WASHINGTON, July 13--American workers are goofing off for two hours a day, trawling the Internet or jawing with co-workers, costing their employers $759 billion a year, according to a new survey, AFP reported.
Forty-four percent of 10,000 respondents to the poll by America Online and Salary.com said the most popular way to while away time in the office was through personal Internet use, including e-mail, instant messaging and chat rooms.
Another 23 percent of those polled preferred running down the clock by socializing with co-workers.
Other ways of frittering away time on the boss’s dollar included making personal phone calls, running errands and an activity described as “spacing out.“
Two hours of frittered-away time adds up to about twice the slacking off that employers expect.
“A certain amount of slacking off is already built into the salary structure,“ says Bill Coleman, senior vice president at Salary.com.
“Our survey results show that workers, on average, are wasting a little more than twice what their employers expect. That’s a startling figure,“ he said.
The survey found that American workers were wasting 2.09 hours per day, not including a lunch break.
The biggest time wasters were young people born since 1970, while older people still in the workforce were much harder working.
Employees in the insurance sector did little to redeem their unflattering public image, clocking up 2.5 hours a day in frittered-away time, the survey said.
Based on the average yearly annual salary of $39,795 per year, all of that wasted time adds up to $759 billion.
“It’s interesting to note that the Internet was cited as the leading time-wasting activity,“ said Samara Jaffe, director of careers/AOL Find a Job, America Online. “It goes to show how integrated it has become to the daily functions of our personal and professional lives.“

Employees work at a Citgo oil refinery in Lemont, Ilinois, a suburb of Chicago, USA. (Reuters File Photo)

PARIS, July 13--High oil prices are here to stay in a world of uncertainty over tropical storms and geopolitical factors such as the London bombings, the International Energy Agency warned on Wednesday, AFP reported.
But the IEA revised down its estimate of 2005 global oil demand to 83.88 million barrels per day from 84.30 million bpd forecast a month ago, in its monthly Oil Market Report.
For this year, the agency saw Chinese and US demand for oil slowing, and revised down its 2005 demand growth estimate by 200,000 bpd, to 1.58 million bpd.
In 2006, global demand was projected to grow by 1.75 million bpd, or 2.1 percent, to 85.62 million bpd.
The report noted that oil prices had surged to the $60 a barrel level in June and early July amid an “unusually active“ start to the tropical storm season in the Caribbean.
In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in August advanced by 56 cents to $59.38 per barrel in early trading on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, climbed 63 cents to $61.25 per barrel in electronic deals.
The IEA report said that among rising risks were geopolitical factors, such as the London bombings, the Iranian election, Iraq and Nigeria.
Those uncertainties, combined with price expectations, were prompting consumers to take the long view in managing risk, extending to the fourth quarter and beyond.
“The unfolding statistical picture increasingly reveals that fear of the unknown and the consequent desire to make forward oil purchases is behind oil’s higher price path,“ the report said. But it warned that although the crude market was in the flush of a “classic bull market“, negative price risks “will eventually emerge as well“.
The agency cited questions about OPEC supply prices, the adequacy of stocks in the fourth quarter when demand is high in the northern hemisphere, hurricane damage and economic growth forecasts.
“Current prices suggest that the strategy of offsetting lower spare capacity with stocks has not yet run its course. A strategy that makes perfect sense in this uncertain environment,“ the IEA declared.
In the 30 industrialized member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2005 demand was revised down by 180,000 bpd, lowering growth in demand to 410,000 bpd.

TOKYO, July 13--The Bank of Japan on Wednesday slightly revised up its monthly assessment of the economy for the first time in eight months, citing upbeat business confidence, rising capital spending and improving employment, AFP reported.
“Japan’s economy continues to recover, albeit with adjustments in IT-related sectors,“ the Bank said in its monthly report for July on recent economic and financial developments.
It is a slight change from the June report, which said, “Japan’s economy continues a recovery trend, albeit with adjustments in IT-related sectors.“
The last time the central bank changed its monthly assessment was in December. The Bank of Japan also issues separate semi-annual reports.
The July report said the nation’s economy “is expected to continue to recover,“ with growth in domestic demand more than offsetting slowdowns in exports, notably to China.
BOJ sources said the upgrading of the economic assessment was propelled by a series of upbeat economic data, but the long-term prospect of the economy by the central bank has not changed since its April semi-annual report.
Japan has been hit by a series of lackluster figures, including a sharp fall in the current account surplus reported for May reported Wednesday due to tepid growth in exports.

LONDON, July 13--Turkey may bring its parliament back from its summer recess early to vote on social security reforms sought by the International Monetary Fund, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
“I am sure that we will pass these laws on time, there might be an early session of parliament before September,“ Gul told reporters in London.
Turkey’s parliament failed to pass the reform law before adjourning on July 3 for the summer despite its passage being a condition for the release of an $800 million loan tranche. This prompted the International Monetary Fund to delay finishing the first review of Turkey’s new $10 billion loan pact.
“What is important is our determination...whether the IMF says good or bad...because we know this law is needed for the future of Turkey,“ Gul said.
Following Gul’s comments, government spokesman Cecil Cicek said the bill might be left to the next parliamentary session because it first needs to go through a parliamentary commission.
A senior politician in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) said parliament might be recalled before its normal October start date to work on the social security bill. But he said examination of the bill would be a very slow process and might not be completed even by the end of October, especially if it ran into resistance from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
The AKP has called a special meeting of parliament for Wednesday to appoint officials to a media watchdog, but did not say whether it would also take up the IMF-backed reforms.
Turkey’s benchmark sovereign bond spiked higher after Gul’s comments, hitting a session high bid price of 143.063 before dipping back to a bid of 142.750, up 0.625 points in price with a yield of 7.902 percent.
Gul, in London for meetings with investors, brushed aside questions about possible delays to Turkey starting European Union accession talks on Oct. 3, saying that even if they were late the economy would not be badly damaged.
“The Turkish economy is strong enough. I think outside and inside shocks will not have a big negative repercussion on the Turkish economy because we have made structural changes,“ Gul said, quoting the war in Iraq, Turkey’s southern neighbor, and high oil prices as examples of this limited impact.

Angola already supplies 7 to 9 percent of global diamond production.

LUANDA, Angola, July 13--Angola, already one of the world’s biggest diamond producers, is bracing for a post-civil war boom thanks to surging mining operations and the state diamond company’s tie-ups with foreign partners, Reuters reported.
The southwest African country already supplies 7 to 9 percent of global production, making it the fifth producer by value after Botswana, Russia, Canada and South Africa.
But for state diamond company Endiama that’s just the start. “At the moment we produce 7 million carats a year and we would like to see that grow,“ Endiama President Manuel Arnaldo de Sousa Calado told Reuters.
In a recent edition of in-house magazine Endiama Hoje (Endiama Today), Calado said the firm was aiming for an annual production target of 10 million carats by 2006.
Since a 27-year civil war ended in 2002, foreign investors have taken a deeper interest in mineral-rich Angola, already sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest oil producer.
A massive influx of entrepreneurs and deals signed since the war have already given the diamond sector a fillip.
“Before (the end of the war) we were producing 2 to 4 million carats per year but we didn’t have an exact control of the sector so it was hard to tell,“ said one senior Endiama official who declined to be identified--reflecting the mist of secrecy that surrounds the trade the world over. “Today investors have more security, they can now find Angolan technicians who can work on projects and we are gaining importance in the international market,“ the official added.
South African diamond giant De Beers--which is 45 percent owned by mining giant Anglo American and controls around half the world’s rough diamond market--walked out of Angola in 2001 after its deal with Endiama broke down.
But lured back by Angola’s rich reserves, De Beers signed a $10 million, five-year deal with Endiama in June to prospect for kimberlite diamonds in gem-rich Lunda Norte province.
During the war virtually all production was low-cost shallow mining of alluvial diamonds.
Angola is set to open the doors of its first-ever polishing factory in Lunda Sul province this November thanks to a joint venture between Endiama’s marketing branch Sodiam, an Angolan consortium and Israeli diamond tycoon Lev Leviev’s LLD group.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 13--The European Union’s executive commission put forward Tuesday proposals to align member states laws on counterfeiting and piracy to halt a recent surge in intellectual property rights violations, AFP reported.
EU justice and security commissioner Franco Frattini said, “Counterfeiting is an important part of organized crime and the criminal economy.“
The commission’s legislative proposals require adoption by member states and the European Parliament before transposition into domestic legislation.
“We will try to get this adopted as quickly as possible,“ Frattini told a news conference.
The EU executive has recommended a minimum of four years’ imprisonment if an offence involves a criminal organization or if it jeopardizes public health and safety--with additional sanctions for the crimes ranging between 100,000 ($122,000) and 300,000 euros.
The commission said three to nine percent of international trade was counterfeited. It added that 100 million articles were seized at EU borders in 2003 with a total value of one billion euros.
In the same year, there were 12 million seizures of children’s games and toys, up almost 1,000 percent from the previous year, the commission said.
Seizures of food, drinks and medicines increased by 77 percent in the same period, while for cosmetics and perfumes, the rise was 800 percent.
Seizures of CDs, DVDs and cassettes increased 172 percent in 2003 over 2002 levels.
Belgium reported the greatest increase in the number of seizures in 2003, up 213 percent from the previous year. Britain and Germany respectively came next in line.
The commission added that 70 percent of counterfeit and pirated goods found in the EU in 2003 came from Asia, with 60 percent of the total sent from China.

MANILA, Philippines, July 13--The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Wednesday it may cut off new lending to the Philippines while another international ratings agency downgraded its outlook as the country’s political crisis too its toll on the fragile economy, AFP reported.
The ADB made no direct reference to the crisis facing President Gloria Arroyo but said its board had approved a three-year program to 2007 under which “new lending could range from zero to as much as $1.5 billion, depending on the pace of fiscal consolidation and key sector reforms.“
ADB vice president Joseph Eichenberger, quoted in a bank statement, told the executive board the new strategy “acknowledges the complex political economy of the Philippines and how this affects the pace and quality of reforms.
“To accommodate the associated uncertainty, and in a clear break with past practice, the ADB has not included specific annual lending targets within its overall three-year envelope of possible financial support,“ he added.
Moody’s Investors Service earlier Wednesday downgraded its outlook on Philippines sovereign debt to negative from stable.
Standard and Poor’s and Fitch Ratings took similar action earlier in the week, prompting government officials to vow to press on with economic reforms.
Share prices closed 0.80 percent lower as investors fretted over the outlook. “The market’s fate remains as uncertain as the country’s political situation,“ said AB Capital Securities research head Jose Vistan.