日本调研机构东京商工调查的统计显示，东京都内共有256家企业将于2020年迎来创立100年。其中包括伊藤洋华堂、汽车头灯制造商斯坦利电气、专门经营化妆品和日用品的商社中央物产等。2020年全日本1458家企业迎来创业百年，其中东京占17.5％。
在东京的企业中，按行业来看，制造业数量最多，达到72家，其次为批发业（58家）和服务业等（39家）。没有企业在明年迎来创立200年、300年。2020年迎来创立50年的企业达到3649家。
2019年日本全国有1760家企业迎来100年，其中东京都内企业占15％。
洋品牌这两年在中国加码开设‘首店’，吸引对新事物趋之若鹜的新一代消费者；老字号也发挥情怀优势，褪去‘土味’成为网红潮牌。在中国消费市场整体疲弱的环境下，‘首店风’和‘国潮风’逆势而上，成为推动消费的一股新力量。各地纷纷出台优惠政策争夺‘首店’，同时鼓励当地的老字号振兴，‘首店经济’和‘国潮经济’是否只是一阵风？它能否激发人们的消费欲望，为中国消费市场注入新活力？
“排队时间是很长，但总比‘打飞的’（指乘飞机出行）到外地去吃省时间。”
上海白领小周（33岁）周六一大早就到位于上海新天地的粤菜馆陶陶居排队取号，距离餐馆开门营业还有15分钟，取号的食客已接近百人。
这家上月底在上海开设首店的老字号，成为上海人社交圈中的新晋网红店。尽管周末排队用餐时间长达三小时，食客还是络绎不绝，火热的场面比今年1月美国汉堡店Shake Shack中国大陆首店在上海开张时，有过之而无不及。
在冷风中等着进餐馆尝鲜的小周受访时直言，为了吃到美食，她曾不惜专程飞到外地，如今陶陶居首店开到家门口，“不打卡对不起自己”。
近年来各类首店在上海如雨后春笋般冒出，从亚洲首家星巴克甄选烘焙工坊，到全球最大的会员制仓储超市开市客（Costco），再到全球第三家蒂芙尼（Tiffany）咖啡馆。“首店经济”风靡中国，不断上演排队数小时的火爆场面，似乎与宏观数据所显示的经济下行压力加大、消费疲弱并不一致。
所谓“首店经济”指的是在行业里有代表性的品牌或新的潮牌在某个地区首次开设门店，例如全球首店、中国首店、区域首店等，或是已入驻的品牌设立创新模式的概念店、体验店等。
各类海外品牌在中国消费市场抢滩之际，中国本土老字号也重新崛起，在年轻消费者中引发一股前所未有的“国潮热”。
今年6月，中国国货品牌大白兔以快闪形式在大白兔60周年巡展中售卖一款“大白兔奶茶”，在上海年轻消费者中引发轰动。许多从小吃着大白兔奶糖长大的80后和90后中国消费者疯狂排队，为了喝一杯奶糖味奶茶，甘愿排队两小时。
奶茶并非大白兔近年来的首次跨界合作。过去几年，大白兔与气味图书馆、美加净、歌帝梵（Godiva）等品牌联手，推出“大白兔香水”“大白兔润唇膏”“大白兔冰淇淋”等产品，接二连三成为网红爆款。
大白兔所属的上海冠生园食品有限公司市场部经理沈勤峰受访时说，跨界产生的化学反应和话题性，让大白兔从一个带“土味”的传统品牌，转型成为更加年轻的潮流品牌。
拥有60年历史、一度因糖果市场开放而沉寂下来的大白兔重新进入大众视线后也超越糖果，成为一个时尚的标志。今年2月，以大白兔标志做设计的时装亮相纽约时装周，大白兔奶糖的礼盒也被纽约时装周中国日主办方选为伴手礼，赠送给现场嘉宾。
有童年回忆，有国货之光，有人把“国潮”形容为“带有土味的时尚”。上海企业文化与品牌研究所所长周元祝受访时指出，老字号的品牌重振，在中国消费市场形成一股不可小觑的“国潮经济”，这背后有消费者的情怀，更有商业模式转变、消费客群改变和企业能力提升等一系列原因。
他指出，互联网经济成熟，为老字号带来新的营销模式。“在互联网的推动下，老字号通过数字营销、社群营销、跨界营销，显著加强了与消费者的对接能力，提升消费的趣味性和参与性。”
拥有96年历史的老字号上海制皂今年10月做了一个新尝试，借助中国90后美妆博主的网络直播，推出一款上海药皂液体硫磺皂，短短五分钟的直播，1万5000套产品被抢购一空，之后还在网购平台成为爆款。
上海制皂集团有限公司副总经理欧阳倚玲受访时说，面对产品不够丰富、销售渠道单一等问题，老字号必须设法从之前的“看不到、听不到、买不到”，转变为“看得到、听得到、买得到”。
上海制皂从三四年前起，陆续打通各大网购平台，成功吸引年轻消费者，以新设的上海药皂天猫旗舰店为例，40％的消费者在30岁以下，15％的消费者年龄在20岁左右。
欧洲央行新任总裁拉加德周四主持了上任后的首次政策会议，在会后记者会上对经济表达了更为乐观的看法，并承诺将在为期一年的全面政策评估过程中采取全新的领导风格。
在欧元区经济几无扩张的情况下，这位IMF前总裁坚定地支持欧洲央行的宽松货币政策，但暗示欧元区经济放缓最糟糕的时期可能已经过去，一场经常被讨论但仍无迹可寻的复苏现在可能已悄然拉开序幕。
拉加德还正面回应了市场和媒体对她将如何接棒前任德拉吉的热切期待。作为一名技术官僚，德拉吉被誉为深谙货币政策之道的世界上最杰出的沟通者之一。
“我会有自己的风格。不要过度解读，不要事后诸葛亮，不要相互对照。我要做我自己，因此可能会有所不同，”她在回答记者提问前的简短开场白中表示。
拉加德拒绝接受央行世界的传统标签，她说自己既不是政策鹰派，也不是鸽派，而是一只猫头鹰。她将运用自己的智慧，创造尽可能广泛的共识，弥合管委会最近出现的分歧。
“拉加德寻求共识的明确愿望可能暗示，相对于德拉吉时代，鹰派将能在一定程度上对政策决定产生更大的影响，”DNB经济学家Kjersti Haugland称。
策略评估
欧洲央行将从明年1月开始进行拟议的政策评估，计划在明年年底前完成。评估将听取各方意见，包括民间社团和学术界的声音。
“评估的目标不仅是传播我们自认为已经谙熟的信条，还要倾听…目前还没有预想的着陆区，”她补充说。美国也在进行类似尝试。
自去年上任以来，美国联邦储备委员会(美联储/FED)主席鲍威尔的讲话基调也对消费者更为友好，不过，市场预计美联储对通胀目标定义的调整将微乎其微。
虽然欧洲央行的评估也将集中在通胀目标的定义上，但拉加德表示，评估过程中还将权衡一些根本性问题，包括技术和气候变化如何影响政策，以及如何解决发达经济体日益加剧的不平等问题。
欧洲央行将通胀目标设定在略低于2%的水平，但自2013年以来通胀一直低于该目标。一些人认为，指导通胀的基本面因素已经发生了变化，从而给价格设置了一个永久性的上限。
为了减轻欧洲央行的压力，一些人主张赋予通胀目标更大的灵活性，给欧洲央行实现目标的空间，因为央行已经用尽了传统的政策工具，目前依赖于购债和向银行提供超低息贷款等未经检验的工具。
并非追求的目标
金融分析师认为，欧洲央行明年全年都将按兵不动，而美联储周三暗示不太可能在2020年调整利率，更是强化了这一观点。
拉加德的首个政策决定和欧洲央行的最新经济预估丝毫没有打消上述预期。
欧洲央行将其存款利率维持在历史最低水平负0.5%，同时保留了再次降息的很大可能性。欧洲央行还承诺将在较长一段时间内维持低利率，并维持每月200亿欧元的购债规模不变，以降低借贷成本。
可以说，最大的变化是欧洲央行经济成长预估的微调，表明风险已没有那么明显，主要是因为贸易紧张局势似乎正在缓解，而英国大选可能会让英国退欧前景明朗化。
欧洲央行的最新预估也几乎没有变化，尽管2022年的初步预估数据显示，通胀仍将低于欧洲央行的目标。
尽管如此，预计通胀和经济增长都将呈现上升势头，表明即使绝对水平不是很喜人，但方向是好的。
欧洲央行预计2022年通胀率为1.6%，今年第四季度触及1.7%。
“毫无疑问，发展方向是好的。但这是我们追求的目标吗？不是。”
日本财务省官员周五称，内阁将自2016年以来首次追加发行赤字弥补债券，以弥补税收不足。中美贸易战令日本出口大降，导致税收减少。
这些官员称，内阁府周五批准计划，在截至2020年3月财年的补充预算中，将增加发行约2.2万亿日圆(202.5亿美元)赤字弥补债券。
他们补充道，日本政府将当前财年的所得税预估大幅调降2.3万亿日圆，最初目标为62.5万亿日圆。
追加预算的重点是增加4.5万亿日圆支出，其中多数将用于灾后重建、抵御外部风险以及2020年东京奥运会之后的日本经济复苏。
Across Asia, most private homes maintain a firm shoes-offrule. In Hong Kong, encountering a towering mound of assorted footwear outside a house party is commonplace. Shoe racks are generally found at the entrance, or outside it, rather than in bedroom wardrobes, as in other parts of the world.
Protecting the cleanliness of interior floors is a legacy from times – not that long ago – when roads and footpaths were filthy. Chinese superstitions enforce the rule: wearing outdoor shoes inside is believed to introduce “bad luck”, a metaphor for germs, into the home. Going barefoot indoors is also unusual; slippers or rubber sandals being worn instead.In early urban Hong Kong, ground floors were usually paved in stone slabs, with timber boards supported by beams on upper levels. Like almost all building materials in the colony’s early days – with the exceptions of mud bricks for village houses and locally quarried stone – this timber was imported. Southeast Asia was the main source, with much of it imported via the British North Borneo Company, established in 1881. The scale of the trade and Chinese emigration links were such that Sandakan, on the coast of modern Sabah, east Malaysia, became known as “Little Hong Kong”.
As solid timber use declined, varnished parquet floors became a Hong Kong domestic staple. Originally introduced to give a stylish timber effect to otherwise utilitarian concrete slab floors in post-war apartment buildings, this material has become so commonplace to almost evade notice.
Maintaining coolness, as much as aesthetic considerations, drove many floor-covering considerations. From the late 19th century to the 1930s, English patterned encaustic floor tiles were exported all over the tropics.
Post-war redevelopment in Hong Kong saw most of this material lost when the buildings they adorned were demolished. Isolated examples remain, including the open-air corridors in the University of Hong Kong’s Main Building, built in 1910-12. Encaustic tiles can also be found in residential and commercial architecture right across South and Southeast Asia and in China’s former treaty ports.
For a place so attuned to conspicuous consumption, and the vulgarity that invariably accompanies it, imported marble remains surprisingly underused in Hong Kong, with the exceptions of lift foyers, bathrooms and other “wet” areas. In part, this is because marble remains several degrees colder than the air temperature, not always desirable in a Hong Kong winter. Marble slab flooring was popular in perennially hot places, such as Java and parts of India, helping buildings feel – and look – deliciously cool.
Woollen carpets, especially machine-made expanses of fitted carpet, became popular in Hong Kong only from the 70s, with the widespread introduction of air conditioning. In office environments, fitted carpets helped reduce noise and meant dust didn’t show as rapidly.
An earlier variant, “Shanghai matting”, was a popular, carpet-like floor covering into the 80s. With some effort, it can still be found today. This attractive material was finely plaited rice straw, coiled and stitched together to make squares. Purchased individually, or already assembled into mats, these squares could make floor coverings of any size.
The Shenzhen-based firm aims to collect and process 30 per cent of China’s discarded electric vehicle batteries
The former university professor leading one of the companies most crucial to the future of transport has a warning for anyone eyeing his patch.
“I want to tell everyone who wants to enter this market: don’t do it, you are wasting your money,” said Xu Kaihua, chairman of Chinese battery metals maker GEM Co. “Only the top five will survive.”
The firm Xu founded in Shenzhen in 2001 has adopted an expansive business model that has made it central to supply chains stretching from the cobalt and nickel mines of Africa and Southeast Asia to the motors of Volkswagen and BMW cars. GEM’s diverse footprint includes a plant in Indonesia that will allow it to avoid that nation’s export ban on nickel, a key raw material. The company is already the world’s biggest recycler of metals from used batteries.
The strategy has established GEM in a small band of Chinese firms, including Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co and Jinchuan Group Co, whose relatively low profile belies their collective significance to the future of energy use. GEM makes the kind of high-purity chemicals derived from nickel, cobalt and lithium that will be required in massive quantities over the next decade as the world’s carmakers electrify their fleets.
GEM has “a unique position” in the battery supply chain, said Hans Eric Melin, founder of London-based consultancy Circular Energy Storage, who has visited the company’s facilities. “They have managed to leverage their historical role as recyclers to become one of the leading battery material companies.” The company is also heavily favoured by analysts, with 11 of 12 surveyed by Bloomberg holding buy ratings on its Shenzhen-listed stock.
In an interview earlier this month in Yichang, Hubei province, where the company operates one of 15 plants across China, Xu talked about a “green dream” that prompted his switch from academia to commerce. “When you start a company, you need to have a vision. I understood we would eventually need to use recycling to solve the problem of limited resources,” he said.
Xu, now 53, specialised in metals recycling at Central South University in neighbouring Hunan province. His goal is for GEM to collect and process 30 per cent of China’s discarded electric vehicle (EV) batteries, as more and more units flow back into the supply chain over the coming decade.
Some 39,000 tonnes of cobalt and 125,000 tonnes of nickel could come from spent batteries by 2030, helping to offset any shortfall in mined supply, according to BloombergNEF. For cobalt, that would meet more than 10 per cent of projected demand. By 2025, GEM wants to get 8,500 tonnes of cobalt and 19,000 tonnes of nickel from recycling.
While China’s slump in EV sales after it cut subsidies this year would seem to be a headwind for GEM, for Xu it means that new competitors will struggle to find a foothold. The company said it makes about a fifth of the world’s precursor material – a chemical mix that is used in the cathodes that store and release electricity in rechargeable batteries.
“For battery metals, there’s a lot of new capacity from newcomers,” he said. “But we have great cooperation with our customers. For new capacity, it’s going to be difficult for them to break in.”
GEM struck a five-year deal in October to take a big chunk of the top cobalt miner’s output from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), but its investment strategy has been focused on securing enough nickel.
China will create firms to recycle and re-use rubber tyres as it attempts to tackle a mounting waste problem, the industry ministry said.
The rules, part of efforts to cut pollution and ensure resources were “comprehensively utilised”, were published by the ministry on Wednesday and opened to the public for consultation.
China will aim to expand the tyre recycling business, improve recycling technologies such as thermal cracking, and increase the use of tyre retreading.
It will also encourage the recycling of tyres into rubber powder, the guidelines said.
There were 340 million cars on China’s roads at the end of June, according to transport ministry figures, and the handling of used tyres has become a growing problem.
According to the China Tyre Recycling Association, the country has more than 300 million used and unrecycled tyres, and the figure is rising by about 13 million a year.
Some initiatives to recycle have been launched, including one to turn spent tyres into “rubber asphalt” on roads. Regulators are also considering measures to encourage their use as fuel for cement kilns.
The recycling association said if China recycled only the waste tyres produced every year, an industrial chain worth more than 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) could be created.
商品和服务等日本价格的低廉日趋明显。从世界6个城市的迪士尼乐园的门票价格来看，日本最低，仅为美国加利福尼亚州的约一半。100日元均价店“大创”在曼谷的柜台价格换算为日元超过200日元。低价格增加了访日游客，但背后存在与世界相比增长乏力的工资招致物价低迷这一负循环。价格低廉的日本还体现出正在有些变得贫穷的日本的现实。
“日本家电和化妆品价格便宜，很划算”，从中国来到银座的李某这样说。2018年访日外国人的旅行消费额达到4.5189万亿日元，与2013年相比增至3倍。
酒店价格也显得便宜
从海外来看，日本商品和服务的价格低廉日趋突出。
经济新闻调查了世界迪士尼乐园成年人单日门票（当日票，仅限1个乐园，截至10月31日），换算为日元的价格，东京为7500日元，仅为加利福尼亚（1万3934日元）的一半左右。与巴黎（1万1365日元）和上海（8824日元）相比，低廉程度也显得突出。
东京迪士尼乐园（资料图）
迪士尼乐园各地的运营主体不同。运营东京迪士尼乐园的东方乐园表示，“定期向游客调查价格敏感度”，根据日本的实际情况，“价格与园区价值相符”。
相同的现象在迪士尼乐园以外也很明显。
例如在海外26个国家和地区运营“大创”的大创产业，在日本作为“100日元店”而闻名，但相同商品在美国约为162日元，在巴西为215日元，在泰国为214日元。在中国生产的商品也很多，但在中国也达到153日元。
日本的酒店也很便宜。如果自12月13日起以1晚2名成年人预订伦敦的五星级酒店， 1间特大床房（50平方米）约为17万日元。如果是东京，相同条件则只需约逾7万日元。
原因不仅是日元贬值
关于这种价格差，日本汇率被过度低估被认为是原因之一。
例如通过汉堡价格差异来探索汇率水平的英国《经济学人》杂志的“巨无霸指数”。截至7月的计算显示，日本为390日元的巨无霸汉堡在美国为5.74美元。假设相同商品的价格在全世界任何地方都相同，由此算出的汇率为1美元兑67.94日元。
不过，实际汇率为1美元兑110日元左右，日元贬值30％以上。对于持有日元的人来说，会感觉以美元出售的巨无霸汉堡价格偏高。
如果迪士尼乐园和大创的价格同样进行指数化，与实际汇率相比，日元对美元和泰国泰铢贬值46～50％以上，贬值程度突出。
日本100日元商店“大创”店内
但是，日本第一生命经济研究所的首席经济学家永滨利广表示，“如今的价格差处于难以通过汇率加以说明的局面”。目前，日本企业的加薪放缓，工薪阶层的消费意愿无法提高。结果，物价持续低迷、经济也无法改善的“负循环”正在导致日本的购买力下降。
经济合作与发展组织（OECD）等数据显示，如果以1997年的实际工资为100，2018年的日本为90.1，持续减少。而在海外，美国为116，英国为127.2等，均呈现增加倾向。
日本的大企业对提高工资持慎重态度。丰田在2019年的春季劳资谈判中决定改变一律加薪。日本的制造业业绩因中美贸易战等影响而呈现恶化倾向，日本一家大型机电企业表示，2020年的劳资谈判也“难以做到一律加薪”。
另一方面，在泰国，上升的工资和店铺租金被转嫁到大创产品的价格上。但购买力也在提高的中产阶层的负担感仍然较低。便宜的日本似乎还显露出跟不上世界增长脚步的停滞。
The state-owned Saudi oil company’s stock briefly surged to 38.7 riyals ($10.32) per share on Thursday during the second day of public trading. The kingdom’s record IPO has reached the long-sought $2 trillion valuation.
The figure is nearly double that of the world’s other most valuable companies, Apple and Microsoft.
The oil giant raised a record $25.6 billion in its IPO last week, exceeding the $25 billion listing of China’s Alibaba in 2014.
Aramco’s “$2 trillion valuation is justified due to secured dividend streams,” Arqaam Capital analysts wrote in a report seen by Bloomberg.
The company’s record-breaking market listing is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to reshape the Saudi economy and diversify the kingdom away from oil.