Business and Financial News

All European Union countries, except Britain and the Czech Republic, agreed Monday to sign up to a new treaty designed to stop overspending on the eurozone and put an end to the bloc’s crippling debt crisis, while also pledging to stimulate growth across the region.

The new treaty, agreed at a summit of European leaders in Brussels Monday, is known as the fiscal compact and includes strict debt brakes and makes it more difficult for deficit sinners to escape sanctions. The 17-country eurozone hopes that the tighter rules will convince investors that all countries will get their debts under control and restore confidence in their joint currency.

“We have a majority of 25 that will now sign up to the fiscal compact,” said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

Although the new rules only apply to the 17 euro states, the currency union was hoping to get broad support from the other EU states, in the hope that the accord could eventually be integrated into the main EU treaty.

Britain had already said in December that they wouldn’t sign the new treaty.

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NASHVILLE — Tennessee’s Attorney General and Piedmont Natural Gas Co. have reached an agreement that reduces Piedmont’s pending request for a rate increase by almost 30 percent.

According to Attorney General Bob Cooper, the reduction will save Tennessee ratepayers $4.8 million.

The agreement was approved at a Tennessee Regulatory Authority hearing Monday. I

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Creating an Affiliate Network

Online marketing is preferred by both small and big businesses today, because it is convenient and affordable. However, business owners may not be able to allocate enough time for it, to get the desired results. This is where affiliate marketing comes in.

Understanding Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a way of promoting your products and services via third parties or intermediaries called affiliate marketers. These marketers make use of the online marketing tools like blogs, articles, websites and online mailing lists to promote your products on the internet. So, the success of your affiliate program is largely dependent on the efficiency of marketers you select.

An affiliate program works irrespective of your industry or type of business, the size of your business and the product or service you are promoting.

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The mining and quarrying sector was the major recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) into South Africa in 2009, followed by the manufacturing and financial sectors, according to the latest South Africa Survey, to be published by the South African Institute of Race Relations next week.

A comprehensive section on the composition of both local and foreign investment is included in the survey.

FDI in the mining and quarrying sector as a proportion of total FDI stock as opposed to flow increased from 5.7% in 1989 to 33.4% in 2009.

Meanwhile, investment in the manufacturing sector decreased from 47% in 1989 to 27.9% in 2009 and investment in the financial sector increased from 26.5% in 1989 to 39.3% in 2000, and subsequently decreased to 27.1% in 2009, according to the data sourced from the South African Reserve Bank.

South African FDI in African countries in 2009 amounted to R116-billion, with the largest proportion being held in Mauritius (42.6%), followed by Mozambique (5.5%).

FDI flows to South Africa decreased by 71% from $5.4-billion in 2009 to $1.6-billion in 2010, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development World Investment Report 2011.

Foreign direct investment flows to South Africa as a proportion of gross fixed capital formation decreased from 14.5% in 2008 to 8.4% in 2009, and to 1.9% in 2010, despite increased flows to developing countries as a whole. Read more…

Hartford’s rock bottom commercial real estate market is attracting investors looking for a sweet deal on office buildings.

Among the interested shoppers is the state of Connecticut.

While many state and local governments have considered selling property in recent years to generate short-term revenue, Connecticut is seeking to purchase a large office building as part of a new long-term strategy to consolidate its leased space holdings into state-owned property, sources say.

Last year, the state quietly put out multiple requests for proposals asking Greater Hartford and other Connecticut landlords for offers on buildings with more than 100,000 square feet of space.

Sources say the state has looked at several significant downtown Hartford properties including the 556,000-square-foot Connecticut River Plaza, which is currently undergoing an $8.5 million renovation. <

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The British government’s plan to reduce its borrowings appeared to be on track in November, official figures showed Wednesday, even as the country’s economy remains threatened from the debt crisis in Europe, rising unemployment and weak domestic growth.

The Bank of England’s rate-setting body said it expects to see some economic recovery in late 2012, but warned that volatility in the 17-nation eurozone could dent Britain’s growth.

Minutes of the last meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee showed that all nine members voted to keep the benchmark interest rate at the all-time low of 0.5 percent and to maintain the monetary stimulus at 275 billion pounds ($433 billion).

The rate-setters, who are tasked with keeping inflation around the 2 percent level, said they expected price pressures to ease quite dramatically next year from 5 percent in October, largely because the factors that drove prices higher in 2011, including higher sales taxes and energy prices, drop out of the annual comparison.

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Groupon may be the hot Internet company du jour, but it didn’t spring from a traditional startup bastion like Silicon Valley or Boston.

The group-discount firm that began offering shares to the public on Friday is headquartered in Chicago, and serves as proof that startup success can happen far from the coasts. On Thursday, Tennessee officials unveiled a plan that aims to smooth the path for entrepreneurs who are looking to cultivate a big idea in the Volunteer State.

Gov. Bill Haslam and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty announced that nine “entrepreneurial accelerators” will be established throughout the state, including one that will be led by the University of Tennessee’s Anderson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Lynn Youngs, executive director of the Anderson Center, said the ultimate goal is business and job creation and that a big part of the accelerator’s mission will be to make the region aware of resources that already exist.

He said any applicant who comes through the door will be evaluated and steered toward their best path for success.

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