Chinese trial over fake receipts

Five men are to appear in court in China charged with producing fake receipts that could have cost the state billions of dollars, state media said.

The men are accused of forging over one million receipts worth a total of $147bn (£72bn) at a factory in Guizhou province.

Police identified the fraud after seizing a batch of the fake receipts in August 2007.

It is the largest such case in over 50 years, a local security official said.

'Almost the same'

The authorities found the first batch of fake receipts on a coach travelling between Guizhou and Yunnan provinces.

This led police to one of the suspects and from there to the factory in Guizhou's Xingyi county.

"The fake receipts that were confiscated could load two lorries," Chai Jiaping, deputy head of the Qujing Municipal Public Security Bureau, told Xinhua news agency.

The five men will be tried at Luoping County People's Court in neighbouring Yunnan province.

"The fake receipts look almost the same as the real ones," Tang Xiaozhou, Luoping's taxation chief, told Xinhua.

"Consumers and even the tax collectors find it hard to distinguish."

"If put into the market, the national treasury would have lost more than 75bn yuan ($10.5bn, £5bn) in tax revenue."

Because of China's rapid economic growth, tax revenues have soared in recent years.

But the authorities have admitted that they need to improve tax collection, and take more action against people failing to report their true income.

There is an active black market for fake receipts in China, which companies can use to claim tax rebates on business expenses.

Last month Li Linjun, spokesman for the State Administration of Taxation, announced a crackdown on fake receipts.

A “people's car” from India

Jan 10th 2008 | DELHI
From Economist.com

India's Tata Motors reveals a car that will sell for some $2,500

RATAN TATA, chairman of the Tata group of companies, has a cerebral and cordial manner. But the so-called “one-lakh car”, which Tata Motors unveiled in Delhi to a rapt public on Thursday January 10th, is a product of impatience and chutzpah. Instead of waiting for the great swell of prosperity in India and elsewhere to create millions of customers for his company’s products, Mr Tata has decided to wade out—further than any one has gone before—to bring a car to them.

In India one lakh means 100,000, and Tata will sell the most basic version of its new car at 100,000 rupees, or $2,500 (not including taxes and the cost of transporting it to the showrooms). This is roughly half the price of its nearest rival, and little more than the cost of a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw. But the “nano”, as the car is called, is no rickshaw. Apart from the fourth wheel and the doors, it has a 623cc engine that will muster 33 brake horsepower. The car should eke out 50 miles to the gallon, Mr Tata says. It complies with the “Euro III” pollution standards that prevail in India and should meet the tougher Euro IV standards with a bit of tweaking. The firm claims that the car produces less pollution than some two-wheelers produced in India today.

Tata Motors is best known for its trucks, lovingly decorated and recklessly driven, that clatter along India’s highways. It started making small passenger cars only a decade ago. Its low-cost car project has set a trend. Mr Tata says he is “quite gratified” that other firms are following suit. Bajaj Auto, which is known for its two- and three-wheelers, said on January 8th that it hoped to team up with Renault and Nissan to produce its own low-cost car. Fiat, Ford, Honda and Toyota also have cheap models in the works. Tata may discover a market, only for others to crowd into it. “It’s not our God-given domain,” says Mr Tata.

Cheap cars can be expensive to invent. Tata experimented with a smaller engine, but was dissatisfied with its performance. It hoped to use continuous-variable transmission, but had to make do, for now, with manual. Tata’s rivals may be able to free-ride on its efforts, copying the cost-cutting tricks it had to discover through painstaking trial and error. “It will be an easier task for them than it was for us,” Mr Tata admits.

Competitors will, for example, notice how Tata shrank the car into what its chairman calls a “concise package”, with the powertrain at the back and the wheels at the “extremities”. The result is 21% bigger inside than the Maruti 800, says Ravi Kant, the managing director of Tata Motors, but is only 80% as long. That will, at least, shorten the traffic jams to which the nano will contribute. Congestion could be a big problem, if millions more cars are to take to the roads. The country's poor-quality road network is slowly improving, but it is heavily over-used. With India's transport arteries already so badly clogged, a boom in sales of low-cost cars could bring about a seizure.

Commuting in India’s cities can be both cosy and deadly. Children squeeze snugly between father at the handlebars of a motorcycle, and mother riding side-saddle at the back. This precarious balancing act, says Mr Tata was the “visual target” he had in mind when he first conceived of the need “to create another form of transport”. About 1,800 people die on Delhi’s roads each year, perhaps one-third of them on two-wheelers. Only 5% die in cars. Tata’s project may pose risks for investors, but it promises unaccustomed safety for customers.

Venezuela Introduces New Currency

By JORGE RUEDA
Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela launched a new currency with the new year, lopping off three zeros from denominations in a bid to simplify finances and boost confidence in a money that has been losing value due to high inflation.

President Hugo Chavez's government says the new currency - dubbed the "strong bolivar" - will make daily transactions easier and cure some accounting headaches. Officials also say it is part of a broader effort to contain rising prices and strengthen the economy.

"We're ending a historical cycle of ... instability in prices," Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas said Monday, adding that the change aims to "recover a bolivar that has significant buying capacity."

Prices have risen as Chavez has pumped increased amounts of the country's oil income into social programs, reinforcing his support among the poor and helping to drive 8.4 percent economic growth in 2007.

The Central Bank is promoting the new monetary unit with an ad campaign and the slogan: "A strong economy, a strong bolivar, a strong country." Officials, however, have yet to clearly spell out their anti-inflationary measures.

Some Venezuelan critics, meanwhile, have dubbed the new currency the "weak bolivar," noting its predecessor, the bolivar, has seen its purchasing power suffer in an economy where inflation ran roughly 20 percent in 2007 - the highest in Latin America.

Venezuelan economist and pollster Luis Vicente Leon said that while the new currency may provide "the perception of stability" for some, it is largely a "cosmetic change."

Government officials say the change is overdue to bring Venezuelan denominations into line with those of other countries in the region. Instead of denominations in the thousands, the largest new Venezuelan note will be 100 strong bolivars.

"It was necessary to leave behind the consequences of a history of high inflation," Central Bank president Gaston Parra said in a televised year-end speech. He said officials aim "to reinforce confidence in the monetary symbol."

The new money was distributed to banks and automated teller machines nationwide ahead of Tuesday's launch and will be phased in during the next six months. Venezuelans will be able to use both old and new bolivars during the transition.

Venezuela has had a fixed exchange rate since February 2003, when Chavez imposed currency and price controls. The government has said it is not considering a devaluation any time soon.

But while the strong bolivar's official exchange rate will be fixed as 2.15 to $1, the black market rate has hovered around the equivalent of 5.60 to $1 recently.

Venezuela's currency has long been named after independence hero Simon Bolivar, who is pictured on the new 100 strong bolivar bill.

The new money is the latest in a series of changes to national symbols during Chavez's presidency. He also redesigned the national seal and flag, and renamed the country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

With the new currency, the government is also resurrecting a 12.5-cent coin, called the "locha," which existed during Chavez's childhood but has not been used since the 1970s.



source: The Associated Press

Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro

Two Mediterranean island states, Cyprus and Malta, have begun using the euro, joining 13 other countries.

The countries' leaders made symbolic withdrawals of euros from cash machines just minutes into the New Year.

Major bank branches opened for a few hours in Cyprus despite the New Year holiday. The Maltese celebrated the euro's arrival with fireworks.

Cyprus and Malta have added just 1.2 million people to the number of Europeans using the single currency.

But they will have equal voting rights with the other 13 eurozone members at the European Central Bank.

Careful preparations

Both island nations prepared for the changeover thoroughly.

FACTS ABOUT MALTA Population: 407,000 Size: 316 sq km (122 sq miles), the smallest member of the eurozone GDP: 4.8bn euros (0.06% of total eurozone GDP) Biggest earners: Tourism, manufacturing but growth in financial services, IT Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi is also Finance Minister Independent from UK in 1964

In Cyprus 300,000 currency converters were sent to households, while in Malta a euro telephone hotline has been running alongside 59 "euro centres".

The switchover in Cyprus will highlight the decades-old division between the south and the Turkish-controlled north of the island.

The Turkish lira remains the primary currency in northern Cyprus, which is outside the European Union and is recognised only by Turkey.

But Cyprus' euro coins are inscribed in both Greek and Turkish.

Aware of the previous experiences of some other eurozone members, Cyprus and Malta are watching retailers to ensure they do not use the changeover to round up their prices, contributing to inflation.

The Cypriot government urged companies to round their prices down, while Malta signed 12 price stabilisation agreements with importers, which will last until March 2008.

Both the Maltese lira and the Cyprus pound will be legal tender until the end of January.

Commercial banks in Malta will exchange Maltese lira into euros free of charge until the end of March, and the central bank will allow exchange of lira notes until 2018.

In Cyprus, euros can be exchanged free of charge until the end of June and the central bank will allow exchange of pound notes until 2017.

Big benefits

Scrapping currency exchange costs and adopting a major currency raise hopes of a big boost to the islands' industries.

FACTS ABOUT CYPRUS Population: 778,000 (Greek Cypriots) Size (combined): 9,251 sq km (3,572 sq miles) GDP: 15.2bn euros (0.17% of total eurozone GDP) Biggest earners: Finance and tourism account for almost 80% GDP Independent from UK in 1960, Turkish northern Cyprus not part of EU

Malta is already enjoying a tourism boom, with double-digit growth expected this year, largely due to the arrival of low-cost airlines.

But it is also planning to become a magnet for hi-tech investment.

Several pharmaceutical companies have established research centres in Malta to develop generic copies of patented drugs.

And the German airline Lufthansa signed an agreement in 2007 for Malta to maintain and overhaul its planes.

The Cypriot Finance Minister, Michalis Sarris, has said the euro will benefit consumers and businesses alike because of the eurozone's low inflation, low interest rates and large market.

In the Turkish-controlled north many businesses have already begun accepting the euro and cross-border commerce is flourishing.

In 2003, the Turkish Cypriot authorities opened crossing points, prompting Turkish Cypriot shoppers to go south in search of greater choice and Greek Cypriots to head north for bargains and casinos.

The euro will also become legal tender on British military bases in Cyprus, the first part of sovereign British territory to adopt the currency.

Although the bases at Dhekelia, Episkopi and RAF Akrotiri are not officially part of the European Union, an estimated 10,000 Cypriots live or work there.

Residents use the shops, cafes and beaches on the bases, so the authorities in the sovereign base areas have decided to adopt the same rules as the Cypriot government.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7165622.stm

Published: 2008/01/01 14:00:42 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

The dollar and the world economy

Dec 19th 2007
From the Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire

Why the dollar should stabilise next year

The global economy, already beset by financial market turmoil and slowing US growth, is now confronted by the risk that the gradual decline of the US dollar could run out of control. In addition to the weakening outlook for the US, there are fears that central banks could suddenly move to dump their huge dollar reserves or that Middle Eastern countries could abandon their pegs to the dollar. Our baseline scenario is for the dollar to stabilise in 2008 before beginning to appreciate. But a US recession or other factors that could lead to a loss of confidence in the dollar pose major risks to this scenario. A dollar crisis would be very damaging for the global economy, making the expected slowdown much deeper and more protracted.

Dollar decline
The financial market turmoil that begun in August has put serious pressure on the US dollar: by end-November the dollar had fallen by some 6% since August against a trade-weighted currency basket tracked by the US Federal Reserve. Dollar weakness is not a new issue: the currency has lost a quarter of its value against a broader range of currencies over the past five years. However, there are fears that, in the current environment, the dollar's decline could turn into a rout.

Much of the reason for the dollar's decline lies in economic fundamentals: notably the large US current-account deficit, which reached 6.2% of GDP in 2006. Dollar weakening has been accelerated partly by the cyclical divergence between the US (where growth is weakening owing to the fallout from the subprime mortgage mess) and the rest of the world (where growth remains robust), and by the associated widening of interest rate differentials following cuts by the US Federal Reserve. The subprime debacle and ensuing turmoil on credit markets have also hit the dollar because uncertainty centres on dollar-denominated assets and confidence in the resilience of the US financial system has been shaken. Net private capital inflows into the US have weakened sharply since August.

Finally, current difficulties have reinforced some investors' worries about the longer-term role of the dollar as a reserve currency in the global economy. Immediate concerns are that central banks and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) sitting on huge piles of dollars, such as China and several oil producers, could dump their dollar assets out of fear of capital losses from dollar depreciation. Similarly, there are concerns that the dollar could be hit if those central banks that currently peg their currencies to the dollar shift to different exchange-rate regimes. One reason for this, particularly for countries in the Middle East and for China, would be to ease inflationary pressures that are building as the US currency weakens.

Road to recovery
In our baseline scenario for the global economy, the dollar is likely to stabilise in 2008 before beginning to recover later in the year--we forecast an average rate against the euro falling from US$1.37€1 in 2007 to US$1.46:€1 in 2008, before recovering to US$1.33:€1 in 2009. The US currency is likely to continue to weaken against the yen into the medium term, but this is mainly because the yen will appreciate strongly as Japanese interest rates rise and the carry trade unwinds.

The main reason to expect the dollar's fortunes to improve is that by late 2008 the current hysteria on global markets should have abated, and US growth should be beginning to emerge from a period of weakness, allowing for calmer consideration of the relative strengths of the US economy. Robust productivity growth in a global context (even allowing for concerns over weaker US productivity growth in the coming years) and comfortable demographics support the case for a relatively bright long-term outlook and hence provide good grounds for the dollar to strengthen. Once the US's economy's downturn and weaker dollar have reduced the US external imbalance, we expect the currency to appreciate into the longer term.

It is likely to be supported in 2008 by interest rate dynamics. We believe that markets exaggerate the case for monetary policy easing in the US next year and the Fed funds rate will still stand at 3.75% at the end of 2008. This would lead to some strengthening pressure for the dollar, as investors readjust their interest rate expectations. The US currency may also be supported against the euro by an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank, although the uncertainty about this is high.

Finally, we believe that a large-scale shifting of public foreign reserves out of the dollar is highly unlikely. The investment horizon of these entities tends to be long-term, and, as we have argued, over the longer-term the dollar should appreciate. Even in so far as central banks and SWFs with large US dollar assets are concerned about short-term losses, they will be held back by concerns that any disposal of the currency would trigger even bigger capital losses on their remaining stock of US dollar assets. Moves away from a dollar peg should also have only a limited impact on demand for the dollar—we currently do not expect the Gulf states to re-peg—and even if they did, they would probably move to a basket of currencies dominated by the dollar, mitigating the impact on dollar reserve holdings.

Considerable risks
Nevertheless, the risks of the dollar's decline into 2008 turning into a rout are high. Most importantly, there are downside risks to our US growth forecasts, notably from a continuation of the recent financial market turmoil beyond what we currently expect, or from a greater-than-expected impact on consumer demand from the correction in the US housing market. The dollar will also remain exposed for much of 2008 to nervousness among investors about the US current-account deficit and about shifts in central bank and SWF holdings and in exchange rate regimes.

These factors could easily lead to a further sharp fall that could see the dollar clear the US$1.60:€1 threshold. Co-ordinated countermeasures by the G7 would probably put a floor under the dollar. Nevertheless, a full-blown dollar crisis, coming on top of the credit crunch and a weakening US economy, would be disastrous for the global economy.

A dollar slump would hit financial markets hard, and could force the Fed to raise US interest rates just as the economy was slowing, pushing the US into a protracted recession. At the same time, the euro would bear the brunt of the dollar's weakening: further euro appreciation would substantially reduce growth in Europe (we estimate that a 10% rise of the euro in nominal effective terms would cut growth in th euro zone by a third of a percentage point). The downturn for the global economy already expected as a result of recent financial market turmoil would therefore be much deeper and more protracted.

De-dollarfication
Even under our baseline scenario, in which the dollar avoids a sharp slump in the short term, there are substantial risks to the currency in the medium to long term. A period of below-potential domestic demand growth in the US will contribute to a moderate shrinking of the external deficit to around 4% in 2010 followed by a stabilisation in subsequent years, but this will still leave the deficit at a high level. Foreign investors will not accept low returns on their US holdings for ever, particularly as the US becomes a smaller part of the global economy and the supply of financial assets from emerging markets continues to develop, raising investment opportunities outside of the US. The dollar will therefore remain exposed to shifts in sentiment into the medium term.

Moreover, given structural shifts in the global economy, an end to the dollar's hegemonic status (as an international means of exchange and reserve currency of choice) may be inevitable in the longer term. This shift could be stable or disorderly—but it could yet occur gradually, and certainly need not imply a slump in the dollar in the short-term.


Source: The Economist

Yes, Google Is Trying To Take Over the World

Next step: Take out Ma Bell.
By Tim Wu
Posted Friday, Nov. 16, 2007, at 2:33 PM ET

When Google conquered Internet search in the early 2000s, it was strictly a Web company and faced only Web competitors. Since then it has only rarely ventured out of the friendly confines of the Web world. The 2005 launch of its controversial "book search," which enraged the New York publishing industry, shows what can happen when Google leaves its comfort zone. Now, with its recently announced plans to enter wireless communications, Google is making its deepest foray yet into a foreign territory where its allies are few. It faces the challenge of not just entering the wireless world but also converting its inhabitants. Provided that Google has the nerve and resources to try to remake wireless in its image, it'll either prove its greatest triumph or its Waterloo.

Let's start with what, exactly, Google is doing. In Google's words, its recently unveiled "Android" is the "first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices." But it is a signal of much more. Google is as much an ideology as a firm and can resemble a nation-state in its pursuit of power rather than a mere corporation chasing quarterly numbers. Google and its allies are now trying to make the principles of openness—the commanding ideology of the Internet—the conquering principle of the wireless world, and the Android announcement is just the first step.

Android is, in form, another of Google's giveaway strategies, a Linux-based operating system for mobile phones that comes with a free set of tools that should make it easy for any programmer to write applications for a mobile phone. It's clear that any Android-based Gphone will be far more "open" than any cell phone the world has yet seen. That means any developer, anywhere, will be able to build whatever functions they think make sense for a mobile computer, and users will be able to install whatever they want. In comparison, today's cell phones, smartphones, and the Apple iPhone are closed and controlled platforms. We have no idea what the killer apps for a Gphone might be, and that's what makes Android truly revolutionary

Who, if anyone, is threatened by Android? Since it is an operating system and Microsoft makes operating systems, some journalists have written about Microsoft as the company that Google is challenging. That's a mistake. Yes, Google's Android will supplement and may someday displace Microsoft or Symbian (another leading mobile OS). But neither Microsoft nor Symbian is the true obstacles to Google's larger plans. They are rivals, yes, but neither Symbian nor Microsoft can stop Android or the development of Gphones.

Google's truest and most formidable foes are much older and more powerful. Today we call them Verizon and AT&T, but their real name is the Bell system. Their ideology, which today governs the cell phone world, is called "Vailism," and it can be traced back to 1907 and the origins of AT&T's domination of American telephony. The Bells' philosophy, as promulgated by AT&T's greatest president, Theodore Vail, is based on closed systems, centralized power, and as much control as possible over every part of the network. Vailism is the antithesis, in short, of everything Google stands for. It is this—conquering the business culture of the telephone, as opposed to the computer—that is Google's great challenge.

If that sounds abstract, we can make it more concrete. Over the coming years we can expect the Bell system to do everything in its power to destroy or subjugate Google. That's what history suggests; for since 1894 or so, the Bell system has swallowed or eliminated almost all of its would-be rivals. As one historian writes, in the early 1900s Bell would bankrupt competitors, and then "in truly medieval fashion, pile the instruments in the street and burn them, as a horrible example for the future."

As that suggests, bad things tend to happen to firms that challenge Bell. While actual burning of equipment is rarer these days, the Bells do still run the industry, in part, through terror. Almost every firm in the wireless world is, somehow, connected to AT&T or Verizon, and to defy them or even speak out is to risk retaliation. That's why Google's venture might be compared to trying to start a new waste management firm on Tony Soprano's street.

What gives AT&T and Verizon real power over the wireless world? It is their control over spectrum, retail, and government, three areas where Google, as of now, is very weak, and where it must depend entirely on its allies. Spectrum is the one physically scarce resource in the wireless world, and those who control the airwaves have the power to call the shots by denying access to those who do not behave. That's why so much turns on the loyalty of Google's carrier partners, T-Mobile and Sprint, for they are serious players with spectrum. If, as is likely, AT&T and Verizon refuse to allow any Gphones on their networks, the reach of Android may be limited.

Nor is the problem of retailing Android phones trivial. Anyone with an Internet browser can use Google search or Gmail, but in the American mobile world the main barrier to market entry is reaching consumers. Today, more than 90 percent of Americans buy their wireless devices from their carriers. It is true, again, that Google has T-Mobile and Sprint provisionally on its side. But if only some outlets will sell a Gphone, fewer people will buy them.

Finally, the Bells are strong enough in Washington to try to use government as a tool against Google. The exact mechanisms can be hard for anyone but a seasoned telecommunications attorney to understand. But where there's a lobbyist, there's a way to make life difficult for a market entrant. Don't be surprised if Google's wireless division or Google itself begins to face new pressure from the FCC, antitrust authorities, or other sympathetic government bodies.

If these challenges sound daunting, they are. They explain why a once-radical company like Apple, when it launched the iPhone, bowed to the carriers instead of trying to fight them. But you'd also be crazy to underestimate Google and its incentives for waging this war. Unlike, say, book search, or some of Google's other stalled ventures, conquering wireless may very well be do or die, if the long-term future does indeed lie in mobile computing. And to the extent that Google is already a part of the broader war between open and closed systems, attacking the wireless world gives Google and its allies a chance to go on the offensive. It means that Google can spend less energy defending the Web from the Bells and cable companies in the ongoing struggle for net neutrality.

What Google has on its side is lots of money, smart employees, and some important allies. But most important is its conviction that it is on the side of history. Google believes that the ideology of openness must win out, and that the Bell system will collapse under its own contradictions. For a firm, Google has an astonishing sense of its manifest destiny. As one Google executive told me recently, "We don't do something unless we are convinced we will do it an order of magnitude better."

That's why it must be understood that Android is just an initial step. Next, Google or its partners must do whatever they must to get their hands on more spectrum to establish a beachhead of true openness in the wireless world. Provided Google continues to have the nerve and resources, we'll likely remember the Android announcement as the beginning of a long, drawn-out battle for ideological supremacy in the world of wireless.

Source: Slate.com

Amazon margins a concern despite profit jump

Tuesday October 23, 4:49 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Online retailer Amazon.com (NasdaqGS:AMZN - News) on Tuesday reported operating profit margins that concerned some analysts despite a sharp rise in quarterly earnings, and its shares fell 9 percent.

Despite bullish investor sentiment on the world's largest Internet retailer, some on Wall Street have warned that recent gains in operating profit margin are not sustainable, and that more periods of investment spending at Amazon are inevitable.

"What doesn't seem to have flown through is the operating margin performance that a lot of the bullish analyst scenarios had been betting (on)," said Global Crown Capital analyst Martin Pyykkonen. "What they are saying to me is that there is no 'off to the races' operating margin," Pyykkonen said.

Amazon, which delighted investors with impressive results in the first two quarters of the year, said third-quarter net income more than quadrupled to $80 million, or 19 cents per share, from $19 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 41 percent to $3.26 billion.

The results beat average Wall Street estimates of 18 cents per share in profit on $3.13 billion in revenue, according to Reuters Estimates.

Operating income rose to $123 million from $40 million, above its own forecast for a range of $75 million to $110 million.

For the fourth quarter, Amazon said it expects net sales of $5.1 billion to $5.45 billion, with operating income of $221 million to $291 million.

Analysts, on average, have been expecting fourth-quarter net sales of $5.14 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Seattle-based Amazon, the second-most-popular e-commerce site behind auctioneer eBay Inc (NasdaqGS:EBAY - News), has pared back the rate of its spending this year, which helped improve margins and boost earnings growth while pushing up its share price 136 percent since January 3.

But many analysts deem Amazon fully-valued -- its price-earnings ratio is far higher than Internet companies and retail rivals. Amazon trades at 59 times projected forward-looking earnings, compared with eBay at 22 times, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT - News) at 13 times estimated 2008 earnings.

Amazon shares dropped to $91.58 from a Nasdaq close of $100.82 -- its first close above the $100 mark since 2000.

Source: Reuters