A round-up of today's other business news in brief

Euro zone inflation hits record low

Euro zone inflation has fallen to a record low, strengthening the case for further European Central Bank action to boost the economy of the bloc.

The annual rate fell from 1.2 per cent in February to just 0.6 per cent in March, according to an estimate yesterday by Eurostat.

That was the lowest since comparable records began in the early 1990s. Some calculated that it was the lowest seen in continental Europe for half a century. – ( Financial Timesservice)

WorldSpreads to drop sporting arm

Dublin-based financial spread betting group WorldSpreads is to exit the sports spread betting business after a “difficult trading year”, that resulted in a €1.5 million writedown.

Aminex posts $9.7m pretax loss

Listed oil and gas exploration company Aminex has reported a pretax loss of $9.7 million (€7.4 million) for 2008 due to write-downs associated with its exploration activities.

Elan’s Kelly Martin waives bonus

Elan chief executive Kelly Martin waived his 2008 bonus after the drugmaker’s shares plunged 73 per cent last year.

Mr Martin was paid a total of $830,496 for the year, a 58 per cent drop from $1.96 million in 2007, Elan said in its annual report. – (Bloomberg)

VW shares boost Porsche profits

A spectacular windfall by Porsche on its investments in Volkswagen delivered a fourfold jump in first-half profits, but at the cost of a surge in debt.

Porsche said its net profits jumped from €1.3 billion to €5.6 billion in the six months to the end of January. – ( Financial Timesservice)

GM responds to calls for reform

General Motors is to close more plants, lay off more workers and speed up consolidation of dealers as part of its response to the US government’s demand for faster restructuring.

"We need to reinvent General Motors, and we need to do it in a very abbreviated time frame in 2009," Fritz Henderson, the carmaker's new chief executive, said yesterday. – ( Financial Timesservice)

SP cuts ratings for four insurers

The credit ratings of four large European insurers have been cut by Standard & Poor’s.

Aegon, the Dutch insurer, had its counterparty credit rating cut to A-minus; ING, also of the Netherlands, Assicurazioni Generali of Italy and Aviva of the UK all had theirs cut by one notch, to A+, AA- and A respectively. - ( Financial Timesservice)