News Round Up: January 17

Melville announced global alliance; Emerging market growth picks up.

Monday, January 17th 2011, 7:30AM

Melville announced global alliance
Melville Jessup Weaver has announced it has become the New Zealand affiliate of Towers Watson - the company created from the merger of Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt.

"We are very positive about the new relationship and confident that it will enhance the services that Melville Jessup Weaver offers the New Zealand market," said Mark Weaver.

Melville Jessup Weaver was formerly the New Zealand alliance partner of Towers Perrin, and the company said that link has been bolstered by the formation of Towers Watson.

Emerging markets growth picks up
Emerging market growth quickened in the final quarter of 2010, rebounding from a temporary lull in the previous quarter and accentuating the growth gap between emerging and developed nations, the HSBC Emerging Markets Index (EMI) shows.

The EMI rose to 55.7, from a five quarter low of 54.2 in the preceding quarter, above the long-run series average of 54.7. Nonetheless, the pace of expansion remained slower than rates recorded in Q4 2009 and H1 2010.

The uptick in emerging market growth primarily reflects a rebound in manufacturing activity, as service sector growth held steady in the final quarter. Rates of expansion were almost identical across both sectors.

"A strong rebound in emerging markets growth from the temporary lull in the third quarter is a resumption of the long-term trend, driven primarily by a broad-based rebound in manufacturing output. As emerging nations increasingly trade with each other, we could be on the cusp of another economic ‘golden age', an emerging market version of the extended period of rapid growth seen in the developed world in the 1950s and 1960s, when tariffs fell and international trade blossomed," HSBC Chief Economist Stephen King says.

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