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It takes Mikael Ohlsson five minutes _ and the help of one other person _ to assemble IKEA’s Ektorp sofa.

After 33 years at the Swedish home-ware chain, the 54-year-old chief executive is an expert at configuring IKEA’s famous flat-pack furniture.

But Ohlsson is not bragging about the fact that he can beat the assembly time the company itself advertises by some 10 minutes. What makes him proud is that the Ektorp can be flat-packed at all.

Seated on a “Blekinge white” example of the Ektorp in a cozily furnished exhibition room at an IKEA store in Zaventem, Belgium, Ohlsson recounts how, until recently, the popular couch also came packed in one of the company’s biggest cardboard boxes _ a pain for customers to squeeze into their cars or carry up narrow staircases.

But then in 2010, IKEA’s product designers came up with a way of breaking the Ektorp into different pieces. The results was a package half its former size, which the company claims took some 7,477 trucks off the roads and cut its yearly CO2 emissions by 4,700 tons. Savings in production and transport costs knocked euro100 ($128) off the price IKEA charges its customers, Ohlsson pointed out.

It’s innovations like these, the CEO says, that make IKEA so successful even in the uncertain economic times that some of its biggest markets are facing.

On Friday, IKEA reported a 10.3 percent jump in net profit to euro2.97 billion ($3.81 billion) for the year ended Aug. 31, even though it cut prices by 2.6 percent. Revenue rose 6.9 percent to euro25.17 billion in the same period and Ohlsson says the sales pace has been accelerating since then _ even as stock markets around the world have taken a dive amid the worsening financial crisis in Europe.

“We are becoming a more natural choice when people are looking after their spending or are concerned about the future,” says Ohlsson, his black trousers, black sweater and half-rimmed glasses all possessing the understatement of a Billy bookcase.

“A lot of people see that home is a very important place, maybe the most important place in their lives.”

While sales have fallen in some Southern European countries like Greece, Ohlsson says IKEA has gained market share in all of them.

Over the past decade, the company expanded into big emerging markets like Russia and China, although 79 percent of its sales are still generated in Europe. In the next two or three years, IKEA wants to open stores in Serbia and Croatia and it has recently bought land in South Korea.

But the biggest opportunity may lie in India, a fast-growing country of around 1 bad credit unsecured personal loans.2 billion people, that Ohlsson says IKEA has been eyeing “patiently but also impatiently” for years.

“The impatience is that of course there are a lot of people that are moving into the city, have better incomes and want to furnish their homes and that’s why there is space for us,” says Ohlsson. “And patient because we wanted FDI (foreign direct investment) legislation to change.”

That change happened last week, when the Indian Commerce Ministry announced it would allow foreign companies that sell products under a single-brand name, such as IKEA, to own 100 percent of their stores there.

Ohlsson and his chief financial officer, Soeren Hansen, say the company is still studying the fine print, to make sure, for instance, that requirements to source a certain percentage of products locally won’t interrupt its cherished value chain, where it controls design, production, storage and retail.

In contrast to other companies, which are under pressure to quickly produce new value for shareholders, IKEA can move more slowly. The retailer is not traded on the stock market, but is owned by a foundation controlled by the family of its octogenarian founder Ingvar Kamprad.

That structure not only protects IKEA from being split up or taken over, but, says Ohlsson, allows him to make investments in new markets or store upgrades that may not pay off for several years.

Throughout the conversation, the CEO stresses IKEA’s eco-friendly policies and humble origins in a poor area of Sweden. In the Zaventem store on the outskirts of Brussels, solar panels on the roof provide up to 20 percent of the energy. The company owns several wind parks and one of its Berlin stores uses local wastewater to control internal temperatures.

IKEA has come a long way from its start in the Smaland region in Southern Sweden. Today it employs 131,000 people in 41 countries and its 287 stores drew in 655 million customers last year.

Ohlsson says he believes the urge to upgrade and become more comfortable does not seem to recede during an economic downturn. Asked whether IKEA’s business was “recession-proof,” Ohlsson laughs somewhat embarrassed.

“I wouldn’t say it like that and it would not be humble to say it,” he said.

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Australia unexpectedly lost jobs for a second straight month in December, capping the nation

Premier Mario Monti has called a Cabinet meeting in Rome on Sunday to approve emergency austerity and growth measures aimed at saving the euro currency from collapse, his office said in a statement.

The premier, an economist who once was an EU commissioner, is under extreme pressure to come up with speedy and credible measures that will persuade markets to stop betting against the common currency.

The meeting was originally scheduled for Monday, when Monti is also expected to outline the measures to both houses of Parliament on Monday.

The premier has been briefing political parties, unions, business groups and consumer lobbies on his plans over the weekend.

Monti hasn’t disclosed details of his rescue plan, but has said it includes both austerity cuts and measures to boost growth in Italy’s anemic economy. He has promised it would be socially equitable, and that it would go after those who hadn’t paid their share of taxes before

Italian borrowing costs have spiked, which could spell disaster if Italy is unable to keep up on payments to service its enormous debt of euro1.9 trillion ($2.57 trillion), or 120 percent of its GDP.

Unlike Greece, Portugal and Ireland, which got bailouts after their borrowing rates skyrocketed, the eurozone’s third-largest economy is considered to be too big to bail out. An Italian default would be disastrous for the 17-member eurozone and reverberate throughout the global economy.

The head of Italy’s industrial lobby said Sunday that the survival of the common euro currency depends on Italy’s coming up with very strong austerity and growth measures _ followed by a concerted effort at the European level so that Italian sacrifices are not in vain.

The various parties briefed have said the package likely includes reinstating an unpopular home property tax abolished by Berlusconi, raising the sales tax and the income tax at the highest brackets by a few percentage points, and requiring Italians to work more than the 40 years now needed to receive a pension.

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Greece’s tortuous power-sharing talks entered a fourth day Thursday, with the country’s president hosting a meeting of party heads a day after negotiations descended into chaos and political leaders failed to name a new interim premier.

Outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou, the head of the opposition conservatives, Antonis Samaras, and the leader of a small right-wing party were meeting with the president Thursday morning to settle on a new prime minister and cabinet.

The new temporary government’s aim will be to secure a new European debt deal and ensure Greece receives the vital next euro8 billion ($10.9 billion) installment of its existing euro110 billion facility, without which the country faces a catastrophic default within weeks. Elections are then expected to be held in February.

Thursday’s talks come after a similar meeting Monday night collapsed, with Giorgos Karatzaferis, the head of the right-wing LAOS party, storming out in a rage only minutes after entering the presidential mansion. The precise reason for his anger was unclear.

The hope is that the fourth day of talks will finally yield a new prime minister to head an interim government that will secure the country’s continued bailout funding payday loans. European leaders have been pressing for an end to the political turmoil in Athens that has endangered the country’s bailout funding and even its continued presence in the eurozone.

“This is the third time I’m coming here for (this) issue, and I hope it’s the last,” Samaras said as he arrived for the meeting.

Despite three days of wrangling and intense European pressure, Greece’s main parties have been unable to agree on who will lead the new government, which is expected to only be in power for a few months before leading the country to early elections in February.

Greece’s deliberations over the past few days have taken a backseat to developments in Italy where Premier Silvio Berlusconi has announced his intention to resign soon after a new package of economic reforms are passed. But his announcement has done to little to assuage market concerns that Italy is facing a Greek-style economic crisis and the country’s borrowing costs have shot through the roof.

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For three years now, Efrem Rone has been keeping a close eye on an Adelaide St. E. parking lot, watching for a condo sales centre to rise from the asphalt.

“I know how things work,” says Rone, 45. “If you don’t get on the list (to get into the sales centre early), the best units are gone, prices start going up and you’re stuck with the leftovers.”

His agent was getting nowhere, despite registering early to view floor plans for the 22-storey Ivory on Adelaide project. So Rone was surprised last weekend to walk past an Ivory on Adelaide sales centre bustling with activity.

“On the door was taped an ad from a Chinese newspaper with a picture of what the project would look like. Deals were being done,” says Rone. “It looked like the sales centre was open for business, but only to people of a certain ethnicity.”

Toronto’s condo market is on fire. And much of the frenzy is being fuelled by investors, many of them Asians, who are being given preferential treatment — early access to the best and cheapest units.

“It may look like discrimination, but these people have actually earned the right to be first in line. Any business will go to their best customers first,” says realtor turned condo developer Brad Lamb.

Almost 68,000 new units are now in the planning stages or under construction across the GTA as investors, a lot of them immigrants with ties to Hong Kong and mainland China, the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Russia and Brazil, look to cash in on the biggest condo boom in the world.

A record 20,729 units have been sold in the GTA as of the end of September — smashing the pre-recession record for the same period in 2007 of 17,285. An estimated 45 to 60 per cent have been snapped up by investors, with estimates closer to 90 per cent in some newer downtown condo projects.

They are looking for solid investments in a shaky world — the keys to hard assets like real estate.

“We are a tranquil island in a sea of despair,” says one of Toronto’s leading condo development consultants Barry Lyon. “If it wasn’t for the multicultural community, we would have no condo market to speak of right now in Toronto.”

Even realtors who find themselves, and their clients, with no hope of being among the first buyers in all these new glass and steel towers springing up on Toronto’s skyline understand why this is happening.

Targeting agents with strong ties to big buyers in the multicultural community — one developer calls them his “rainmaker list” — means developers can sell 70 per cent of the units in a project faster, which keeps costs down. That’s what most banks demand before they will free up loans to start construction.

The practice has paid off: In 2005, it took an average of 13 months for condo builders to sell 70 per cent of their units, says George Carras, president of RealNet Canada, which monitors building activity across the GTA.

This year, they’re hitting the threshold in just four months, largely because of their “growing sophistication” in wooing brokers who can deliver multiple investors.

Carras likens the process to Initial Public Offerings of stocks. Those willing to spend the most and not afraid of risk potentially get the biggest payback.

But some agents complain that a handful of condo builders, such as Plaza Corp., are being so aggressive at racking up early sales, it’s becoming impossible for the average buyer, looking for a home or little investment property, to get in before prices are less affordable.

It also gets tougher to find the most desirable units, such as the cheapest one-bedroom corner units high enough to have a view.

Several realtors spoke to The Star about the focus on investment buyers, but none would be named for fear of being blacklisted from getting access to any units at all, which are now essential to their livelihood.

One Asian agent who has sold numerous Plaza Corp. units, said he had to pull strings to get clients a peek at their York Harbour Club project on the Railway Lands: “I’m not part of their stable of VIP agents.”

“York Harbour Club was a little bit unfair to the public,” concedes Plaza Corp. vice-president Scott McClellan. “The (pre-sales) took off on us a little bit and we probably didn’t have as much as we wanted to have for the general public.”

By the time the public could buy, just 30 per cent of units were available.

“This isn’t new. Everybody does it,” says McLellan of what he calls his “rainmaker list” — realtors who can deliver 15 or more buyers willing to buy from floor plans, rather than wait for built units.

McLellan says all of the early buyers of Ivory on Adelaide are Canadian citizens, buying units as long-term investments or as homes for their kids or relatives who might be migrating from overseas.

No one knows how much is offshore investment.

Lyon points out that investors have become essential landlords in a city where almost no one is building apartments. He also sees the units as “warehousing” for first-time buyers who can rent while saving up a down payment. Often investors are willing to sell without requiring the 20 per cent down payment a bank demands.

“These investors bear no relationship to the speculators of the 1980s,” Lyon says. “They’re very sophisticated” and recognize Toronto as a bargain compared with other major cities in the world.

A lot of developers point out they hold back units so less high-achieving realtors, and the public, don’t miss out altogether. Often they are at higher prices — parking spots alone can be almost $10,000 more expensive — but McLellan says there are no plans to raise unit prices on Ivory on Adelaide when the public gets their first crack this weekend.

Rone is fairly savvy — he has been involved in the condo market since 2006 — but is still shaking his head: “This just seems unfair.”

He finally got his email invitation to the “grand opening” of the Ivory on Adelaide sales centre Friday. Like everyone else who may walk through the doors, he has no clue that almost half — 43.5 per cent — of the 358 units have already been sold.

McLellan insists that no buyer is being left out. Even those who’ve dropped by the last few days have been asked to leave their names.

But Rone’s agent now knows she gained nothing by registering early and that the smallest and most affordable places will likely be gone.

“I’m not going to lie and tell you that I haven’t heard this (complaints about the early sales process) before,” McLellan says. “I have people who have called me upset. We figure it out for them.

“Have him give me a call.”

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The Greek government conceded Monday it won’t meet its target of cutting the deficit to 6.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, as originally agreed with bailout creditors, but will cut it only to 6.8 percent.

According to figures in the draft budget submitted, Greece’s debt is projected to reach 172.7 percent of GDP in 2012, or euro371.9 billion.

Greece relies on regular payouts from a euro110 billion ($150 billion) bailout from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. Debt inspectors are in Athens reviewing reforms to see if Athens qualifies to receive the next euro8 billion installment of its bailout. Without it, Greece will run out of funds in mid-October.

On Sunday, Greece’s finance ministry said it won’t meet its deficit reduction target for this year. Its announcement prompted widespread selling in stock markets Monday.

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Swiss banking giant UBS said Thursday that a rogue trader has caused it an estimated loss of $2 billion, stunning a beleaguered banking industry that has proven vulnerable to unauthorized trades. Police in London said they arrested a 31-year-old man in connection with the loss.

Switzerland’s Neue Zuercher Zeitung, a newspaper widely read in Swiss banking circles, reported the trader worked at UBS’s equities division in London. A spokesman for the bank, Yves Kaufmann, declined to confirm the report.

The Swiss banking regulator Finma said it was in contact with the bank about the incident.

“From the scale of this case you can be sure that it’s the biggest we’ve ever seen for a Swiss bank,” Finma spokesman Tobias Lux told The Associated Press.

Switzerland’s largest bank warned that it could report a loss for the entire third quarter as a result of the rogue trade, sending its shares plummeting.

The alleged rogue trading evoked memories of the 2008 debacle that befell Societe Generale, France’s second-largest bank, which stunned investors when it revealed that one of its staff had lost the bank euro4.9 billion ($6.7 billion) through a complex scheme of unauthorized trades.

The trader, Jerome Kerviel, was convicted in October 2010 on charges of forgery, breach of trust and unauthorized computer use for covering up bets worth nearly euro50 billion between late 2007 and early 2008.

UBS provided little specific information on the incident, saying it was still under investigation and no client money was involved. The unauthorized trades could cost UBS almost as much as the 2 billion Swiss francs ($2.28 billion) the bank said last month it hoped to save by cutting 3,500 jobs over two years.

It comes as UBS is struggling to restore its reputation after heavy subprime losses during the financial crisis that resulted in a government bailout, and an embarrassing U.S. tax evasion case that blew a hole in Switzerland’s storied tradition of banking secrecy.

By coincidence, the Swiss parliament was slated to debate the future of the country’s banking industry Thursday. Lawmakers are being asked to consider proposals to ensure that Switzerland’s two biggest banks _ UBS and Credit Suisse Group _ are brought under tighter control as they are considered “too big to fail.”

Shares in UBS AG plummeted almost 8 percent to 10.07 francs ($11.54) on the Zurich exchange by early afternoon.

In a terse statement shortly before markets opened Thursday, the bank informed investors that “UBS has discovered a loss due to unauthorized trading by a trader in its investment bank.”

“UBS’s current estimate of the loss on the trades is in the range of $2 billion,” it added. “It is possible that this could lead UBS to report a loss for the third quarter of 2011.”

In a letter sent to its employees, the bank said it regretted that the incident came at a difficult time.

“Although the news is regrettable, the fundamental strengths of the company won’t be affected by this,” the note said. “We ask that you continue concentrating on your customers. In these uncertain times they are counting on your support.”

It promised to keep employees briefed on developments in the case.

Peter Thorne, a London-based equities analyst at Helvea, said the loss was financially manageable for UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank. But he said it was a blow to the reputation of UBS and its management, and reinforced the case of slimming down the investment banking unit.

UBS chief executive Oswal Gruebel recently warned that the bank wouldn’t achieve its aim for a pretax profit of 15 billion francs a year by 2014. UBS earned some 2.8 billion francs during the first half of the year, with the investment bank contributing 1.2 billion before tax.

In the Societe Generale case, Kerviel was banned for life from working in the financial industry and ordered to pay back the vast amount he had caused his employer to lose.

Nick Leeson, a British trader working in Singapore for Barings Bank, made unauthorized futures trades that lost more than $1 billion and led to the venerable bank’s collapse in 1995. The infamous case prompted banks worldwide to tighten their internal checks.

Leeson was released from a Singapore jail in 1998 for good behavior after serving 3 1/2 years of a 6 1/2-year sentence. He claimed he did not make a cent from his disastrous trades but Barings’ liquidators sought the return of 100 million pounds on any of his earnings relating to Barings.

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John Heilprin in Geneva and Bob Barr in London contributed to this report.

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The PC is dead. Long live the PC.

The personal computer marked its 30th anniversary as a mass-market product last month. To mark the occasion, Hewitt-Packard Co., world

The percentage of homeowners who have missed at least one mortgage payment has risen for the second straight quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association says.

“It is clear that the downward trend we saw through most of 2010 has stopped,” the Mortgage Bankers Association’s chief economist, Jay Brinkmann, said.

The second-quarter delinquency rate for loans on one- to four-unit residential properties increased to 8.44 percent of all U.S. mortgages as of June 30, up from 8.32 percent on March 31 and 8.25 percent on Dec 31. The rate in Missouri was 8.18 percent. In Illinois it was 8.4 percent.

In a normal market, the percentage of delinquent borrowers is about 1.1 percent.

Delinquent mortgages have plummeted from a record high of more than 10 percent of residential mortgages a year ago. But the decline is due partly to delays in foreclosure filings that are backlogged. The end of a state and federal investigation into faulty foreclosure paperwork is likely to lead to increased foreclosures. Analysts say the increase is especially worrisome because it’s mainly because of high unemployment. And once delayed foreclosures are restarted, the economy could suffer a hit.

“The current processing delays mean this will not happen quickly, underlining our view that both the housing market and the economy will remain weak for a few years,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

Tim Logan of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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Stocks in Europe and the U.S. rallied Monday as investors set their hopes on the Federal Reserve to take action to revitalize the U.S. economy after a bout of panic selling last week.

However, gold prices hit a new high of more than $1,890 an ounce earlier in the day, indicating that fears of a double-dip recession are still stalking markets.

Brent crude, meanwhile, fell to near $107 a barrel as Libyan rebels’ capture of most of Tripoli boosted hopes the OPEC nation’s oil exports could resume soon.

Britain’s FTSE 100 jumped 2.6 percent to 5,171, while Germany’s DAX rose 1.9 percent to 5,585. France’s CAC 40 gained 3.1 percent to 3,111.

After a steep sell-off on Friday, Wall Street also opened higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.5 percent at 10,983 and the broader S&P 500 1.7 percent higher at 1,142.

Analysts warned that markets would likely stay volatile in the coming weeks as worries remain about the U.S. and global economies as well as bank funding amid the eurozone debt troubles.

The improved mood in Europe and the U.S. followed a jittery day of trading in Asia, where most markets closed in the red.

Throughout the week, investors will be looking with anticipation to a speech Friday by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at a retreat in Wyoming.

The Fed pledged earlier this month to keep interest rates super-low through mid-2013. Investors wonder whether Bernanke will announce, or at least preview, further steps to help the economy, including a third round of bond purchases known as quantitative easing.

“Given the absence of deflation risk, we do not expect him to announce QE3,” analysts at UniCredit in Milan wrote in a note, referring to a new round of bond buying. “But he is likely to reiterate that the Fed is prepared to ease monetary policy further if needed.”

The European Central Bank on Monday confirmed that it was taking on a more active role in fighting the eurozone debt crisis, disclosing that it spent euro14.29 billion on buying the bonds of struggling countries like Italy and Spain last week.

That’s below the euro22 billion it doled out the previous week, but has kept the yields, or interest rates, on Italian and Spanish 10-year bonds below 5 percent _ more than a percentage point below record levels seen in the week before the ECB resumed its bond buying program.

However, most economists see the ECB’s purchases as only a temporary sticking plaster in the eurozone’s fight against the debt crisis. Over the weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU President Herman Van Rompuy both ruled out the introduction of eurobonds _ debt backed by all 17 euro countries _ anytime soon, squashing investor hopes that a more lasting solution to the currency union’s debt troubles may be in the works paydayloans.

With resistance to eurobonds in the currency union’s rich states remaining firm, analysts warn that any stabilization in stock prices is likely temporary, especially amid growing worries about banks’ funding levels.

“With the north/south divide within the eurozone becoming ever more clearly defined, the chances of finding a solution that will both placate investors and increasingly wary voters in northern Europe seem low,” wrote analysts at the Bank of New York Mellon. “The only question we therefore need to ask is quite where the next signs of stress will emerge.”

That fear manifested itself in gold prices Monday, which briefly rose beyond $1,890 an ounce before falling back to $1,873. Unsure about the outlook for the global economy and more volatile investments like stocks or bonds from weaker economies, investors have been parking their funds in save-haven assets such as gold, the Swiss franc, and the Japanese yen.

The recent rise in the yen contributed to losses in Asia, where most markets ended the day in negative territory.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1 percent to close at 8,628.13 _ a five-month low _ as the strong yen hurts the country’s exports by making them more expensive.

Japan intervened in currency markets earlier this month to try to reverse the yen’s climb. The decision to sell the yen and buy the dollar worked initially, sending the greenback toward 80 yen. But the dollar has been weighed down by the dimming outlook for the U.S. economy and is back down to mid 76-yen levels.

South Korea’s Kospi also took a hit, dropping 2 percent to 1,710.70. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.7 percent to 2,515.86 while the Shenzhen Composite Index lost 0.9 percent to 1,124.17. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, meanwhile, swung into positive territory to eke out a 0.5 percent gain at 19,486.87.

Asian markets were the first to open after the developments in Libya, where Moammar Gadhafi’s regime is crumbling after rebels entered the capital of Tripoli on Sunday. Oil prices are expected to fall if the situation can quickly stabilize.

In London, Brent crude for October delivery fell $1.25 per barrel to $107.37 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Benchmark oil for September delivery, however, was up $1.89 at $84.30 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, in line with the somewhat improved sentiment over the U.S. economy.

Libya used to export about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, but production all but ground to a halt in recent months as rebels battled to overthrow Gadhafi.

In currency markets, the dollar dipped to 76.77 yen, while the euro rose 0.4 percent to $1.441.

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