SIGNIFICANT injection of N1.3 trillion by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) and the estimated N1.6 trillion intervention of AMCON in rescued banks have forced the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to, once again, tighten the monetary policy, to curtail the inflationary pressure arising from such huge injections.

Governor of the CBN, Mallam Lamido Sanusi, while addressing the media in Abuja, on Tuesday, shortly after the 77th meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) held at the apex bank corporate headquarters, said the committee welcomed the favourable growth projections, but cautioned that the security challenges, infrastructural bottlenecks and the uncertainty in the international economy and the fiscal developments could undermine investors’ confidence and output growth in the near term.

In view of the need to proactively address the impact of the huge liquidity injection and correct the negative real interest rate situation in the market and attract foreign capital inflows to build up reserves to protect the economy against external shocks, Mallam Sanusi said the MPC decided to tighten monetary policy by a majority decision of 10 to two and raise the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) from 8 per cent to 8.75 per cent by a majority vote of eight members in its favour.

Tags : Monetary

–IMF members will likely need to soon discuss boosting fund resources

–Expanding IMF cash base likely to face opposition in the U.S.

–It’s questionable whether the IMF’s resources can handle escalation of the sovereign debt crisis

(Adds background and context in the fifth and sixth paragraphs)

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–The International Monetary Fund may need more financial resources in order to tackle ongoing economic crises and will likely have to discuss the issue soon, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said Tuesday.

During the global financial crises, the fund doubled its resources to help it provide sufficient financial support to a raft of …

Tags : Monetary

MUMBAI, July 26 (Reuters) – The following are highlights of
comments made by the Indian central bank governor Duvvuri
Subbarao and deputy governor Subir Gokarn to reporters after the
Reserve Bank of Indias monetary policy statement.

Earlier on Tuesday, the central bank stunned investors by
raising interest rates by 50 basis points, showing unexpected
resolve in fighting persistently high inflation despite slowing
growth in Asias third-largest economy and uncertainty about
global demand.

RBI GOVERNOR DUVVURI SUBBARAO:

ON POSSIBLE US DEBT DEFAULT:

As far as a possible US debt default and the current
impasse of debt ceiling, we have reviewed the position and
believe we have sufficient liquidity to manage the situation; so
that we are prepared for possible repercussion in the market.

But whether they would actually default, what implication
it might have, is uncertain at this point of time.

On whether we are in touch with the U.S government? Not
from the Reserve Banks side. We had consultation, which is a
scheduled bilateral consultation with the US, end of June, but
nothing to do with debt impasse.

ON INFLATION:

Until we see a sustained downward trend in inflation, we
have to persist with our anti-inflation stance. Its difficult
at this point and even not possible for me to define exactly
what the calibration going forward will be.

But as long as inflation persists, there will be no
significant change in our stance.

ON POSSIBLE SHIFT OF MONETARY STANCE TO FOCUS ON GROWTH:

If consistently growth falls below 8 percent, then we would
...perhaps the balance would shift... as soon as the first
number comes below 8 percent the balance will not shift. It has
to be significantly consistently below that.

ON REPO RATE PEAKING

It is not as if in 2008 we were at 9 percent (repo rate)
and we need to go back there and a number of other factors are
different today than in 2008...So, I think to compare todays
monetary policy with what happened in 2008 would be misleading.

ON FISCAL DEFICIT

If the fiscal deficit is higher than it is projected today,
it will add to demand (government borrowing) and, therefore, add
to inflation pressure. That is one component of this output
equation that is fairly interest rate insensitive. So we hope
borrowing and fiscal deficit will be contained in budgetary
limits.

ON STANCE AHEAD

Until we see a sustained downward trend in inflation we
will have to persist with our anti-inflationary stance. It is
difficult at this time, and indeed not possible for me to define
exactly what the calibration will be going forward. But as long
as inflation persists, there will be no significant change in
our stance.

RBI DEPUTY GOVERNOR SUBIR GOKARN:

ON LIQUIDITY INFUSING STEPS:

Given our anti-inflationary stance we want to see liquidity
in deficit, that has been our objective for liquidity
management. At the same time we dont want it to become
disruptively deficit which is what motivated us to do some OMO
(Open Market Operation), tactical liquidity management in late
2010.

At this point, we dont see that scenario emerging. There
might be some temporary stresses in September with tax outgoings
and festival pressures but those are predictable and not shocks.
We would be looking to manage it in minus 1 percent mark on a
sustained basis.

(Reporting by Neha DSilva and Shamik Paul, compiled by Aditya
Phatak and; and Suvashree Dey Choudhury; editing by Malini Menon
and Aradhana Aravindan)

Tags : Monetary

The Los Angeles Galaxy matched up with another defense-first MLS team in the Columbus Crew. The game was testy from the beginning and the first goal was a result of a free kick after David Beckham went down while driving for a goal.

Beckham took the first shot and as the scramble ensued after the missed shot, defender Sean Franklin blasted a shot at the 70-minute mark. The shot was a straight drive on the ground that deflected off a Columbus defender and bounced into the net. Franklin, an MLS All-Star representative for the Galaxy, had not scored a goal all season.

Columbus Crew goalkeeper Will Hesmer had not allowed a goal in three straight games and has been a rock in goal for Columbus. The goal allowed on the Franklin shot was unpreventable for Hesmer. The odd deflection had him leaning the other way and there was nothing he could do.

David Beckham received a yellow card in stoppage-time and the yellow card will result in Beckham missing the next Los Angeles Galaxy MLS game. Beckham was telling the referee the Columbus Crew were not giving him the full 10 yards for his free kick and the referee yellow-carded him for delay of game. Beckham leads the Galaxy in yellow cards.

Andres Mendoza, the Columbus Crews leading goal scorer, went down with a hamstring injury just two minutes into the game and replaced him with Tom Heinemann. The trade out was a huge and immediate boost for the Galaxy, who prepared to deal with the explosive Mendoza for the entire 90 minutes.

Tags : Game

The OpenStack Parade is getting bigger and bigger. As predicted, enterprise vendors are starting to announce efforts to make OpenStack Enterprise Ready.  Today Dell announced their support for OpenStack through their launch of the Dell OpenStack Cloud Solution.  This is a bundle of hardware, OpenStack, a Dell-created OpenStack installer (Crowbar), and services from Dell and Rackspace Cloud Builders.

Dell joins Citrix as a big vendor supporting OpenStack to their customers.  Startups such as Piston are also targeting the OpenStack space, with a focus on the enterprise.

Just one year old, the OpenStack movement is a real long-term competitor to VMwares hegemoy in the cloud. I fully expect to see IBM, HP and other vendors jumping into the OpenStack Parade in the not too distant future.

Read the original blog entry…

Tags : Enterprise

RENO, NV, Jul 26, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
PPJ Enterprise (pinksheets:PPJE), a leader in proprietary automated
health care reimbursement cycle software (all specialties), online
health information digital systems software and practice information
management digital system software for health care providers and
general businesses, today updates its shareholders.

“All requested documents were submitted to FINRA on late Friday, July
15, 2011 for review. As per FINRA, it may take up to a week for their
review. Once FINRA’s review is completed, share price will change.
The Company CUSIP number changed on 7/10/2011. The Company is now
awaiting an ‘Attorney Letter of Tradability,’” — noted by the
Company CEO Ms. Chandana Basu.

The Company has executed retainer agreement of Mina Mar Group (Mina
Mar) on July 14, 2011, but due to delay with FINRA requirements, Mina
Mar will start communications with the shareholders after RS is
effective.

The Company’s legal councils advised that the Deposition of Narinder
S. Grewal has been rescheduled twice and was finally set for Friday,
July 15. With no show by Grewal, measures were taken to remedy the
situation by the lawyers and ‘compel’ order granted by the court. Due
to this delay, trial date may get pushed at least another month.

The Company personnel and Ms. Basu are extremely occupied with trial
preparation since Trial is currently set for August 8, 2011. The
Company is delayed to update its Disclosure Statements with the OTC
Markets and expects to complete updated filing as soon as possible
and be ‘Current’ with OTC Markets.

The Company subsidiary Professional Billing Service has negotiated a
large billing and management contract pending signatures. Once this
contract is signed, shareholders will be informed.

The Company’s second quarter earnings are less than the first quarter
due to a billing service processing center move and server crash
which caused over 15 days of loss of work in early May 2011, but
everything has been restored. The Company expects to recover this
loss in the third quarter.

Forward looking Statements
“Safe Harbor” Statement under the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release
contains or may contain forward-looking statements such as statements
regarding the Company’s growth and profitability, growth strategy,
liquidity and access to public markets, operating expense reduction,
and trends in the industry in which the Company operates. The
forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also
subject to other risk and uncertainties, including those more fully
described in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update these
forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in
risks, uncertainties or assumptions underlying or affecting such
statements, or for prospective events that may have a retroactive
effect.

www.ppjenterprise.com email: info@ppjenterprise.com
Tel: (775) 348-5735
Fax: (866) 622-321

SOURCE: PPJ Enterprise

http://www.ppjenterprise.com/ mailto:info@ppjenterprise.com

Copyright 2011 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

Tags : Enterprise

EAST ORANGE, N.J., Jul 26, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
The 211-bed East Orange General Hospital is now live on GE Centricity*
Enterprise 6.6, an integrated clinical, financial and administrative
solution. East Orange General Hospital is a premier urban hospital that
has taken on increasing significance as neighboring communities have
suffered the loss of their hospitals and more face financial
difficulties in the region.

“We have an unwavering commitment to serving the vast healthcare needs
of our community,” said East Orange CEO Kevin Slavin. “For a community
hospital like ours, having a robust, integrated EMR solution like
Centricity Enterprise 6.6 will undoubtedly help us to better manage
quality improvement in a tough financial climate. In addition, meeting
Stage 1 of Meaningful Use is a significant milestone that we will be
proud to achieve in 2011.”

GE Centricity Enterprise is an integrated clinical, financial and
administrative solution targeting large hospital systems. At East Orange
General Hospital, the staff believes the system can enhance patient
safety by reducing manual entry of medications and other critically
important clinical details. Providing information at the clinicians’
fingertips will reduce the time spent searching for data and help
increase efficiency.

“We are proud to work with the dedicated staff of East Orange as they
strive to provide the best possible patient care and continually raise
the bar on patient safety, quality of care and financial performance,”
said Jim Corrigan, Vice President and General Manager of GE Healthcare
IT, Americas. “With the technology infrastructure in place to achieve
Meaningful Use, we are confident that East Orange will continue
providing the excellence they offer to the community at every possible
facet of care.”

*Registered trademark of General Electric Company.

ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE:

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and
services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise
in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics,
patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical
manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance
solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more
people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with
healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change
necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare
systems.

Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join
us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on
reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality around the
world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of
General Electric Company

/quotes/zigman/227468/quotes/nls/ge GE
-1.10%

. Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees
are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in
more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit
our website at
www.gehealthcare.com .

For our latest news, please visit

http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com

ABOUT EAST ORANGE GENERAL HOSPITAL:

East Orange General Hospital is East Orange’s largest private employer
and Essex County’s only independent, fully accredited, acute-care
hospital. Serving the community for over a century, East Orange General
Hospital recently expanded its services and is continually adding new
equipment and programs to provide the highest level of quality and
compassionate patient care. Specialty areas include: Same Day Surgery,
Physical Rehabilitation Services, Behavioral Health, Family Health,
Emergency Medicine, Outpatient Hemodialysis, Hyperbaric/Wound
Management, Vascular and Medical/Surgical Services. For more
information, please visit
http://www.evh.org/ .

SOURCE: GE Healthcare

MEDIA CONTACT:
GE Healthcare
Corey Miller
414.469.5499
corey.miller@ge.com

Copyright Business Wire 2011

/quotes/zigman/227468/quotes/nls/ge

Add GE to portfolio

GE

General Electric Co.

$
17.91

-0.20
-1.10%

Volume: 70.17M
July 29, 2011 4:00p

Tags : Enterprise

ATLANTA, Jul 26, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Philips, a leading manufacturer of mobile and stationary dictation
solutions, today announced the availability of its newest dictation
management software solution, SpeechExec Enterprise 4.0. The new
software package improves the user experience through numerous upgrades
including advanced integration capabilities with speech recognition
software and iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry platforms.

“One of the most noticeable changes from the last software package is
the superior integration with speech recognition,” said Florian
Schwiecker, Director at Philips Speech Processing, North America. “When
we started developing this iteration of our software, we talked to users
about their needs and found that business professionals in all
industries are starting to use speech recognition as often as possible.
So we were committed to ensuring that our technology would fully and
completely integrate with the best speech recognition platforms
currently available.”

In addition to the advanced speech recognition capabilities, SpeechExec
Enterprise 4.0 easily integrates with iPhones, iPads and BlackBerry
devices. The system also includes new settings designed to allow
customers the ability to install the software in the Terminal Server and
Citrix environments. The software upgrade also works in 64-bit CPUs and
operating systems.

“As we were creating SpeechExec Enterprise 4.0, we wanted to meet the
needs of today’s professional workers, which meant the software needed
to be compatible with fast servers and smart phones,” said Thomas
Brauner, CEO and category leader at Philips Speech Processing. “If
today’s professionals can’t work on fast servers or on their smart
phones, they cannot deliver the best customer service and may lose their
competitive advantage. SpeechExec Enterprise 4.0 ensures that users can
use the technology in almost any environment.”

Other upgrades to SpeechExec Enterprise 4.0 include a new user interface
which features new application icons, splash screens and toolbar icons
designed to mimic modern PC applications so users can quickly learn the
program. All user-interface elements follow an intuitive pattern that
makes it easy for new and experienced users to navigate through the
application. Other updates included in the newest software version are:

–
Heightened security, including advanced confidentiality features
through encrypted logins and passwords.

–
A Carousel view option, which enables typists to see the most relevant
information at a glance in a modern and convenient way.

–
The ability to display only the most commonly used toolbar functions.

SpeechExec Enterprise is now available from your Philips Speech
Processing certified partner (MDCE).

About Philips Speech Processing

For more than 50 years, Philips Speech Processing has been the driving
force in delivering dictation and speech technologies to users around
the world. With its headquarters and production center located in
Vienna, Austria, Philips Speech Processing is the world leader in
professional digital and analogue dictation solutions. From office-based
desktop dictation to mobile dictation, from conference recording to
entire workflow solutions with the SpeechExec software family, our
products support every imaginable scenario. Revolutionary digital
dictation products, such as the SpeechMike, the Digital Pocket Memo with
Voice Commands, the Barcode Module, and the LAN Docking Station are
helping professionals to work more efficiently every day, in the easiest
possible manner, entirely in keeping with Philips “sense and simplicity”
philosophy. For more information, visit:
www.philips.com/dictation .

About Royal Philips Electronics

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands

/quotes/zigman/264418/quotes/nls/phg PHG
+0.24%

(aex:PHI) is a
diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s
lives through timely innovations. As a world leader in health care,
lifestyle, and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into
people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the
brand promise of “sense and simplicity”. Headquartered in the
Netherlands, Philips employs more than 119,000 employees in more than 60
countries worldwide. With sales of EUR25.4 billion in 2010, the company is
a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home health care,
energy-efficient lighting solutions, and new lighting applications, as
well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with
strong leadership positions in flat TV, male shaving and grooming,
portable entertainment, and oral health care. News from Philips can be
found at
www.philips.com/newscenter .

SOURCE: Philips Speech Processing

Philips Speech Processing
Michaela Kraft, +1-905-201-4202
michaela.kraft@philips.com

www.philips.com/dictation

Copyright Business Wire 2011

/quotes/zigman/264418/quotes/nls/phg

Add PHG to portfolio

PHG

Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. ADS

$
24.77

+0.06
+0.24%

Volume: 917,891
July 29, 2011 4:04p

Tags : Enterprise

• Between today and August 5th, military personnel will be involved in training exercises in the Boston area. [Boston.gov]

• Cambridge is the most walkable city in Massachusetts. [Boston Globe]

• Governor Deval Patrick said the process of expanding broadband access in 120 central and western Massacusetts cities and towns has begun. [WBUR]

• Some Massachusetts businesses are reluctant to expand due to the ongoing debt-ceiling debate. [Boston Globe]

• The Postal Service scheduled 43 Bay State post offices to be closed in a cost-cutting plan. Five Boston sites are on the list. [WCVB]

• The Boston Redevelopment Authority is considering four proposals to redevelop Roxburys Dudley Square. [Boston Herald]

• About 2,500 students didnt get high school diplomas in 2010 because they failed the MCAS science exam. [WBUR]

Tags : Exercises

RBA/RBNZ Monetary Policy Divergence

The next 48 hours will provide some further clarity in regards to monetary policy outlooks in Oceania. Recent data divergence between Australia and New Zealand has weighed on AUD/NZD as tightening expectations have been scaled back for the former and ramped up for the latter.

Australia Q2 Consumer Prices are set for release at 21:30 ET with the consensus of Bloomberg economists expecting rises of +0.7% (QoQ) and +3.4% (YoY). In the latest RBA meeting minutes, policymakers stated that the upcoming quarterly CPI release lsquo;is important in helping to shape views about inflation, and therefore the future path of interest rates while shifting towards a more neutral stance by omitting previous comments that rate hikes would be required at some point. Unless consumer prices surprise substantially to the topside, the RBA is likely to maintain its current outlook as core inflation sits comfortably within the central banks 2-3% target range.

The RBNZ is set to announce the Official Cash Rate (OCR) tomorrow and market expectations are for the OCR to be held steady at 2.50%. Recent economic data has printed higher than expectations and last weeks release of Q2 consumer prices did not buck the trend NZ CPI increased +1.0% vs. consensus estimates of +0.8% (QoQ) and +5.3% vs. expected +5.1% (YoY) suggesting accommodative OCR levels may no longer be appropriate.

We think the RBNZ will keep policy on hold, but believe accompanying statements may maintain a hawkish tone – the central bank noted that removal of policy accommodation would be determined by the lsquo;speed of the recovery. However, the one caveat to this is the rapid Kiwi appreciation as of late NZD/USD has skyrocketed to record highs just above the 0.8700 figure gaining more than 5% since June and exists as the main risk to more hawkish RBNZ rhetoric.

Overall, the risks remain skewed for further RBNZ and RBA monetary policy divergence as NZ CPI is well above the RBNZs 2-3% target while AU CPI remains within the RBAs target range barring a significant topside surprise in todays release.

The technical outlook in AUD/NZD confirms the diverging fundamentals between the Oceanic neighbors:

• Multiple daily closes below primary trend-line from the 1.0640/45 2008 multi-year lows.
• Hamp;S neckline break around the 1.2800 figure has a measured move objective towards the key 1.2000 pivot.
• 3000 pip range since 1995; Hamp;S measured move objective projects to the range midpoint around the aforementioned 1.2000 pivot.

Considering USD risks stemming from the ongoing US debt ceiling debate, it may be appropriate to seek out opportunities in non-USD based currency pairs. That said, better economic data and heightened inflation expectations suggest NZD may outperform AUD independent of whether future developments lead to USD strength or weakness. Accordingly, we think any remaining AUD/NZD strength into the 1.2900/1.3000 zone may provide positive risk/reward value for shorts with stops around 1.3350 and limit targets around 1.2100

Tags : Monetary