Business news

Business news

Listen to the business news to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

The first item in the news today is the recent elections that took place across the country. This was a crucial vote, which may see a dramatic change in how the country develops over the coming years. Overall, a 54.5 per cent voter turnout was registered. This represents an increase of 11 per cent over the previous election and six per cent above the average for the past 50 years. There has also been a slight change in demographics, with an increase in youth turnout in the 18- to 24- and 24- to 29-year-old brackets. Despite this increase, young people are still less likely to vote than older people; 84 per cent of voters in the 70 plus age group came to the polling stations.

Moving on, the global digital powerhouse ONK today posted quarterly results which were above forecast. Back in March, Tim Bolling, CEO, issued a profit warning over fears that there would be losses following the recall of their leading product, the 40d device. In fact, the company posted quarterly revenue of US$14.8 billion which represents an increase of 11 per cent from the same quarter a year ago. They also announced that they had sold 21 million 40d devices over the quarter. The company has provided the information that with this level of revenue, there will be a gross margin of 34 to 35 per cent, ultimately leading to a US$1.20 per share cash dividend awarded to shareholders.

And in our final news item we ask, will we soon be saying goodbye to coins and notes forever? The nationwide trend of using cashless payment options is increasing. There are a number of reasons for this development. A key reason for this is a growing interest in reducing the number of items people need to leave their homes with. As almost everyone carries a smartphone with them, and many people also have smartwatches, the ability to pay for things using one of these two technologies is particularly appealing. More and more retailers are accepting cashless payments and in some cases they've stopped accepting cash altogether.

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Average: 4.3 (46 votes)
Profile picture for user Peter M.

Submitted by Peter M. on Sun, 09/08/2020 - 06:04

In reply to by Razan Mahairy

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Hello Razan Mahairy,

Thank you for your lovely comment. It's great to know we're helping people!

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by fahri on Thu, 06/08/2020 - 15:57

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Dear team. From the lesson above. 'brackets' is mean groups ??? The second question, What does it mean ' the 40d device' ??? Is it including digital camera?? Thank you very much for your answer.

Hello fahri,

In the context of talking about age, 'brackets' means groups, yes.

The 40D device is a product produced by the company ONK.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

 

Submitted by Ahmadbassam on Fri, 29/05/2020 - 14:53

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In my country, there is decreasing in ignorance percentage . Surveys show the number of educated people go up to 99% for the ages between 15 and 20 in this year. While the percentage of educated people in the last decade was 89%. In my opinion, this is huge change in demographics of the country.

Submitted by ragamin on Tue, 19/05/2020 - 11:45

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the 1st task is broken or incomplete ...

Hello ragamin,

I think the problem should be fixed now. Please let us know if you are still having problems.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Profile picture for user OlaIELTS

Submitted by OlaIELTS on Tue, 05/05/2020 - 01:07

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In the global economic most countries are imploring digitalisation policy in carrying out business transactions. As such the rate of its improvement among the developed countries is high compared to the developing countries. However, the trend here is that so many individuals, firms and governments of different countries embraced this policy, inspite of some barriers to its effectiveness and efficiency.

Submitted by cs on Fri, 06/12/2019 - 21:08

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The last poll about people perception of the country shows that the people's pessimism is increasing, with about 79% thinking that the country situation is worse, that represents an increment of 9 points in comparison to a poll three months before. That perception is reflected on the president's approval, about 70% of the people don't approve the way of the president to manage the country. That is a bad indicator, considering that the president only has one year in the position. The current general strike is an effect of that pessimism too. That forecasts, that in the next three years are going to happen more social protests.