Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/762759
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2016 German airline Lufthansa warned yesterday that it could move some of its flights away from Frankfurt air- port because of a fee structure that it argues favours rivals such as Ryanair. Lufthansa, which accounts for two thirds of passenger volume at Frankfurt, has criticised airport operator Fraport for its new fee structure which offers incentives to airlines that increase their passenger numbers by opening up a new route or increasing capacity. The new fees are being introduced just as Ryanair plans to move into Lufthansa's home hub of Frankfurt, stepping up its push into bigger airports and ratcheting up pressure on the German carrier, which is expanding its own budget flights. Earlier this month, Air Malta announced an end to its flights to Frankfurt from March 2017, citing the route's weak performance. The national airline denied the decision had been taken "to please Alitalia and lure it to conclude negotiation on buying a stake in the Maltese airline". "Frequencies on this route had already been reduced from daily to four weekly last summer, well before any negotiations with Alitalia had started. Over the past years other airport hubs including Munich, on which coincidentally Air Malta is increasing frequencies from July 2017 with up to double daily, have increased their connectivity network," Air Malta said. Lufthansa said on Tuesday it was considering giving up some routes. "One of the consequences could be that we give up some routes," Lufthansa board member Harry Hohmeister told journalists on Tuesday, adding that the carrier was considering legal steps against the fee structure. He did not specify which airport Lufthansa might use as an alternative were it to move some flights. Lufthansa would hold talks with Fraport about the matter in January, he added. The dispute adds to Lufthansa's problems as it struggles to resolve a long-running dispute with pilots which has cost the airline hundreds of millions of euros in lost profit since 2014. 12 Regular market closed –12/12/2016 Symbol Code Volume Traded Value Traded Trades High Price Low Price Open Price Close Price Change l BOV 5,000 11,400.00 3 2.280 2.280 2.280 2.280 0.000 s FIM 30,000 25,500.00 3 0.850 0.850 0.850 0.850 0.005 s HSB 1,000 1,860.00 1 1.860 1.860 1.860 1.860 0.005 t IHI 93 57.20 1 0.615 0.615 0.615 0.615 -0.024 s LOM 28,000 61,533.73 7 2.248 2.180 2.180 2.200 0.099 l MIA 3,100 12,462.05 5 4.038 4.001 4.030 4.038 0.000 t MPC 4,900 2,837.10 2 0.579 0.579 0.579 0.579 -0.021 s MTP 49,532 93,508.18 7 1.900 1.875 1.875 1.900 0.025 s RS2 14,787 23,634.20 5 1.600 1.575 1.575 1.600 0.029 s TML 150 180.00 1 1.200 1.200 1.200 1.200 0.050 t G20B 5,000 5,758.50 1 115.170 115.170 115.170 115.170 -0.040 t G21A 2,330 2,850.52 1 122.340 122.340 122.340 122.340 -0.150 t G28A 54,000 73,018.80 3 135.220 135.220 135.220 135.220 -0.680 t G28B 13,500 17,840.25 2 132.150 132.150 132.150 132.150 -0.740 t G29A 50,000 70,020.00 2 140.040 140.040 140.040 140.040 -0.910 t G29B 3,000 3,236.70 2 107.890 107.890 107.890 107.890 -1.660 t G30A 40,000 57,134.10 3 142.890 142.790 142.890 142.790 -1.030 t G31A 104,000 149,520.80 3 143.770 143.770 143.770 143.770 -1.220 t G34A 107,000 140,672.90 3 131.470 131.470 131.470 131.470 -1.260 t G36A 821,400 854,151.60 5 104.710 103.920 104.500 103.920 -2.010 t G39AA 865,300 864,734.50 39 101.500 97.500 101.500 98.000 -3.500 t G40A 4,000 4,496.40 1 112.410 112.410 112.410 112.410 -2.440 t G41AA 421,300 428,690.85 8 104.000 101.650 104.000 101.650 -2.580 t AX24A 1,400 1,589.00 1 113.500 113.500 113.500 113.500 -0.500 t BV19A 21,000 21,420.00 1 102.000 102.000 102.000 102.000 -4.000 l CF26A 11,000 11,467.50 1 104.250 104.250 104.250 104.250 0.000 s DF26A 39,000 40,755.00 4 104.500 104.500 104.500 104.500 0.500 l GF21A 4,000 4,200.80 1 105.020 105.020 105.020 105.020 0.000 s GP23A 24,000 24,354.00 6 101.700 101.450 101.450 101.700 0.250 t HB18A 8,200 8,701.02 2 106.110 106.110 106.110 106.110 -0.390 l HM24A 9,400 9,870.00 1 105.000 105.000 105.000 105.000 0.000 l HP25A 6,400 6,736.00 2 105.250 105.250 105.250 105.250 0.000 s IH21A 5,600 6,048.00 1 108.000 108.000 108.000 108.000 1.000 t IH26A 11,000 11,250.10 2 102.350 101.510 102.350 101.510 -0.940 l MM26A 39,000 40,170.00 4 103.000 103.000 103.000 103.000 0.000 l MS26B 55,000 58,575.00 1 106.500 106.500 106.500 106.500 0.000 l PC26A 1,000 1,016.00 1 101.600 101.600 101.600 101.600 0.000 t TI20A 8,300 8,632.00 1 104.000 104.000 104.000 104.000 -2.000 Market Summary as at December 12, 2016 Equity Official List Session State ................................................................... Market Closed Number of trades ............................................................. 137 Volume Traded ................................................................. 2,871,692 Value of € denominated securities .................................... 3,075,807.80 Value of US$ denominated securities ................................ 84,075.00 Value of GBP£ denominated securities .............................. 0.00 Current Index ................................................................... 4,505.431 Previous Index ................................................................. 4,506.009 Change in Index (%) ......................................................... -0.013% 6pm Holdings plc .......................... 0.800 0.00% MaltaPost plc ................................. 1.875 -0.27% Bank of Valletta plc ....................... 2.240 0.45% Medserv plc .................................. 1.678 0.00% FIMBank plc ................................. 0.840 1.20% Mapfre Middlesea plc .................... 2.120 0.00% GlobalCapital plc .......................... 0.440 0.00% MIDI plc ........................................ 0.330 0.00% GO plc .......................................... 3.215 -0.16% Plaza Centres plc ........................... 1.100 0.00% Grand Harbour Marina plc ............. 0.869 0.00% RS2 Software plc ........................... 1.600 0.13% HSBC Bank Malta plc ..................... 1.855 0.00% Simonds Farsons Cisk plc .............. 6.450 0.00% International Hotel Investments plc 0.620 0.00% Tigné Mall plc ................................ 1.150 0.00% Island Hotels Group Holdings plc .. 1.101 0.00% Pefaco International plc ................. 2.240 0.00% Lombard Bank Malta plc ................ 2.080 0.00% Santumas Shareholdings plc ........ 1.260 0.00% Malita Investments plc ................... 0.851 -0.93% Malta Properties Company plc ....... 0.585 0.00% Malta International Airport plc ....... 4.040 -0.25% MSE Index Business Today Bitcoin hits highest levels since 2014 The global economy has lately been characterised by relatively slow growth, weak business investment, persistent deflationary pressures, and slow growth of cross-border trade in goods and services. In the Q4 is- sue of the Global Economic Outlook, Deloitte's far-flung economists of- fer their views on the United States, Eurozone, China, Japan, India, Rus- sia, Brazil, Canada, and helicopter money. In her article on the US economy, Patricia Buckley says that growth is likely to be better in the second half than in the first. She notes that the sharp decline in inventories sets the stage for a revival of growth. In the next article, Alexander Börsch focuses mainly on the potential impact of the UK Brexit referendum on the other European economies. He notes that the initial fears about financial market disruption have been allayed by a quick response from the European Central Bank. He also discusses the mainly incompatible negotiating positions of the United Kingdom and the European Union, rendering likely a period of uncertainty. Dr Ira Kalish's article on China, discusses the continuing debate over the dangers of debt in the Chinese economy. He points to a study from the Bank for International Settlements that suggests that China's debt relative to GDP is unusually and dangerously high. In his article on Japan's economy, Akrur Barua says that an unusually aggressive monetary policy, involving massive asset purchases and negative policy interest rates, has failed to achieve its goals. Although the Bank of Japan has recently signalled an intention to ease policy even further, Akrur suggests that monetary policy may have gone as far as it can. India is the focus of the next article, written by Rumki Majumdar. She says that although the Indian economy faces some headwinds, new legislation involving tax and bankruptcy reforms could set the stage for an acceleration of growth. In the next article, Lester Gunnion examines the Russian economy. He says that there are signs that the period of declining activity may be coming to an end, and that the Russian economy might have hit bottom. Brazil is the focus of Akrur Barua's next article. The country that hosted the recent Olympic Games continues to suffer from one of its worst downturns in modern times. With inflation remaining high and fiscal mismanagement over the past year, the central bank has been compelled to keep monetary policy tight, thereby inhibiting an economic recovery. In his article on Canada, Daniel Bachman bemoans the continued weakness of the economy. He says that despite a weak currency, non- oil exports have failed to revive sufficiently to drive growth. For the last article, Akrur Barua looks at the oddly named issue of "helicopter money." This is the idea that a central bank can circumvent the banking system and simply drop money from the sky – or to be more precise, it can fund government spending by just boosting the money supply. The idea is that, when the financial system is not functioning properly, this might be a useful alternative to traditional policy. The Deloitte Global Economic Outlook Q4 2016 may be downloaded from http://www2.deloitte.com/mt/ geo As global and political uncertainty continue to make bitcoin an increasingly attractive safe haven for investors, the price of the cryptocurrency has hit a near three-year high Lufthansa threatens to reduce Frankfurt flights over fee row New fee structure introduced by the Frankfurt airport operator could push Lufthansa – which carries two-thirds of passengers passing through the airport – to move some of its flights from the German airport