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JAPAN
Toyota Reports Steep Drop in Sales
Global vehicle sales for Toyota plunged 21.8 percent in November from a year ago, the biggest drop in the eight years the carmaker has been tracking such data. The dismal data came two days after Toyota, Japan's biggest automaker, predicted that this fiscal year it would report its first operating loss in 70 years.
Nissan, Japan's third-largest car manufacturer, said its sales dropped 19.8 percent in November and global production plummeted 33.7 percent, the largest drop since it started compiling such data in 1985.
Japan's No. 2 carmaker, Honda, said does not provide global vehicle sales, but said global production in November tumbled 9.9 percent, the biggest fall in five years.
Cabinet Approves Boost in Spending
Japan's Cabinet approved a budget proposal that, if passed by lawmakers, will push spending by 6.6 percent to record levels as the country battles a rapidly worsening recession.
Prime Minister Taro Aso described the spending plan for the world's second-largest economy as a "bold budget to protect people's livelihoods."
BRITAIN
Financial Oversight Agency Sets Record Fines
Britain's financial services watchdog said that it imposed a record number of fines in 2008 as it cracked down on offenses like mortgage fraud and improper sales of insurance. The Financial Services Authority said it issued 48 fines during the past 12 months, the most since it gained authority in 2001 to fine companies and more than twice as many as last year. Fines totaled $33.4 million.
BRAZIL
President Signs Law Creating Wealth Fund
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed a law creating a sovereign wealth fund -- and also signed a provisional measure endowing the fund with the equivalent of nearly $6 billion -- to buffer the country from the global financial crisis and help Brazilian companies boost trade and expand overseas.
The measure must still be submitted to Congress for its approval. Earlier this year, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said money for the fund would come from the government's primary budget surplus.
Compiled from reports by Washington Post staff writers, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News.
