Business News Online

France will not need to introduce austerity measures in response to increased debt exposure from the euro zone’s new rescue plan for Greece, its finance minister said on Saturday.

Francois Baroin said in an interview with French daily Le Monde that the government would be able to maintain its deficit reduction targets and would not be “impoverished” as a result of the bailout.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Friday that the package for Athens agreed by euro zone leaders late on Thursday would increase France’s debt by some 15 billion euros by 2014, though it would not otherwise directly impact its public finances.

Baroin, who recently succeeded IMF-bound Christine Lagarde, told the newspaper: “France is participating in the form of a guarantee.

“…Since last year, European statisticians have told us that the debt of the European Financial Stability Facility (bailout fund) should be linked to each country according to what it guaranteed.

“Beyond that accounting impact, France doesn’t need to borrow more and our deficit isn’t impacted. Read more…

Motivational speakers and self-improvement books pitching the message that success will come easily to you if only you believe it will, could just as well be selling snake-oil, says Harvard Business Review.

The Management Tip of the Day offers quick, practical management tips and ideas from Harvard Business Review and HBR Any opinions expressed are not endorsed by Reuters.

“If you believe you will succeed, you will. Right? Not quite. Research has shown that optimism and the confidence it brings will help you reach your goals, but there is no guarantee.

In fact, if you believe that success will come easily to you, you are more likely to disappoint. This is because you’ll fail to put in the necessary work.

You need to think positively but also be realistic about what achievement entails. Knowing that success is hard won forces you to put in the necessary effort. Don’t spend too much time visualizing the end result. Read more…

We like to think of summer as a time of rest and relaxation but for many small business owners, nothing could be further from the truth. Rather than lounging on lawn chairs, we’re on the phone, online, on the move as changed schedules and vacations make it even tougher than usual to juggle business, family and play.

If ‘busy’ and ‘stressed’ describe you, knock some of the stress out of summer with my 11 Time Management Tips.

These other time management resources of mine will also help make it easier to balance your work and life while still accomplishing what you need to do:

South Africa’s targeted consumer inflation quickened to its highest level in 15 months in June, data showed on Wednesday, but this was in line with market expectations and not likely to persuade the Reserve Bank against leaving interest rates unchanged.

CPI quickened to 5% year-on-year in June — bang in line with forecasts– from 4.6% in May, and slowed as expected to 0.4% month-on-month from 0.5%, Statistics South Africa data showed.

Government bonds extended their gains, but traders said this was more in response to the firmer rand on the day, as investor aversion to risk assets abates a little.

The yield on the 2015 bond fell to 7.46%, down 4.5 basis points on the day, from 7.506% prior to the CPI date.

Food inflation remained the main driver of the increase in overall CPI, rising to 7.1% year-on-year from 6.1% in May.

Analysts said the Reserve Bank would most likely still hold its repo rate steady at 5.5% when it concludes a three day policy meeting on Thursday.

“We still expect the MPC to maintain its wait-and-see policy until there is greater evidence of ‘more generalized inflation’, either due to second-round effects from higher commodity prices or price pressures emanating from firmer domestic demand,” Nedbank said.

“Latest statistics on local and international growth have not been encouraging and we would therefore still expect the Reserve Bank … Read more…

There was an 8.3% increase in the number of high net-worth individuals (HNWI) last year.

The 10.9 million dollar millionaires — each with at least $1-million to invest — boast assets in the region of $42.7-trillion. This is according to the World Wealth Report 2011, distributed by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management.

The good news for Africa is that our HNWI tally is growing faster than the global average, up by 11% over the same period. The people mentioned in the World Wealth Report didn’t make the ‘rich list’ overnight.

“Wealth accumulation takes place over time,” says Lara Warburton, MD of Imara Asset Management, South Africa. “And it is interesting that wealthy individuals — often financial directors with plenty of money smarts — are happy to trust a professional wealth advisor, while those who know much less about investing prefer to do it themselves.”

The rich become richer because they understand their limitations and focus on making new money rather than on ‘nuts and bolts’ investment decisions. Read more…

Workers in the coal sector will go on strike following failed wage negotiations, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Wednesday.

“We have deadlocked. We have received a strike certificate and we are going on strike,” spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said.

On Thursday, the NUM would give employers the necessary 48-hours notice of the strike and would discuss the date of the strike with its 150 000 members in the coal sector, he said.

“We will definitely serve notice [on Thursday], there is no question about it.”

Seshoka said the talks deadlocked after employers offered a final wage increase of 7%. The union was demanding 14%.

“We cannot accept that. We have totally rejected it because that is not according to our mandate,” he said.

‘Powerful’ strike
The only way to increase the wage offer was to have a “powerful strike”.

“A powerful strike is a strike that lasts more than a week. Read more…