Real Madrid has overtaken Manchester United as the world's most valuable football club, according to business magazine Forbes. It is the first time that Man Utd has lost the top spot since Forbes first started compiling its list in 2004. 

Forbes now values the Spanish giant at $3.3bn (£2.2bn), with Man Utd in second place on $3.17bn. Barcelona is third. Forbes said Real Madrid's financial success came despite the continuing woes of the Spanish economy. 

"Real Madrid has been consistently delivering the highest revenues of any soccer team in the world, despite an intense economic meltdown in Spain," said Forbes. "With superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo on the pitch, and coach Jose Mourinho on the bench, Real Madrid has thrived under the leadership of billionaire president Florentino Perez." 

In coming to its figures, Forbes looks at a football club's various revenue streams, such as television money, ticket sales, merchandise and concessions. 

After Barcelona on $2.6bn, Forbes found that Arsenal was the fourth richest club, worth $1.33bn, followed by Bayern Munich ($1.31bn), AC Milan ($945m), Chelsea ($901m), Juventus ($694m), Manchester City ($689m) and Liverpool ($651m). David Beckham, now with French team Paris St-Germain, was the highest earning player, followed by Real Madrid's Ronaldo. (Agency)

Gold posted its biggest one-day percentage drop in 30 years Monday as new signs of a global economic slowdown emerged and fears diminished that central banks' easy-money policies would stoke inflation. Gold futures for April delivery fell $140.40, or 9.4%, Monday to a two-year low at $1,360.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. That extended their bear-market descent of more than 20% from their 2011 all-time high. Since Thursday, gold prices have declined by more than $203 an ounce, a record skid since the futures began trading in the U.S. in 1974. The reversal comes as investors are grappling with signs the global economic expansion that began in 2009 is slowing. 

The prices of industrial commodities ranging from copper to crude oil tumbled Monday, following news of softer-than-expected economic growth and industrial output in China. Adding to the gloom, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York issued a report showing manufacturing in the region barely expanding. The Dow Jones Industrial Average marked its worst one-day point decline since Nov. 7, 2012, dropping 265.86 points, or 1.8%, to 14599.20. Declines in commodity-linked sectors such as mining and energy led the selloff, with Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. dropping 8.3%. 

The market selloff continued in early trading Tuesday in Asia, with Japan down 1.3%, Korea down 0.5% and Australia down 0.8%. Gold also traded lower on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, triggering circuit breakers because of steep price drops. 

After posting 12 consecutive annual price rises, gaining more than 500% over that span, gold is suddenly being shunned by investors who once saw it as a way to generate outsize returns without the volatility and uneven performance in the stock, bond and real-estate markets. 

The gold rout stemmed partly from worries Cyprus and perhaps other nations may become sellers of the precious metal. Other price drags cited by traders included a sale recommendation on gold last week fromGoldman Sachs Group Inc., and a growing view that stocks are better investments, due to continuing low inflation. 

"Forced selling" by investors holding gold was also among the reasons stock and commodity markets tumbled Monday, said John Brynjolfsson, who runs the $1 billion hedge fund Armored Wolf LLC. Investors. After markets closed Monday, CME Group Inc., which operates the Comex gold market, increased the sums investors must pledge in order to trade gold futures. Exchange operators often raise so-called margin requirements at times of large market swings. 

Gold's capitulation has been months in the making. The price hit a recent high in October and has been in decline since. Over the past six years, central banks in the U.S. and Europe have printed extraordinary amounts of their currencies in an effort to resuscitate the world economy. Every new round of "quantitative easing," as it has been dubbed, was accompanied by loud warnings that the inevitable result of this easy money would be a surge of inflation. (online.wsj.com)

South Asia is regaining its economic momentum, but the recovery in the region with the largest number of poor people could falter in the absence of a stronger investment climate, said the latest South Asia Economic Focus report of the World Bank. 

The combined growth of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka was just 4.7 percent in 2012, substantially below pre-crisis levels, according to the report. 

A pick-up to 5.5 percent can be expected in 2013 with ongoing efforts to regain fiscal space and boost private investment, it said, adding that given the uncertain global environment, it will be important to strengthen the investment climate, noted the report. 

"How countries manage their economies in the face of uncertainties in the global environment will be critical not only for addressing near-term current account and fiscal deficits but also for tackling South Asia's long-term challenges," said Martin Rama, chief economist for the South Asia Region at the World Bank. 

The report, a twice-yearly look at South Asia's economic prospects, said that the region is now more vulnerable because current account balances have widened, foreign direct investment has slowed, and persistently high inflation has limited the ability for central banks to use monetary policy to counter any economic downturn. (Xinhua)

Chinese bank ICBC knocked US oil giant ExxonMobil from its perch as the world’s biggest public company Wednesday, ranking number-one for the first time on the Forbes Global 2000 list. 

Underscoring the power move by Chinese companies to top global rankings, China Construction Bank leaped 11 spots from last year to the number-two spot on the Forbes list of the world’s largest public companies. “This year’s list again reveals the dynamism of global business,” said Scott DeCarlo, the list editor. 

Forbes said that ICBC -- The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China -- and CCB were bumped higher in the ranks by double-digit growth in both sales and profits in 2012, although annual profit growth for both banks was the slowest rate since they went public. ICBC brought in $37.8 billion in profits on $2.8 trillion in assets last yeat, while CCB earned $30.6 billion on $2.2 trillion in assets. 

“Most analysts don’t expect a banking crisis in China, but rising defaults and shrinking loan profitability are serious threats to the country’s banking system,” Forbes said. The rankings of the Forbes top 2000 are determined by an equal weighting of sales, profits, assets and market value. 

Wall Street bank JPMorgan Chase, the world’s biggest company in 2011, slipped from number two in 2012 to number three in 2013 as sales dipped. US conglomerate General Electric moved down a notch to the fourth spot.. ExxonMobil, the US oil and gas giant, tumbled from its one-year reign at the top last year to the number-five spot, despite being the world’s most profitable company for the second year in a row with $44.9 billion in net income, Forbes said. Apple, which has vied over the past year with Exxon for the title of the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization, was tied at number 15 with Wal-Mart Stores. 

Wal-Mart reclaimed the top perch as the word’s sales leader with 5.0 percent growth from Dutch-Anglo energy firm Royal Dutch Shell. Germany’s Allianz, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, and US-based AT&T joined the 25 top-ranked companies. Allianz gained the most ground, rising to 25th from 50th in last year’s list. 

By country, the United States, adding 19 members, continued to dominate the list with 543 members, its highest total since 2009. Japan lost seven members, but at 251 remained the second-biggest country on the list. For the first time since the list began in 2004, Forbes said, China did not increase the number of its companies on the list. But it still had the third-largest presence with 136 members. 

Forbes highlighted three Asian countries that showed standout overall growth in the list: Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Belgium, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates had the biggest rise in company market values, growing by double digits from a year ago. Eleven countries had only one firm on the list, including New Zealand, the Czech Republic and Vietnam. (Agency)

Japan, the world's third-largest economy, has reported a record trade deficit for the year to 31 March. The deficit hit 8.17tn yen ($83.4bn; £54.5bn) as a slump in global demand hurt exports, while greater domestic consumption of fuel boosted imports. A weak yen, which has dipped nearly 20% against the US dollar since November, also boosted the value of the imports. 

Analysts said the deficit was likely to shrink in the coming months as the weaker yen will help Japan's exports. The yen has dipped after policymakers introduced aggressive measures aimed at spurring a fresh wave of economic growth and stoking domestic demand. 

Japan, which has traditionally been known for its exports, has seen a shift in its trade pattern in recent times. It has seen its imports rise, driven mainly by an increased demand for fuel. This was after most of its nuclear reactors were shut after the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 which damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and resulted in radiation leaks. As a result, utility providers have had to turn to traditional thermal power stations to generate electricity. These power plants need natural gas and coal to operate, resulting in a surge in imports of these commodities. 

Meanwhile, its exports have been hurt by a slump in demand from key markets such as the US and Europe, while a territorial dispute has hurt sales to China. That has seen it report a deficit for nine straight months. (BBC)