Voices and Trends in Global Business,July 2013

Apple has been slowing iPhone production,said Brian Blair,a senior research analyst at Wedge Partners.We believe there's been a 20% haircut to iPhone production.Most of the component suppliers will stay the same,despite the cuts. Apple's been cutting because they've been watching market leader Samsung,which hasn't been selling as many smart phones as they thought they would.The market for high end smart phones is slowing,and Apple's been responding to that. The IMF has cut its annualised global growth forecast from 3.3% in April to 3.1% in July.Their forecasts for commodity prices,as well as Russian,Brazilian and Spanish growth,were also lowered.The cause of the revision is the downturn in emerging markets and the lengthy Euro-zone recession. Hong Kong property agents marched against government price curbs over the weekend.Up to 5500 agents demonstrated,appalled at the fact that Q2 real estate transactions were at a two decade low because of new taxes and marketing restrictions.About a third of estate agents stand to lose their jobs in consequence. The government measures are making things worse,according to Michael Kilbaner of Jones Lang Lasalle.The rise in property prices both reflects and impacts the strength of the economy.A lot of the movement is really in tier one and upper echelon tier two property.A two bedroom flat in Hong Kong goes for a half million US dollars,with a similar price in Beijing.