Mexico Works More Than Any Other OECD Nation, Survey Finds

Mexicans work the longest days and Belgians the shortest, according to a study of 29 industrialized countries released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday.

The stereotype of a laid-back "manana" culture was turned on its head by the OECD's "Society at a Glance" study, which showed Mexicans toil for 10 hours a day on average in paid and unpaid work, such as household chores. Belgians work just seven, an hour less than the average in most other OECD countries.

The study is based on surveys of people between the ages of 15 and 64 in 26 OECD member countries plus China, India and South Africa.

The surveys required people to say what they were doing every five minutes or so over the course of the day. The poll covered people in retirement or on days off from work, meaning the averages are skewed by countries with more generous holiday allowances or earlier retirement ages.

In Mexico, where tens of millions toil in an informal grey economy, low-paid workers often take only a handful of days off a year and work until they are elderly. A typical Belgian, on the other hand, will take several weeks of holiday a year and enjoy early retirement at around age 60.

On the basis of paid labor only, Japanese work the most, spending just over six hours a day at work on average, followed by South Koreans and then Mexicans. The Danish spend the least time -- less than four hours a day --in paid employment.

Looking at unpaid work, the OECD found Mexicans spend the most time doing housework, at more than three hours a day, and South Koreans the least -- one hour and 19 minutes a day.

Much of the time counted as unpaid work was spent cooking, where Americans spend the least time at half an hour per day and Turks spend the most time at a full 74 minutes.

The Paris-based organization said the value of unpaid work in the 25 countries studied amounted to the equivalent of one third of gross domestic product in the full OECD bloc.

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N.Korea must show good faith for new talks : Gates

New international disarmament talks with North Korea are possible only if the North backs off recent aggression against South Korea and demonstrates it is willing to bargain in good faith, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday. Gates said diplomacy is worthwhile, starting with direct talks between the North and South. South Korea has rejected new talks for now, reflecting intense anger and impatience over North Korean attacks. Gates attached no conditions to possible new discussions between the North and South beyond an end to attacks like two in the past year blamed for killing about 50 South Koreans. He insisted on "concrete steps" by the North for new talks involving the United States. "When or if North Korea's actions show cause to believe negotiations could be productive or conducted in good faith, then we could see a return" to dormant six-nation disarmament talks, Gates said. Those talks include the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas. Gates made a brief stop in Seoul for crisis talks on North Korea to close a week of military discussions in Asia clouded by the threat of new war on the Korean peninsula. South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told Gates that his country feels under attack. South Korea sees recent North Korean aggression as the worst since the close of the Korean War six decades ago. "Many expect North Korea to conduct more provocation this year," Kim said. South Korea must answer "from the basis of strength," he added. The United States fears that the risk of war is rising between U.S. ally South Korea and the heavily militarized and increasingly unpredictable regime in North Korea, which the Pentagon also considers a looming threat to the mainland United States. North Korea allegedly sank a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors, and shelled front-line Yeonpyeong Island in November, killing four people there. The island sits in waters the North claims. The U.S. is urging patience but is worried that rising frustration in the South may force its leaders to retaliate if the North attacks again.

Gates was in Tokyo earlier Friday, where he said North Korea was less able to invade South Korea now than it was a decade or more ago but has become a more lethal threat to Asia and the world. "The character and priorities of the North Korean regime sadly have not changed," Gates said. "North Korea's ability to launch another conventional ground invasion is much degraded from even a decade ago, but in other respects it has grown more lethal and more destabilizing," Gates said in an address to students at Keio University. North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons and missile technology "threaten not just the peninsula, but the Pacific Rim and international stability," Gates said. Regarding China, Gates said that even as the U.S. military relationship between the two countries improves, at least one area of disagreement continues: "freedom of navigation." That's a euphemism for the U.S. view that it has the right to sail its ships in waters that China claims as restricted.Freedom of shipping and commerce have been basic principles for the United States since its founding, Gates pointed out. He also told students that China's military sometimes does things without telling the country's senior political leadership. The communist party has firm control over the military, but "sometimes there are disconnects," Gates said. "In the larger sense of who controls the Chinese military and who has the ultimate authority there is no doubt in my mind that it is President Hu Jintao and the senior civilian leadership of that country," Gates said, adding the wider U.S. engagement with China he seeks could help cut through the communications problems between China's military and political spheres. "I believe we've seen instances where specific events take place where the Chinese senior leadership may not have known about them," Gates said. He mentioned this week's flight test of the new J-20 stealth fighter as one such example. Gates said Hu did not appear to know about the test until Gates asked him about it. "But on the whole, I do think this is something that is a worry," Gates said. He also made the case for the continued presence of tens of thousands of U.S. forces in Japan. U.S. military bases on the southern island of Okinawa have become increasingly unpopular because of noise, crowding and the perception that the U.S. takes Japan for granted. Most of the 49,000 U.S. forces in Japan are based on Okinawa. But without those forces, "North Korea's military provocations could be even more outrageous," Gates said. "China might behave more assertively toward its neighbors," he added.

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China Foreign exchange reserves hit record high

China's foreign exchange reserves rose to a record $2.85 trillion at the end of 2010, an 18.7 percent increase year-on-year, sparking concerns about the country's already excessive liquidity, analysts said. Compared with nearly $2.65 trillion in foreign reserves by the end of September, the figure increased by $199 billion in the fourth quarter, marking the fastest rate on a quarterly basis in 2010, according to a statement from the People's Bank of China released on Tuesday.

Spurred by yuan appreciation, the expectation of further interest rate hikes, and the monetary-easing policy in the US, the country's foreign reserves have grown rapidly since the third quarter of 2010, analysts said. Yi Gang, vice-governor of the central bank and head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), said in an article in China Forex magazine that the country will increase the flexibility of its currency exchange rate this year to reduce the trade surplus and inflationary pressures caused by ample liquidity.

As the yuan's value rises, the reduced trade surplus (a major ingredient of the foreign exchange reserves) and possibly lower inflows of speculative capital from overseas would help ease the problems caused by excess liquidity, ranging from inflation to asset bubbles, analysts said. Wang Tao, head of China economic research at UBS Securities, said in a research note that the central bank is facing the challenge of persistently large foreign reserves accumulation, and she expected further net issuance of central bank bills and more hikes to banks' reserve requirement ratios in 2011.

"Cross-border capital inflows could have increased remarkably in the fourth quarter, based on a rough calculation of the newly added foreign exchange reserves, deducting foreign direct investment and the trade surplus," said E Yongjian, an economist with the Bank of Communications. "They (capital inflows) have contributed a lot to the rapid growth of portfolios." As China's import growth outpaced that of exports, its trade surplus in December was $13.1 billion, an eight-month low, while foreign exchange reserves increased by $16.4 billion over the period.

E said the big increase in foreign reserves in December was mainly attributable to stronger expectations of yuan appreciation. As of Dec 31, the yuan's reference rate against the dollar was 6.6227 yuan, the highest since 2005, and it was more than 3 percent higher than in June.

Most institutions have predicted that domestic GDP growth will remain above 8 percent in 2011, and the yuan will appreciate at a pace between 3 and 5 percent, which may further attract foreign capital inflows. "The yuan is expected to appreciate about 5 percent against the US dollar, partly due to a systematic depreciating pressure of the US dollar," said Shen Gaoming, head of China Research of Citi Investment Research with Citigroup.

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