ComfortDelGro to revise cab fares

TAXI fares for many commuters are likely to go up from Monday after Singapore's largest taxi operator, ComfortDelGro, revises its fare structure.

The company said yesterday in a statement that its new fare structure will include reductions in the peak-hour surcharge. For example, the $1 public-holiday surcharge will be removed.

But, at the same time, peak periods will be extended, and will also include those during weekends and public holidays. For example, the evening city- area surcharge will be applied on Sundays and public holidays.

The last taxi-fare adjustment was done in December 2007.


"Since then, taxi drivers have had to cope with higher costs of living as a result of inflation," said the statement.

ComfortDelGro said the introduction of SMS and smartphone taxi-booking services in the past three years had greatly increased taxi-booking demand.

ComfortDelGro now handles 2.4 million bookings a month, up 47 per cent from 2007.

To cater for the high booking demand, the peak period will start at 6am and end at 9.30am on weekdays.

Current call-booking charges will be reduced by 20 cents - from $3.50 to $3.30 - during the peak period and from $2.50 to $2.30 at all other times.

ComfortDelGro's taxi companies, Comfort Transportation and CityCab, manage a fleet of about 15,700 taxis.

 

Daily Market 6 Dec 2011

Global Markets

Standard & Poor's said Germany and France may be stripped of their AAA credit ratings as the debt crisis prompts 15 euro nations to be put on review for possible downgrade.

The euro area's six AAA rated countries are among the nations to be placed on a negative outlook, and their credit ratings may be cut depending on the result of a summit of European Union leaders on Dec. 9, S&P said today in a statement. The euro reversed its gains and U.S. Treasuries rose earlier today after the Financial Times reported that the credit-ranking firm planned to reduce six AAA outlooks.
 
Systemic stress in the eurozone has risen in recent weeks and reached such a level that a review of all eurozone sovereign ratings is warranted,? S&P said in a statement. The downgrade warnings come as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy push for a rewrite of the EU's governing rules to tighten economic cooperation in a demonstration of unity on ending the debt crisis. With the fate of the currency shared by the 17 euro countries at risk, Merkel and Sarkozy presented a common platform for a Dec. 8-9 summit of EU leaders in Brussels that aims to halt the crisis now in its third year.

The S&P move is yet another signal that euro area countries must take decisive action to deal with the crisis or else the problems will spread from Greece and others with the most acute fiscal problems to the rest of the euro zone, said Phillip Swagel, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy who was an assistant Treasury secretary for economic policy in the George W. Bush administration. It is time for Germany and France to act -- either to save Greece and the others or to let them fail.

Bonds

Treasuries fell for a second day after Germany and France said they want new European Union rules on borrowing limits and penalties for deficit violators to curb the region?s debt crisis.   The plans, including a permanent rescue fund in 2012, support forecasts for yields to rise as the European and U.S. economies improve. Benchmark 10-year rates will increase 36 basis points by June 30, according to a Bloomberg survey of banks and securities companies. Treasuries have fluctuated this year in response to developments in Europe, sending 10-year rates to a record low of 1.67 percent on Sept. 23 as investors sought the relative safety of American debt.

Commodity

Australia, the third-largest wheat exporter, is set for a record harvest and shipments this year after late winter and spring rain boosted yield prospects,
according to a revised outlook from a government forecaster.  Output may total 28.3 million metric tons in 2011-2012, 8 percent more than a September estimate of 26.2 million tons
and compared with last year?s revised record crop of 27.9 million tons, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences said today. Exports may be a record 21.6 million tons, from the 20.4 million tons estimated in September.   A second record Australian harvest may help extend wheat's 23 percent slump this year as global output expands and Russia lifted an almost yearlong export ban on July 1. The grain is heading for its biggest annual decline since 2008, helping to ease global food costs that reached a record in February.

U.S. Supplies
Wheat for March delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade was little changed at $6.1125 per bushel at 8:41 a.m. in Singapore. Futures fell 2.2 percent yesterday, the most in two weeks, on signs that demand is declining for U.S. supplies.    World wheat production will gain 5.3 percent to 683.3 million tons, the second-biggest crop ever, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. Global food costs tracked by a Food & Agriculture Organization gauge, which peaked at 237.68 in
February, fell to 216.1 in October.

Cotton Production
Cotton production in Australia, the third-largest exporter, may reach a record 1.1 million tons, in line with September's forecast, according to the report. Production totaled 898,000
tons in 2010-2011, boosted by rainfall, the bureau said.   Output may surge as much as 25 percent to an all-time high after floods boosted water supplies and spurred record plantings,
producers? group Cotton Australia said last month.     La Nina-linked wet weather brought record rainfall to parts of eastern Australia last year, ending drought and replenishing
dams used for irrigating cotton crops, which are planted in about November and mostly harvest from April.

Canola production is forecast at 2.5 million tons in 2011-2012, up from 2.3 million tons predicted in September. Output may total a record 2.63 million tons, the Australian Oilseeds
Federation said Nov. 15.      The bureau raised its forecast for barley production to 8.5 million tons from 8.3 million tons in September and a revised 8.1 million tons in the previous year.

Currencies

Yen Gains Versus Major Peers as Asia Stocks Drop on S&P Warning.

The yen rose against its major counterparts as Asian stocks declined after Standard & Poor's put 15 European nations on watch for potential downgrades, boosting demand for the currency as a refuge.

The yen gained 0.3 percent to 103.96 per euro as of 10:23 a.m. in Tokyo. It strengthened 0.1 percent to 77.74 against the dollar.

Italy backs urgent measures to avoid bankruptcy

ROME (AFP) - Italy's cabinet on Sunday adopted a package of tax hikes, budget cuts and pension reforms worth 20 billion euros (S$34.4 billion) in a rush to avoid a bankruptcy that threatens to bring down the euro zone.

'This is a decree to save Italy,' Prime Minister Mario Monti said at a press conference after the cabinet meeting, adding: 'This is a moment in which Italy risks being responsible for helping to drag down the economy of Europe.'

Italy will 'put its deficit and debt under strong control' so that the country is 'not seen as a suspicious flash point by Europe,' he said. He also warned that Italians had to make 'sacrifices' and said he was renouncing his own salary as prime minister in a gesture of solidarity.

The three-year package includes a controversial pension reform that will increase the minimum pension age for women to 62 starting next year and fall into line with men by 2018, by which time both will retire at 66.

Italy set to enter recession in 2012, says deputy minister

ROME (AFP) - Deputy Economy Minister Vittorio Grilli said on Sunday Italy was set to enter a recession in 2012, with Gross Domestic Product predicted to shrink by 0.4 to 0.5 per cent.

Italy's growth should level out again by 2013, he added during a press conference following the adoption by the cabinet of a draconian package aimed at pulling the country back from the brink of insolvency.

Singapore to become a premium car market?

High-end names such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz are expected to make up for more than half of new cars sales next year, according to a Straits Times report today.

This is due to the lower number of certificates of entitlement available next year, which predetermines the number of cars sold.

The paper reported that the motor industry is "expecting next year's supply to shrink to between 26,000 and 28,000, from around 30,000 this year, 42,000 last year and an average of 100,000 a year between 2004 and 2008."

With a smaller supply in future COE numbers, are car prices expected to increase again?

Already, a restricted supply this year have caused COE prices to rise to more than $50,000 for cars up to 1,600cc and more than $70,000 for bigger cars, according to the report's figures.

And higher COE prices will naturally favour sales of premium cars rather than bread-and-butter brands like Toyotas and Hyundais, the paper said.

Mr David Ting, deputy editor of motoring magazine Torque, told the paper that buyers and sellers of such premium cars "are better able to stomach expensive COEs than those of mass market brands".

In short, this group is less affected by prices. The COE price forms a smaller percentage of the price of a premium make as compared to a mass-market make.

At today's prices, an average 1,600cc Japanese car is more than $100,000.

Coupled with the premium makes expanding their model range (some even into the Cat A category), lowering prices and investing more in marketing and advertising, the German makes have overtook the Japanese names, Mr Ting explained.

He was quoted by the paper as saying: "I think this might be the 'new normal' going forward."

Big bargains at Johor Premium Outlets? Not so, Singaporeans find

Friday's rain did not deter hundreds of Singaporeans who took an hour's drive to Johor Premium Outlets (JPO) in search of designer goods at high street prices.

But shoppers at the 16,258 sq m mall in Kulaijaya, which opened on Friday with most of the planned 80 stores up and running, went away with only a bag or two of purchases.

Singaporeans whom The Straits Times spoke to at the mall said the discounts were not as steep as those at outlet malls in the United States and Europe, even though JPO shops gave discounts of up to 70 per cent on selected products.

For example, Zegna ties, which cost $290 each at the boutique in Takashimaya, were about 55 per cent less at RM315 (S$130). High heels from Salvatore Ferragamo, which typically sell for $790 here, cost RM1,040 (S$430).

Teacher Y.L. Tan, 36, said: 'If we wait for things to go on sale in Singapore, they are about the same price.'

High-end cars winning market race as COE supply shrinks

Premium brands are expected to account for more than half of new car sales next year as the certificate of entitlement (COE) supply shrinks to an all-time low and prices remain high.

Already, these brands, ranging from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi to Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce, are poised to garner about 46 per cent of sales this year.

This is up from 33 per cent last year and below 10 per cent in the past several decades.

Audi Singapore managing director Reinhold Carl predicted: 'The premium brands will account for more than half of new car sales next year.'