Word: cutbacks
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...first of every year is often marked by fresh resolutions, but last week China's government workers experienced an especially bracing change. Instead of the traditional two-hour lunch break, which usually allowed time for a nap, they were permitted only an hour off. Though the cutback had been announced in advance, it still proved a rude jolt. Workers who were accustomed to cycling home for lunch found themselves forced to eat near their jobs; since few offices have canteens, employees jammed into crowded restaurants cursed with slow service. Schoolteachers in Canton even asked their supervisors for a < return...
Members of the school committee and Forster refused further comment on possible revenue sources, programs to be cutback, or other aspects of the proposal...
Sitting in plush green armchairs in the ballroom of Geneva's Inter-Continental Hotel, the ministers last week quickly agreed to cut production. But then they wrangled for 2% days over how to divide up the cutback. That renewed oil industry doubts about OPEC's ability to live up to its decrees. During a cordial but "extremely frank" meeting, as one participant described it, ministers from Iran, Venezuela and Algeria lambasted their Nigerian colleague for helping to set off the crisis. Citing Nigeria's dire economic woes, Oil Minister Tarn David-West rebuffed pressure to restore...
Saudi Arabia, OPEC's biggest producer, took the brunt of the group's 1.5 million bbl.-per-day cutback. The Saudis agreed to reduce their output limit by 647,000 bbl. a day, to 4.4 million bbl. More important, Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the Saudi Oil Minister, promised to trim production even further, if necessary, to hold the line on prices. Other OPEC members, except Nigeria and Iraq, grudgingly accepted reductions of about 9% each. Two non-OPEC oil producers, Egypt and Mexico, whose petroleum ministers attended some of last week's sessions as observers, promised...
Saudi Arabia, traditionally the leader of the group, has thrown its weight behind the strategy. A large part of the proposed cutback probably would come from that country's production. After the Geneva meeting, Saudi Oil Minister Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani became chief salesman of the plan. He jetted to Lagos at the head of a 19-member delegation and tried to persuade the Nigerians to restore their crude-oil prices. They respectfully declined. So did officials in Oslo, the next stop on Yamani's campaign. No one, though, was willing to rule out a show of unity...