being honored without burdening the people with its costs.
In an interview with the daily Ambito Financiero, he said that with the payment of the Boden 2012 debt, Argentina is showing that it is able to come out of an economically fatal crisis, with grown and without the public being forced to shoulder the costs.
The bonds were delivered in 2002 to those with savings accounts in exchange for the confiscation of their deposits in dollars, and up until now their implementation has meant a payment of $19.6 billion dollars, to which today another $2.197 billion were added.
National congressional member for the Nuevo Encuentro party, Carlos Heller, said the liquidation of the Boden 2012 bonds were a closure to a dramatic event: that of the 2001/2002 crisis that put the country in a dreadful situation, which could have ended with a societal disintegration on every level.
According to explanations given last night by President Cristina Fernandez, 78 percent of the bond holders are outside the country and 57 percent of the deposits are less than $50,000 dollars.
The major bondholder is a union, she said, without revealing its identity.
In a speech given at the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, the president reviewed the various periods of indebtedness that the country had passed through and emphasized that the Boden 2012 bonds are money that the banks ought to have returned to Argentineans.
She also mentioned the measures initiated in 2003 by the late President Nestor Kirchner to resolve the debt without going to the capital markets, and underlined the fact that the total public debt which represented 166 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (PIB) in 2002, had dropped by last year to 41.8 percent.
The debt in foreign currency held by the private sector which for a decade was equivalent to 92 percent of the GDP would tomorrow (today) stand at just 8.4 percent, she added, while also pointing out that the total per capita public debt in foreign currency was reduced over the same time frame by 50 percentage points.
The payment of the matured Boden 2012 bonds closes the chapter on the so-called “corralito bancario” (frozen bank deposits) in December 2001, as the restrictions on cash flow imposed by the Fernando de la Rua government came to be called, a freeze that lasted for one year.
U.S. Unemployment Rate Edges up to 8.3 Percent in July
U.S. unemployment rose 0.1 percentage point from June to 8.3 percent in July, the Labor Department reported Friday.
The non-farm sector added 163,000 new jobs across the country last month, as private employers added 172,000 jobs and government employment declined by 9,000 amid spending cuts.
Total unemployed Americans topped 12.8 million in July, nearly the same as in June and still almost double the level prior to the recession.
Manufacturing employment continued to expand and manufacturers added 25,000 jobs in July, and retail trade added 6,700 jobs last month. Professional and business services including accounting and legal services added 49,000 jobs.
The construction sector shed 1,000 jobs, and utilities industry employment declined by 8,100.
The number of long-term unemployed who have been jobless for at least 27 weeks stood at 5.2 million.
The job creation figure was upwardly revised to 87,000 for May from the previous estimate of 77,000, and was downwardly revised to 64,000 for June from the previous reading of 80,000.
White House Council of Economic Advisers chairman Alan Krueger said Friday in a statement the latest data provided further evidence the U.S. economy continued to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression, but more work remained to be done.
Via PL