澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2010-02-13

Economic growth in Europe has faltered¹ despite government’s spending billions of dollars in stimulus². New figures show that in the final quarter of last year, growth in the 16 eurozone countries was 0.1%. Spain is in its 6th quarter of negative growth. The recession in Greece also deepened, its economy shrank by 0.81% in the final quarter of 2009. And GDP across Europe fell by 4% over the course of the year.

 

Those figures dampened world share markets, banks and commodities stocks pushed the FTSE down one third of a percent. Germany’s DAX also slipped slightly. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones lost nearly 0.5%. The NASDAQ closed up slightly.

 

The Australian market closed the week slightly higher. The big miners gained some ground, but banks and finance stocks slipped.

 

Tokyo’s Nikkei was the strongest performer in Asia, it gained 1.25%.

 

Checking the currencies, the dollar slipped slightly against the greenback and it’s up against the Euro.

 

And Toyota President Akio Toyoda is prepared to testify US congressional hearings if he is asked according to Japanese media reports. The world’s leading carmaker has been forced to recall 8.5 million vehicles worldwide because of faulty brake and accelerator problems.

 

That’s ABC Business News.

1 faltered   

（嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃

参考例句：

• He faltered out a few words. 他支吾地说出了几句。
• "Er - but he has such a longhead!" the man faltered. 他不好意思似的嚅嗫着：“这孩子脑袋真长。”

2 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。