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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 14 SEPTEMBER 2016 11 Ikea, the world's largest furniture retailer, has fi led record annual gross sales, pushed by soaring sales in Poland and China. Gross sales rose to €34.2 billion in the 12 months which ended in August. The chain opened 12 new stores, which helped total sales to rise 7.1%, but that increase was lower than the 11% growth seen in the previous 12 months. Sales at stores open for more than a year rose 5% - the same as last year. The Swedish group said sales in Poland jumped about 20%, making the country its fastest-growing market, while Australia and Canada also performed well. Germany was still the retailer's largest market, closely followed by the United States In China, where the company opened its first store almost two decades ago, sustained growth will enable an accelerated pace of expansion, Chief Executive Officer Peter Agnefjaell said. Ikea will open its first stores in India and Serbia this year and now has 340 outlets in 28 countries. Ikea plans to open its first outlet in India next year and aims to have 25 there by 2025, he said. However, expansion into Russia has been put on hold as Ikea seeks to solve "a number of old legal disputes." As well as opening 12 new stores in the year, Ikea opened 19 "click and collect" outlets globally in a response to changing consumer behaviour. Ikea recently began offering some items online for either home delivery or collection - a departure from its traditional model of customers loading flat-pack items onto a trolley themselves. Earlier this year, Ikea chief executive Peter Agnefjall said he expected the company to report annual sales of €50 billion by 2020. Business Today www.creditinfo.com.mt info@creditinfo.com.mt Tel: 2131 2344 Your Local Partner for Credit Risk Management Solutions Supporting you all the way 10 biggest corporations make more money than 180 poorest countries The 10 biggest corporations – in- cluding Walmart, Apple and Shell – make more money than most coun- tries in the world combined. A study by the anti-poverty charity Global Justice Now found that the world's top ten corporations have a combined revenue that is greater than the combined income of the 180 "poorest" countries out of the world's total 195 sovereign states. The value of the top 10 corporations was $285 trillion, beating the $280 trillion worth of the bottom 180 countries, which include Ireland, Indonesia, Israel, Colombia, Greece, South Africa, Iraq and Vietnam. Nick Dearden, the charity's director, said: "The vast wealth and power of corporations is at the heart of so many of the world's problems – like inequality and climate change. "The drive for short-term profits today seems to trump basic human rights for millions of people on the planet. These figures show the problem is getting worse." Global Justice Now said it released the figures to increase pressure on the British government ahead of a UN working group, led by Ecuador, that aims to draw up a binding treaty "to ensure transnational corporations abide by the full range of human rights responsibilities". Campaigners said they are calling for the treaty to be legally enforceable at a national and global level. The charity has criticised Britain for refusing to support the process. Dearden said: "The UK government has facilitated this rise in corporate power through tax structures, trade deals and even aid programmes that help big business. "Their wholehearted support for the US-EU trade deal TTIP, is just the latest example of government help to big business. Disgracefully, it also routinely opposes the call of developing countries to hold corporations to account for their human rights impacts at the UN." The charity blamed governments for bowing to pressure from multinational firms to promote business-friendly tax regimes above the needs of their citizens. An assessment of the top 200 entities found that many smaller countries were squeezed out, leaving 153 corporations above many nations from Africa, Asia and South America. The US, China, Germany, Japan, France and the UK make up the top six economic entities followed by Italy, Brazil and Canada. Walmart ranks as the 10th largest, followed by China's electricity monopoly State Grid at number 14, China National Petroleum at 15 and Chinese oil firm Sinopec Group at 16. Apple ranked 26th behind the 18th-placed Royal Dutch Shell, with Exxon Mobil at 21, Volkswagen at 22 and Toyota at 23. Shell is among the 10 biggest corporations that make more money than most of the countries in the world Ikea reports record sales as Poland and China soar Ikea opened its fi rst store in China almost two decades ago