The current account surplus in Japan in January stood at 899,800 million yen ($ 7.315 million euros), compared with record deficit of 132,700 million yen (1,078 million) recorded in the same month of 2009.

The figure marks twelve consecutive months of current account surplus in Japan, according to the preliminary report released today by the Ministry of Finance.

The trade balance of goods and services recorded a surplus of 37,300 billion yen (303.23 million), compared with a deficit of 1.05 trillion yen (8,594 million) in the same month last year, most increase since 1986.

The surplus in merchandise trade amounted to 197,200 million yen (1,603 million), compared to a deficit of 844,800 million yen (6,867 million) in the same month of 2009.

About 270,000 civil servants in the UK from today starring a strike of forty-eight hours in protest of the future conditions of dismissal.

The walkout, the union decided by public and commercial services, will affect various departments and courts, ports, Treasury Offices, museums and the Parliament, among others.

The union convenor complaint with the government reforms that public servants will lose a third of the money they were entitled for the years of work. It is the biggest strike by civil servants since 1987 and new shares are expected to protest on the eve of general elections this year.

According to the union's general secretary, Mark Serwotka, "Public officials are angry" with the reforms proposed by the Government and "want to demonstrate how critical it is their work for society".

The Bank of France today announced a downward revision of growth forecasts of gross domestic product (GDP) French in the first quarter of 2010, when placed in 0.4%, one point less than previously announced.

The entity is thus on the growth forecast published late last year by the National Statistics Institute (INSEE), which bet on a rise in GDP between 0.3 and 0.4%. The government, meanwhile, maintains a growth forecast of 1.4% in the whole year.

France grew 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2009, the year in which the economy fell by 2.2%, the biggest drop since the war.

The unemployment rate in OECD countries rose in 2009 to 8.3% from 6.1% the previous year, informed the Paris-based organization, which stood at 8.8% increase last December.

The highest rate of unemployment of the "club of rich countries" was recorded last year in Spain, with 18.1% followed by 11.8% who had both Slovakia and Ireland, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The central banks of leading industrialized countries (G-10) note that global economic growth is robust and the spirit "positive".

The president of European Central Bank (ECB) and G10 spokesman, Jean-Claude Trichet said Monday that "reduce global imbalances." After meeting in the Swiss city of Basel of central bank governors of the G-10, Trichet added that only certain entities conduct monetary tightening monetary policy.

Under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), headquartered in Basel, central banks of G10 and emerging economies meet bimonthly to discuss the global economy.

At the same time, Trichet said that most of the monetary authorities maintain its emergency measures to support the financial system.

In relation to insurance defaulted debt / credits (Dafault Credit Swaps), the ECB president said that there was agreement that there would be good for central counterparties and that would be a way of allowing "the functioning of markets secure and more stable. "

The central bank governors of the G-10 did not discuss the necessity or desirability of establishing an institution similar to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at European level, as some politicians have suggested as German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble.

Member countries of the G10, a group that actually consists of eleven countries and accounts for 85 percent of the global economy, are Germany, Belgium, Canada, USA, France, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, UK, Sweden and Switzerland, the latter joined in 1984.

Information giant Microsoft, which had been low profile on the lookout for what happens with Google in China, announced that this year will spend $ 650 million in research and projects in this country.

Microsoft gives impetus and the strategy for the growth in the Chinese search market, although Google has threatened to withdraw from this market for censorship and attacks.

"Regardless of whether Google will stay or not, we will promote our projects progressively search and cloud computing," said Zhang Yaqin, Microsoft's chief for Asia and the Pacific.

Sony prepares to launch this year of a new smart phone ( 'smart phone') and a plane on which device may be used PlayStation games and those who intend to compete with Apple, according The Wall Street Journal.

"Threatened by the growing portfolio of portable devices from Apple, Sony Corp. is developing a new series of portable products, including a 'smart phone' with which you can download and use the PlayStation games," the newspaper in its edition digital.

The newspaper, citing as its source a person familiar with the matter, details that the other device in which the manufacturer works Japan is a combination of a laptop, electronic book readers and portable gaming console. This device would be called a plane to compete with Apple iPad announced.

The Australian company Arrow Energy confirmed it had received a nonbinding proposal to purchase valued at about A $ 3,300 million (2,200 million euros) by a company owned by Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina.

Specifically, the two Australian companies would pay $ 4.45 in cash (2.97 euros) per share, representing a premium of 28% over the closing price of the shares of Arrow on Friday, as well as participation in A new partnership between international assets of the Australian company, which will be put out to bag soon.

The luxury car manufacturer Audi February sales rose to 28.7% to 153,700 vehicles compared to the same period of 2009, the improvement in Western Europe, USA and China.

The brand with the four rings reported today that sales rose in the first two months of 85.9% in China (31,906), 35.7% in the U.S. (12,726), while in Western Europe made it a 12 , 1% (86,026), compared to the same period of 2009.

The Audi Sales director Peter Schwarzenbauer, predicted "a strong first quarter thanks to the leadership position in China and Western Europe. Audi, a Volkswagen subsidiary, sold in January and February 7032 in Spain cars, up 20.5% over the same months last year.

MetLife Insurance group has reached an agreement for the purchase of American Life Insurance Company (ALICO), the life insurance subsidiary of American International Group (AIG), for 15,500 million dollars (11,350 million) in cash and stock, as confirmed the entity.

Specifically, the largest life insurer in North America will pay U.S. $ 6800 million in cash (4,980 million), while the remaining 8,700 million dollars (6,370 million) will be paid in shares of MetLife, including 78.2 million shares common in the amount of 3,000 million and 6.9 million convertible preferred shares valued at 2,700 million dollars and another 40 million shares amounting to 3,000 million dollars. In addition, MetLife expects to partially fund the cash portion by issuing debt and common shares of the company.

Aviva closed the year 2009 with a net profit in Spain of 133 million euros, representing growth of 12% in a difficult year but in which the company managed to get its own way, said its chief executive, David Angulo.

The turnover of the entity reached 2.484 million euros, of which 1.827 million were for premiums and 657 million in pension contributions. The total number of funds managed was 13,720 million, up 3%.

Gross profit rose 13% to EUR 190 million, and confirms the strong performance of the group, which closed the year 2009 with an operating profit after tax of 1,315 million pounds, up from 885 million pounds of losses 2008.

Air France-KLM carried 4.77 million passengers last February, representing a decrease of 2.2% over the same period last year, the company reported today.

"The activity in February was affected by adverse weather conditions and by the four-day strike by French drivers," recalled the company, which amounted to EUR 22 million impact of both factors on their income.

The volume of investment in hotels in Spain during 2009 fell by 25% over the previous year to 540 million euros, "the credit crunch and the discrepancies between buyers and sellers in valuing assets," according to study of BNP Paribas Real Estate.

The projections for 2010 of the real estate division of financial services group ruled out a remarkable increase in the volume of investment in the hotel segment, "unless there is a correction of asset prices.

The report shows that 2010 will still be a difficult year, but is expected to increase transactions, due to improving economic conditions, the growing confidence of investors and the entry of new "stock" from the sale of assets difficulties.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, said the weekly Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the eurozone needs an institution with the expertise and authority of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, the minister denied that the alliance can accept monetary assistance from the IMF beyond technical assistance. Schaeuble believes that "the euro area points to solve their problems on their own," and called for strengthening cooperation among 16 countries.

The companies tighten their legal disputes to the threat of erosion of their core businesses.

The war that keeps the business triangle formed between Google, Apple and Microsoft has hardened in recent days. Even sparked nervousness among the three has resulted in litigation with a finish so unpredictable in its substance as in the period that may extend.

Two weeks ago, Google said in its blog that Brussels had begun an informal investigation after receiving several complaints about its form: a Foundem, British website dedicated to compare prices; Ejustice.fr, French form legal services and Ciao! from Bing, compare prices from Microsoft. In its statement, Google seemed to point to Microsoft as the instigator of the protests, saying the Redmond giant as well as being one of the complainants, was behind Foundem, which belongs to the association ICOMP, "funded in part by Microsoft."

Last week, Apple reported to HTC before U.S. courts for patent violation and called for preventing the import of Taiwanese manufacturers' terminals. A move interpreted as an attempt to stop Google and Microsoft, whose mobile operating systems, Android and Windows Mobile running on HTC terminals.

However, the attitude of Apple and Microsoft from Google no longer a normal market behavior. Before players were moving in different markets, now with the convergence, things have changed. 2.0 The war being waged in common services (search engines, operating systems, applications, smartphones, social networking, digital content ...) and will have to see how successful have the trickery that they get.

A new technological revolution is underway. The year 2010 is presented as the introduction of 3D televisions. After its success in films and video games, manufacturers and channels now look to consolidate the three dimensions in homes around the world through new TV channels.

The piracy and new technologies have led to the audiovisual industry to seek a permanent new video formats. From the high definition DVD formats like HD-DVD and Blu-Ray arrived with the hope that the images in high definition (1920x1080) would be more difficult to pirate and distribute. However, the increase in bandwidth, has facilitated this piracy.

Against this background, the industry has decided to bet on 3D technology to control content distribution and begin preparing the home audio market. The success of the film Avatar in 3D, "in its first two weeks has raised over one billion dollars worldwide and has established itself as the highest grossing in history, has finally convinced of the possibilities of this new technology.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, agreed Friday to create a Greco-German government commission that will support the modernization of Greece in various fields such as climate protection and the environment, energy policy, the scientific development and immigration policy.

Merkel said the Greek support for modernization in these areas is also to combat the crisis as it helps increase confidence in financial markets. "The Greek crisis will not affect the stability of the euro area and the expulsion from Greece of the system is not on the table," he added. With this sentence, Merkel showed his support for Greece to achieve redress the crisis through fiscal adjustment program. "Ireland has taken steps to reduce its deficit.

"We support Greece, because it is making efforts, or there will be no euro," said today the French head of state during the Salon de l'Agriculture in Paris on the eve of his meeting with Papandreou.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who receives Prime Minister Helen morning, Yorgos Papandreou said today that "you can not drop a euro area country" would endanger the single European currency.

Greek Prime Minister visited Paris in a European tour to find support for his country, who received political support from Germany last Friday in a meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, but not financial support.

"The euro is meaningless if there is solidarity between us," said President Gaul, after Merkel said yesterday that "Greece has not requested financial assistance and stability in the eurozone is guaranteed," so no one wonders whether Germany will help the country economically Mediterranean.

The NYSE has managed to finish the week with a positive balance, thus achieving two consecutive weeks of gains. At the meeting today, the signs of improvement in labor market with unemployment figures higher in February than expected, Have encouraged purchases significantly in the market. Thus, the Dow Jones has scored 1.17%, surpassing the 10,500 points.

This week the successful bond issue in Greece yesterday, coupled with the good reception given to market its austerity plan to reduce its deficit has brought calm to the markets. Moreover, echoing the words of the president of the Chicago Federal Reserve, Charles Evans, who said yesterday that until there is no evidence of sustained growth will not cure the monetary policy, helped to strengthen the climate of tranquility.

At the close on Wednesday, Tokyo stock market finished the session up 0.31%. The level of the currency exchange is favorable to the Japanese export values.

At closing, the Nippon market ended the session up 0.31% on Wednesday. The Nikkei was displayed at 10,253.14 points. For its part, the Topix, the broadest index, also rose 0.33% to 905.65 points.

On the foreign exchange market, the Japanese currency was traded at 88.68 yen to the dollar. This decline below the 90 yen against the dollar. This benefits the exporting companies that perform most of their activities abroad.