COLOMBO, April 10 () -- Nearly 15,000 electricity workers in Sri Lanka are preparing to go on strike ahead of an important festive season demanding higher salaries, a union leader said here Tuesday.Twenty-five trade unions affiliated with the state-owned Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) have decided to abstain from work on Wednesday, a day ahead of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year that is the most celebrated holiday in Sri Lanka.United Trade Union Front General Secretary H. A. Ranjan Jayalal told the media that the strike could result in power shortages around the country but insisted that it was the government's fault for not providing a 25-percent pay rise as demanded by the workers."It is not our intention to make consumers suffer but the government has refused to meet our demands. Given the rising cost of living, we have no other choice," he said.Higher fuel prices together with a weak currency have resulted in food price hikes in March.The Central Bank said that inflation was at 5.5 percent last month while several strikes including doctors and other public officials are planned for the weeks ahead.
TOKYO, Feb. 15 () -- Japan's economy contracted more than expected in the fourth quarter as manufacturers were pummeled by a strong yen, slowing global growth and floods in Thailand. While some economists are leaning towards the growth rate turning positive this year, a lot will hinge on the nation's ever-so fragile export sector.The 0.6 percent drop logged in the fourth quarter, in some instances, was more than double the size of economists' median forecasts and presents a further headache for the Japanese government, already grappling with post-earthquake reconstruction costs and trying to urge a reluctant nation to accept a doubling of its sales tax rate.Hence it would appear that based on these figures and coupled with weakening domestic demand, the fate of the world's third- largest economy could become yet more bleak if, on the back of four contractions in five quarters and a nearly 1.0 percent decline in industrial output, the debt-crisis in the eurozone rumbles on and exacerbates a global downturn.POSITIVE SPIN"We're hearing that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's government and the central bank are expecting an uptick this year," a representative from Nomura Holdings, Inc. in Tokyo told ."But the outlook is somewhat cloudy as so much is dependent on intangibles, such as debt contagion in the eurozone, national credit downgrades, the full implementation of reconstruction funding and the growth potential and demand from emerging economies," he said.To this point, Japan's Economy Minister Motohisa Furukawa said via the Cabinet Office that December's export figures boded well for the first half of this year and even went as far as saying that the momentum was likely to continue."In December, exports and production increased after the initial damage from flooding in Thailand, and if we take those factors into account and look at the overall economic situation, I think we can say that upward movement is continuing," the Economy Minister said in a statement.However, despite the positive spin, not even Furukawa could ignore the looming downside risks that have led to many private economists stating that the deflationary recession here was set to continue, compounded by skittish corporate capital spending, waning consumer and household sentiment and a harsh employment environment."We expect steady increase of exports amid moderate improvement of the global economy. However, we need to be fully aware of the downside risk," Furukawa said.While suggesting that the U.S. economy is showing signs of a moderate recovery, leading to a shift towards more positive global business sentiment, Furukawa had to concede, along with a consensus among observers close to the matter, that Japan can no longer rely on its core export sectors, which accounts for 16 percent of real GDP, to solely drive its economy forward."It's very important to create domestic demand in the fields of environment, energy and medical and nursing care services. We must switch from external demand-led growth," Furukawa said. "We've been saying this since the '80s," he added.Furukawa's notion speaks to broader problems inextricably linked to Japan's economic predicament and contributing to the nation last month posting its first trade deficit since 1980.The economy grew 1.7 percent in the July-September quarter as initial funds for post-quake reconstruction efforts were made available, but this spike was quashed by the yen surging to post- WW II highs against the U.S. dollar and fluctuating unfavorably against the euro due to the crisis in the single currency bloc there, triggering an exodus of Japanese manufacturers to overseas locations where operational costs are lower.But observers have said that this, in some cases, has culminated in a double negative for Japanese manufacturers and the export sector in general, as it has led to a hollowing out of the economy here. Noda, his finance ministry and the central bank are grappling with the phenomena, while Japanese manufacturers based in Thailand are still reeling from the effects of the flooding there, proving that production risks exist beyond foreign exchange rates and are a global concern.STREET LEVELAs Japan reluctantly comes to grips with the fact that it can no longer rely on external demand to keep its economy afloat or forever risk being at the mercy of exterior factors -- factors that led to Japan's economy shrinking 0.9 percent for the whole of 2011 compared to 2010 when GDP grew 4.4 percent on robust demand from emerging economies, yet contracting an almighty 5.5 percent in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis -- there are a myriad of domestic hitches that needs to be overcome. Such obstacles include the fact that consumer spending here is showing no signs of rising significantly. Consumer spending accounts for 60 percent of GDP and while the figure has remained relatively steady, unemployment, slumping TV sales and a general reluctance to spend after the March disasters are compounding stagnation in Japan."We're approaching Spring now and this is the time when there's a lot of personnel movement between companies in Japan," Graham Burt, a recruitment manager at the Specialized Group in Tokyo, told ."This is happening at a mid-career and executive levels and across a broad range of businesses spanning technology, finance and luxury goods-related companies, but the traffic has slowed significantly since the Lehman crash, although admittedly there was an upswing in 2010," Burt said.He went on to say that there was a reluctance among corporations to expand their workforces in uncertain economic times, and with corporate spending budgets being cut to lower overheads, meaning less local hires, coupled with employees themselves less likely to actively seek new positions amid such economic turbulence, public sentiment has dropped."As a wife, mother and housekeeper I am cautious about spending when I don't have to, and we've cut a lot of the luxuries we used to enjoy, such as eating out, from our monthly budget," said Minami Kaeda, an elementary school teacher at a local school in Tokyo's Setagaya district."But as a working professional I would not consider switching jobs, even if a more profitable position at another school or related work became available and my husband, who is a systems engineer at a large firm says the same.""We would choose stability over profit right now and I don't see this changing anytime soon. History has taught us that Japan's economy is set to struggle for years to come," Kaeda said, adding that as far as her family, friends and colleagues were concerned any spin-doctoring from politicians or economists would continue to fall on deaf ears.
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