BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Petrobras, the national oil company of Brazil, announced Tuesday that it has concluded negotiations with China Development Bank (CDB) for a bilateral loan of 10 billion U.S. dollars.
The money will be used to finance Petrobras' investment plan, which includes the procurement of goods and services from China, the company said.
The interest rate of the loan will be below 6.5 percent, said Sergio Gabrielli, CEO of Petrobras, at a press conference held here Tuesday.
Without releasing details, the two sides agreed to increase actual crude oil exports from Brazil to China.
A long-term export agreement was also signed Tuesday between Petrobras and UNIPEC ASIA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), Asia's largest refiner by output.
It provides that Petrobras export 150,000 barrels of oil per day to China starting from 2009 and 200,000 barrels of oil per day from 2010 to 2019.
The price of oil exported to China will be decided based on the market, said Gabrielli.
Apart from the agreement, Petrobras and Sinopec signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which the two sides would cooperate in several areas such as exploration, refining, petrochemicals and the supply of related goods and services, said Petrobras.
Sinopec announced in February that it has signed a contract with Petrobras to import 3 million to 5 million tonnes of crude oil from the latter from February 2009 to January 2010 at market price.
Also in February, Sinopec and CDB signed an MOU with Petrobras regarding cooperation in the fields of oil and finance.
According to the memorandum, the annual trade volume between Sinopec and Petrobras will be raised from 3 million tonnes in 2008to between 10 million to 12.5 million tonnes before the end of 2010. Their future oil trading volume will reach 30 million tonnes.
¡¤Government will raise subsidies for auto replacements to 5 billion yuan this year. ¡¤Government willallocate 2 billion yuan to encourage home appliance upgrades. ¡¤CBRC said consumers will get loans without collateral for buying durable goods.
BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- China will increase subsidies for consumers who sell their cars and home appliances in order to purchase new ones, in an effort to spur domestic consumption and curb pollution, according to a cabinet meeting held Tuesday.
The government will raise subsidies for auto replacements from 1 billion yuan to 5 billion yuan this year, and allocate 2 billion Yuan to encourage home appliance upgrades, an executive meeting of the State Council presided over by Premier Wen Jiabao said.
The move will further help stimulate domestic spending after the rebate program for auto and home appliance buyers in the rural areas greatly boosted rural consumption, said a statement from the meeting.
Consumers who trade-in their used mid- and small-sized truck and some types of mid-sized passenger cars for new ones will receive a subsidy.
Subsidies will also be given to consumers who sell automobiles that no longer meet the government's emission standard, but are still within life expectancy.
The subsidy will be no more than the purchase tax of the automobile.
A pilot program of home appliance replacement will start in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Fuzhou, Changsha and provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Guangdong, said the statement. No specific date was given.
Buyers will receive a subsidy worth 10 percent of the prices on five kinds of new appliances, namely, TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines, air-conditioners and computers.
Retail sales kept solid growth in China as the world's third largest economy turned to domestic consumption for growth after exports tumbled.
Retail sales rose 14.8 percent in April year on year to 934.32 billion yuan (136.8 billion U.S. dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced last Wednesday.
The growth rate was 0.1 percentage point higher than in March.
From January to April, retail sales totaled 3.87 trillion Yuan, up 15 percent over the same period last year.
More than 1.15 million vehicles were sold last month in China, up 25 percent year on year, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on May 8.
Sales were boosted by government stimulus policies, Zhang Yunpeng, an analyst with Beijing-based Huarong securities told Xinhua last Wednesday. China in January halved the purchase tax on passenger cars to 5 percent for models with engine displacements of less than 1.6 liters.
As part of the government effort to boost consumption, China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) said on May 12 that the consumers will get loans without collateral for buying durable goods, including appliances and electronic products, and other private consumption such as travel and education.
China to create 3 mln jobs in light industry
BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The State Council, China's Cabinet, Monday announced that it would endeavor to create 3 million new jobs in light industry in the coming three years by boosting domestic demand.
The State Council in February unveiled initial plans to boost light industry in a bid to buoy the economy together with the 4-trillion-yuan (586 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package presented in November and nine other specific industry stimulus plans including petrochemicals, textiles and other sectors. Full story
China's oil processing capacity to increase by 18% by 2011
BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- China plans to raise its annual crude oil processing capacity to 405 million tonnes by 2011, the State Council, or the Cabinet, said on Monday in its restructuring and stimulus plans for the petrochemical industry.
That would represent an increase of about 18.4 percent over its processing volume last year, which topped 342.1 million tonnes, according to the January figures from the National Bureau of Statistics. Full story
China will meet economic growth target of 8%: senior economic planner
HONG KONG, May 18 (Xinhua) -- China will definitely be able to meet the target of achieving eight percent economic growth in 2009, a senior official of the country's top economic planning body said here Monday.
"Judging from the indicators of the first four months, I do believe it is highly possible to achieve an eight percent growth for the full year. In fact, I believe the target will definitely be met," said Xulin, head of the Department of Fiscal and Financial Affairs of the National Development and Reform Commission. Full story
On bumpy road, Chinese exporters tap into home market
GUANGZHOU, May 17 (Xinhua) -- At a sales booth in a special trade fair here in southern China, Zhou was complaining how hard it was to sell her products.
"We sell them at factory-gate prices, but buyers still bargain. That makes me mad," said Zhou, a Taiwanese senior manager of Poly Dragon Industrial, which is based in the booming city of Dongguan neighboring Guangzhou, capital of China's manufacturing base Guangdong Province. Full story
China allows consumer financing companies to boost consumption
BEIJING, May 13 (Xinhua) -- China will allow non-deposit-taking institutions both home and overseas to offer consumer loans to its citizens, a new measure to stimulate domestic consumption.
China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) issued, on its portal Web site Tuesday, management measures on the experiment of consumer financing companies to seek public opinions. Full story
China's foreign direct investment (FDI) growth in the past one year. (Source: China Daily) Photo Gallery
BEIJING, May 15 -- The nation will remain one of the main recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI) this year despite a sharp year-on-year decline in April, analysts have said.
Last month's FDI was $5.89 billion, down 22.51 percent from a year earlier, Dow Jones reported Thursday. The Ministry of Commerce refused to confirm the report but experts said the figure would not be far off the mark.
Due largely to the global financial crisis, FDI has contracted for seventh months in a row, and the decline in April is markedly sharper than March, when it fell 9.5 percent.
Analysts said the April figure is not as bad as it appears if the high reference point a year ago is taken into consideration.
Most analysts remain optimistic about the outlook for inward capital flows, saying momentum will start to pick up later this year as the global economy recovers.
"We were worried about overheating earlier last year," said Lu Jinyong, a professor at University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. "But the business environment has changed quite dramatically since. Year-on-year comparisons do not make as much sense now."
In April 2008, actual FDI surged 70 percent from the same period the previous year to total $7.6 billion. Much of it, some experts argue, was so-called hot money trying to profit from the expected appreciation of the yuan against the US dollar.
"Given the high base last year, China should neither feel too surprised nor dejected by the recent FDI figures," said Dong Xian'an, macro-economic analyst with Southwest Securities, a major domestic securities brokerage. "There is other data showing that the economy is bottoming out. And that's the big picture.
"The economy's contraction is likely to relax in the second half of the year, and it is very likely that FDI inflows will recover and start to increase at the turn of the year," Dong said.
Su Chang, a macroeconomic analyst with China Economic Business Monitor, forecast that as the global situation becomes more stable, China's FDI performance will improve in the next few months.
Lu estimated that China's FDI will be around $80 billion, not too drastic a drop from last year's $92.4 billion.
Even with an expected FDI decrease, "China will be one of the few bright spots in the world," Lu said.
According to a white paper on American business in China released last month by the American Chamber of Commerce, 22 percent of American companies said China was their No 1 global investment destination. Between 75 and 78 percent ranked the country as one of their top three investment destinations every year since 2004.
HANOI, June 24 (Xinhua) -- The 6th International Precision Engineering, Machine Tools and Metalworking Exhibition and Conference 2009 (MTA VIETNAM) will take place in Vietnam from July 8 to 11, the local newspaper Vietnam Investment Review reported Wednesday.
The event, scheduled to take place in Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center of Ho Chi Minh City of Vietnam, will draw over 400 exhibiting companies from 25 countries and regions, said the exhibition's official website.
The exhibition is a chance for companies to seek the latest technology and application know-how in the world of machines and tools, said the website.
The exhibition has grown to become Vietnam's most comprehensive manufacturing solutions trade event since it was first launched in Ho Chi Minh City in 2005, said the website.
Marilou Jane (L2), sector director of the Africa Finance and Private Sector Development of World Bank, talks about the Africa Competitiveness Report 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa, June 10, 2009. The Africa Competitiveness Report 2009 released on Wednesday highlighted that financial development and trade were crucial to making Africa more competitive and riding out current crisis. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui) Photo Gallery
By Song Ying and Li Jianmin
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, June 10 (Xinhua) -- Co-chairs of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa stressed on Wednesday the development opportunities of the continent on the opening plenary of the platform.
The meeting came as the global economic meltdown has sucked the growth strength of many African nations, making flagging the traditional economic drivers like foreign investment, demand for raw material and oversea remittance.
A journalist reads the Africa Competitiveness Report 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa, June 10, 2009. The Africa Competitiveness Report 2009 released on Wednesday highlighted that financial development and trade were crucial to making Africa more competitive and riding out current crisis. (Xinhua/Xu Suhui) Photo Gallery
At the plenary under the theme "Africa and the New Global Economy", the five co-chairs believed that African countries should use the crisis which has devastating effects on the world's major economies, as an opportunity to bring about new development in the continent.
Newly-elected South African President Jacob Zuma, also the host of the forum, said the continuation of the current crisis will mean increased starvation, poverty and child mortality."
However, he expressed belief that Africa can have its own way to deal with the crisis just like other parts of the world.
"We view the economic downturn as providing both challenges and opportunities for the continent and the developing world in general," said Zuma.
World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the impacts of the crisis on Africa are not abstract.
She argued that the key issue is how to focus on the opportunity brought by the crisis to position Africa for long-term development.
Okonjo-Iweala also stressed the importance of having the voice of African countries on the table.
Jiang Jianqing, chairman of the board of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, told the participants at the opening plenary that the global crisis poses a challenge to African economy as the price of raw material, outside demand and foreign investment all drop.
"Africa will have more opportunities in the long run as the global economy will be in a more balanced pattern after the crisis. The relations between development and fairness will be better," said Jiang.
Another co-chair, Soud Ba'alawy, executive chairman of Dubai Group of the United Arab Emirates, said that there is a misconception that the investment to Africa will have high risks. People will begin to wonder which one has greater risk after the crisis started in the West.
The World Economic Forum on Africa has attracted over 800 participants from 50 countries. Five African leaders have taken part in the meetings. They are Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga, Lesotho's Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosislili, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, South African President Zuma and Zambian President Rupiah Bwezani Banda.
Participants of the forum will try to seek practical solutions to foster better business practices and greater investment across the continent.
The closing plenary session of the platform scheduled for Friday afternoon will highlight the outcomes of the meeting and map out the future engagement of main stakeholders.
CAPE TOWN, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The 19th World Economic Forum on Africa started on Wednesday in the coastal city of Cape Town, South Africa, under the theme of "Implications of the Global Economic Crisis for Africa".
The meeting comes as the global economic meltdown has mounted pressure on major economies in Africa, sucking the strength of traditional economic drivers like foreign investment, demand for raw material and oversea remittance.
Jiang Jianqing, co-chair of the World Economic Forum on Africa and chairman of the board of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, said at the press conference that the Davos meetings of the World Economic Forum he attended have inspired him a lot.
"It was my first time to take part in the Africa meeting of the forum, " Jiang said, "I desire to learn the opinions and suggestions of all sides on how to cope with the challenges brought by the global crisis."
Jiang and Liu Guijin, special representative of African affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, would attend parts of the sessions of the forum.
Prior to the meeting, Head of Africa of the World Economic Forum Katherine Tweedie highlighted the urgency of exploring how macroeconomic shifts are shaping the global agenda and how these trends are affecting Africa's diverse economies.
"Most importantly, the meeting will facilitate interaction and dialogue that will allow our key leaders to address the immediate challenges posed by the crisis and fully explore the unique opportunities that Africa has at its doorstep in this new global arena," Tweedie said.
The talks attract over 800 participants from 50 countries. Five African leaders have confirmed their attendance, including Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Amolo Odinga, Lesotho's Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosislili, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, newly-elected South African President Jacob Zuma and his Zambian counterpart Rupiah Bwezani Banda.
Participants of the forum will try to seek practical solutions to foster better business practices and greater investment across the continent.
The first event of the meeting would be a highly interactive session to engage over 350 leaders in a brainstorming exercise. Leaders will examine the changing global landscape and determine the major challenges for which African countries need to be most prepared in the coming year.
The discussions will be based on five general themes in the fields of politics, business and economics, namely, Global Shifts; Regional Effects; Drivers of the Economy; Change Leadership; Collaboration across Borders; and Growth through Innovation.
Among high-profile topics to be discussed are Macroeconomic Shifts in the Global Agenda, Economic Crisis and Impact on Africa.
Economic deliberations will be closely linked to important social and environmental issues including food security, climate change, health care and education.
The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa also draws the attention of business leaders in the world. They will try to explore the economic and social impacts of the international football event in the forum.
The closing plenary session of the platform scheduled for Friday afternoon will highlight the outcomes of the meeting and map out the future engagement of main stakeholders.
The Africa meeting followed the international talks in Jordan sponsored by the World Economic Forum to map out the Middle East response to the world economic crisis.
CANBERRA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The head of Australian minerals giant BHP Billiton is cautiously optimistic that China's economic situation will improve in the months ahead, but warned global economic recovery will be slow and protracted.
Chief executive Marius Kloppers told a minerals conference in Canberra on Wednesday it would be another six months before there were clear signs of the true situation for the company's markets in China and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Kloppers said there were a few reasons for optimism in China, including early signs about growth, loan activity and in the construction and real estate sectors.
"If all of these trends continue in the second quarter they will give us some reason to be cautiously optimistic," he said.
Kloppers stressed the need for caution because there were still issues around Chinese exports, adding the company did not expect in the medium term a sharp return to overall economic activity.
"We probably believe as a company the economic recovery will be both slow and protracted," he said. "The best we can say in the medium term is that conditions remain uncertain."
In the U.S., there was still a downside risk with unemployment remaining a problem. The economies of Europe, especially the U.K. and Germany, were still a worry, and Japan was weak.
BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- An official of China's National Audit Office (CNAO) said Thursday that the agency had not found any serious misuse of economic stimulus funds, but he vowed to step up supervision to ensure economic and social stability.
"I am gratified to tell you that the government policies have been implemented well across the local departments, and swift measures have been taken to ensure economic growth," Liu Jiayi, the head of CNAO, told reporters.
The audits focused on whether funds were used in line with industrial restructuring policies, and whether the money went to high-pollution or energy-intensive projects.
Expensive projects and those concerning environmental protection, as well as money spent to tackle public emergencies, would be closely watched, he said.
Expenditures to improve living standards, including farm subsidies and investments in drinking water projects, would be fully audited, he said.
China unveiled the 4 trillion yuan (580 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package in November to revive the economy. Growth slowed to 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter.
Auditors will reveal extravagance, large losses and waste in stimulus spending, as well as other serious violations and crimes, Liu said.
Although no major problems were found during the audits, "there was still room to improve," he said.
He noted that money hadn't become available quickly enough in some underdeveloped areas with limited fiscal revenue, and overlapping construction persisted in some areas due to poor planning.
About 6 billion yuan was misused in 2008. Most of the money has been confiscated, according to Liu.
"We will hit hard against violations. No mercy will be shown when dealing with illegal activities," Liu said.
Liu said the CNAO would start a full-scale audit this year of how funds were used for the Beijing Olympic projects. The income and expenses of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) would also be audited.
Last year, selective audits were conducted on several Olympic projects and irregularities were found "in one or two"-- meaning very few, Zhang said, without giving details. He added that the BOCOG had made immediate corrections.
The CNAO was now focused on checking the quality, fund management and land use of reconstruction projects in quake-stricken Sichuan Province, said Zhang.
SEOUL, May 5 (Xinhua) -- A senior South Korean economist said in a report on Tuesday that the Chinese currency yuan may emerge as a settlement currency in Asia.
"Trade volume between China and other Asian countries is huge. If the yuan is used as a settlement currency in the region, the need to hold the U.S. dollar will decrease for Asian countries," said Park Bun-soon, a senior fellow at the Samsung Economic Research Institute.
However, he said it will take time for the Chinese currency to be a global reserve currency.
"Although the overwhelming influence of the U.S. economy is falling, it won't be easy for any currency to challenge the established reserve currency," he said.
Park said although the yuan may not become the key currency, it could be recognized as one of the major international currencies like the dollar and the euro after 2030 when the size of the Chinese economy is expected to surpass that of the U.S.
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. regulators said on Wednesday that the nation's largest banks that were found to have the need to raise more capital in the "stress tests" will have one month to develop the plan.
After the details of the "stress tests" are released on Thursday afternoon, any banks needing to augment its capital buffer will have until June 8 to develop a detailed capital plan, and until Nov. 9 to implement that capital plan, said the regulators.
"Over the next 30 days, any bank holding company (BHC) needing to augment its capital buffer will develop a detailed capital plan to be approved by its primary supervisor, in consultation with the FDIC, and will have six months to implement that plan," said a joint statement released by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair.
U.S. media have reported that about half of the 19 largest U.S. banks will be told to raise more capital after being "stress tested" by the government.
Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are reported to be among those who will have to boost their reserves.
But Bernanke on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of a new round of massive bailouts to save the U.S. banking giants.
"I've looked at many of the banks and I believe that many of them will be able to meet their capital needs without further government capital," Bernanke told the Congress' Joint Economic Committee.
In Wednesday's joint statement, U.S. regulators also vowed to support the banks if necessary.
"A strong, resilient financial system is necessary to facilitate a broad and sustainable economic recovery," said the statement.
"The U.S. government reaffirms its commitment to stand firmly behind the banking system during this period of financial strain to ensure it can perform its key function of providing credit to households and businesses," it added.
BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON, May 6 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) and the United States have reached a provisional agreement to end a lengthy dispute over hormone-treated beef, officials said Wednesday.
"Following a very good discussion today, we have reached an understanding that provides a pragmatic way forward in the long-running beef dispute," EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton said in a statement after talks with U.S. Trade Representative RonKirk.
Ashton said the agreement was mutually beneficial and an effort will be made to quickly finalize it.
The agreement would provide additional duty-free access to the EU market for high-quality beef produced from cattle that have not been treated with growth-promoting hormones -- 20,000 tons of beef in the first three years, and increasing to 45,000 tons beginning in the fourth year.
Under the agreement, the United States will maintain existing sanctions and will not impose new sanctions on EU products during the initial three-year period, and will eliminate all sanctions during the fourth year.
The two sides will refrain from further litigation at the World Trade Organization (WTO) regarding the EU's ban on beef treated with certain growth-promoting hormones for at least 18 months.
Before the end of the four-year period, the two sides will seek to conclude a longer-term agreement.
The provisional deal still needs to be approved by EU governments and the U.S. Congress.
An EU ban on hormone-treated beef has been in effect since the early 1980s. The ban was challenged by the United States and Canada at the WTO in 1996.
The WTO ruled against the EU in 1998 and permitted the United States and Canada to impose annual sanctions on EU goods to the value of 116.8 million euros (155.6 million U.S. dollars).
The EU argued in 2003 that it had scientific grounds to ban hormone-treated beef and that trade rules allowed such restrictions. The United States and Canada rejected the argument and maintained their trade sanctions.
The WTO ruled in November that the United States and Canada should end their sanctions and called on the three parties to resolve the dispute.
MACAO, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese central government and the government of the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) Monday signed a new deal based on the existing trade agreements here, granting the SAR's service providers more access to the mainland market.
The Supplement VI to the Mainland and Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA6) was signed by Tam Pak Yuen, secretary for economy and finance of the SAR government and the central government's Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei at a ceremony witnessed by the Macao SAR's Chief Executive Ho Hau Wah.
Building on the liberalization of 18 services sectors, some 31 policy measures will be introduced and one more sectors of research and development will be opened by the mainland authorities to further facilitate market access for Macao service providers and businessmen, according to the Supplement VI. As a result, the total number of services sectors covered by the CEPA and its supplements will be expanded to 41.
The new measures, which will take effect on October 1, 2009, mainly concern industries such as tourism, MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convention, Exhibition), and medical services.
Under the Supplement VI, mainland travel agents authorized to operate group tours to Taiwan can organize group tours for mainland residents to enter Macao SAR in transit, which was aimed to help travel trade develop multi-destination tourism packages.
As for the MICE industry, which is a prominent industry in the SAR's effort to diversify its economy, service providers in the SAR will be allowed to operate exhibitions through cross-border supply in major Chinese municipality, such as Beijing, Tianjin and Chongqing, and provinces including Zhejing, Jiangsu and Fujian, in addition to Guangdong province and Shanghai which has already been opened to the SAR.
Meanwhile, Macao service providers and residents will also be allowed to run health clinics and work as pharmacists respectively in the mainland, as long as they acquire relevant licenses, according to the Supplement.
The CEPA between the mainland and the Macao SAR was firstly signed in 2003 and took effect in the following year, after which some six supplements to the trade agreement have been signed so far, as a step-by-step effort to open the mainland market to Macao. A similar trade agreement and supplements were also signed between the central government and Hong Kong SAR.
BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhuanet) -- ATT Inc. will buy assets of Verizon Wireless for 2.35 billion U.S. dollars in cash and will sell some Centennial Communications Corp assets to Verizon Wireless for 240 million dollars.
ATT said Friday it will gain network assets of Verizon Wireless in 79 mainly rural areas. It was required to dispose of some assets after it agreed to purchase Centennial Communications in November 2008.
Verizon Wireless will gain network assets and 120,000 subscribers in five areas. It was required to sell some overlapping assets after purchasing Alltel (NYSE: AT).
ATT said it expects the network integration costs to result in an earnings per share dilution of 0.06 dollar per share in the first year after closing, with additional planned capital investments of about 400 million dollar over 2009 and 2010.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009, contingent on regulatory approval, ATT said.
"This transaction will complement our existing network coverage, particularly in rural areas," said Ralph de la Vega, president and chief executive of ATT Mobility and Consumer Markets in a statement.
Verizon now expects to buy former Centennial wireless properties, including licenses, network assets and nearly 120,000 subscribers in five service areas in Louisiana and Mississippi.
Verizon Wireless is owned by Verizon and Britain's Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L) (VOD.N).
LUSAKA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Zambia's Standard Chartered Bank has said the stimulus package in the United States and China will increase demand for copper and prices should appreciate, Zambia Daily Mail reported on Wednesday.
The 787 billion U.S. dollars stimulus package in the United States will include expenditure on copper-intensive projects such as public transport and school buildings while China has a stimulus package of 568 billion dollars to boost the infrastructure market, which is copper-intensive, the newspaper said.
Meanwhile, the bank has increased its consumer banking deposit book to over 1.2 trillion kwacha (about 220 million U.S. dollars) as at December 2008 following the successful "Bank a Ride" campaign embarked on last year.
The bank's managing director Mizinga Melu said the campaign was aimed at increasing deposits and rewarding existing customers.
Melu said the campaign allowed the bank to remain open for business and focus on continued lending coupled with product innovation and better service delivery.
"Whilst it is generally accepted that the economic environment in Zambia, like the rest of the world, is highly challenging to most businesses. We remain confident in the economic prosperity of this country," she said.
She said copper prices were expected to rebound this year as demand increases with a weakening US dollar, adding that in China, wire and cable manufacturers were reported to have increased production in recent weeks with usage rates now running at 90 percent.
"Standard Chartered Bank continues to believe that demand will be a key driver for copper demand in the months ahead," she said.
"In the short-term, we forecast that demand for copper will remain fairly weak with prices averaging between 3,200 and 3,600 U.S. dollars per tonne. Experts say the year end closing price will be just above 3,700 dollars," she said.¡¡
Newly elected opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull is seen speaking during a news conference in Jakarta in this April 9, 2007 file photo.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery
CANBERRA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Australians could face higher taxes and higher interest rates for a decade or more to pay for the federal government's 100 billion Australian dollars (73 billion U.S. dollars) spending in the past year, the federal opposition said on Sunday.
"I understand why they have some deficit and some debt, but the problem is they have nearly committed up to 100 billion Aust dollars (73 billion U.S. dollars) in new initiatives since the last budget," Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull told ABC Television.
Treasurer Wayne Swan will hand down the 2009/10 budget on Tuesday, which has been expected to show the deficit growing by up to 70 billion Aust dollars (51.1 billion U.S. dollars) and tax revenue down by 200 billion Aust dollars (144 billion U.S. dollars) over the next four years because of the global financial crisis.
Turnbull will deliver the coalition's response to the budget on Thursday.
"We will be responsible, we will not be reckless, will be fair dinkum with the Australian people about what can be afforded, we will give detailed policies with full costings prior to the next election," Turnbull said.
CARACAS, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The Venezuelan government on Friday started the process to nationalize 60 oil service contractors and place them under the control of the state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela.
President Hugo Chavez was greeted by workers dressed in red and waving the company's flags on the Lake of Maracaibo in the oil rich state of Zulia, as he toured the newly expropriated installations.
"We are advancing the construction of socialism," Chavez told state television, as he spoke and shook hands with employees. "The profit will now stay with the workers," he added.
Chavez said the takeover would lead to an "around-20-percent" cut in production cost as a result of better management and improved efficiency.
With the move, 300 boats, several ports and more than 8,000 workers will now be absorbed by the state oil giant, according to Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, who accompanied Chavez in touring around the facilities.
The expropriations followed the approval of the Organic Law by the National Assembly on Thursday which cleared the way for the nationalization of the service companies in all primary hydrocarbons operations.
The law will affect contractors dealing with water, vapor or gas injection, gas compression, staff and materials transportation, replacement of pipelines and vessel maintenance.
Chavez said that the measure represented a "socialist offensive" which would eliminate the monopoly of the contracting companies and guarantee the welfare of thousands of Venezuelan workers.
Venezuela, which relies on oil income for over 93 percent of its export earnings, has been greatly affected by the rapid decline in oil prices.
Petroleos de Venezuela has recently begun seeking for previously unsolicited foreign investment in the oil rich Orinoco Belt as well as renegotiation of current contracts with some foreign companies to reduce costs.
Following the victory in a February referendum which will allow him to run for president again when his term expires in 2012, Chavez has pushed forward a series of similar reforms.
In March, the government nationalized several rice factories apart from taking over some key ports previously run by state governments to bring them under the control of national government.
In 2007, Chavez nationalized oil projects worth billions of dollars, leading oil giants Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips to quit the nation and sue for compensation.
LONDON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of England is bracing for a third wave of the financial crisis with a surprise 50-billion-pound (about 75 billion U.S. dollars) cash injection, the Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.
"The increase in quantitative easing was driven by fears in Threadneedle Street that the credit crunch is still sucking the life out of the British economy and the banking sector remains in deep trouble", a report by the Guardian said.
The bank took the city of London by surprise by announcing it would pump an extra 50 billion pounds (about 75 billion dollars) of new money into the economy despite recent stock market rallies.
The new mood of caution chimes with comments from business leaders on Friday, who warned that the seeming green shoots in the economy had shallow roots, the Guardian said.
Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, and several other members of the bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) are said to be unconvinced by talk of green shoots that have helped propel the FTSE 100 share index by more than 20 percent in the past month.
Officials of the Bank of England are concerned that big banks which are now supported by the taxpayer, such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, are struggling to increase lending volumes, as they had promised in return for help from the government.
Fears of a false dawn echo the mood at the beginning of the year, when apparent recovery in financial markets was wiped out by a second wave of crisis led by RBS and Lloyds.
Both banks again warned of sharp increases in bad loans this week. RBS said on Friday it was seeing little sign of green shoots.
The Bank of England is also worried that continued stresses in the global financial system will suck money out of the UK as cash-starved international banks send money home.
King will present the MPC's latest quarterly inflation report next Wednesday and speculation is rife the report will contain gloomy forecasts for economic growth and inflation, which will probably be projected as being below the 2 percent target in two years' time, even though it currently stands at 2.9 percent.
MEXICO CITY, May 6 (Xinhua) -- A huge loss of tax income due to the A/H1N1 flu crisis will widen the fiscal deficit of the Mexican government this year, Treasury Minister Agustin Carstens said on Wednesday.
Carstens told the press that the impact of the influenza outbreak, suspending much economic activity for a few days, will result in an estimated loss of 10 billion Mexican pesos (781 million U.S. dollars) in tax revenue.
In order to continue boosting the economy, the federal government will have to cover the lost revenue instead of taking tax measures to recoup the loss, producing a bigger public deficit, the minister said.
The government's fiscal deficit is expected to rise to 1.9 percent or 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, from the 1.8 percent projected in its budget, he said.
The treasury ministry said on Tuesday that the human flu virus will likely cause an economic loss of 30 billion pesos (2.326 billion dollars), or 0.3 percent of the GDP.
Carstens said that Mexico has been assured a financing from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, in long term, to face some of the pressures produced by this sanitary contingence.
The money given by the International Monetary Fund to the Mexican government "are kept as a contingent reserve in case there is a problem at the payment balance, which has not arrived yet," he said.
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Xinhua) -- The Pentagon will hire 20,000 new personnel in next five years to manage weapon acquisition as part of a sweeping budgetary reform, a senior official said here Wednesday.
The plan was disclosed by Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn in his testimony prepared for the House Armed Services Committee.
He said that although the proposal to hire 20,000 new employees is "aggressive," but the Pentagon needs program managers, cost estimators, software engineers and systems engineers in order to streamline the acquisition process and reduce costs.
Lynn said the Pentagon will start bringing the new people in at the beginning of fiscal year 2010 which begins Oct.1 .
The Pentagon plans to fill the 20,000 positions by 2015, including 9,000 in contracting, cost estimating, pricing and contract oversight positions at the Defense Contract Audit Agency and Defense Contract Management Agency.
The remainder of the slots will come from the conversion of contractor positions to federal civilian positions, and those positions will be primarily in program management, systems engineering, logistics and business management.
In the last 10 years, defense contracts tripled while the Pentagon's workforce fell by more than 10 percent, according to Lynn.
Both the House and Senate are considering legislation to reform the Pentagon's buying practices.
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. regulators said on Wednesday that the nation's largest banks that were found to have the need to raise more capital in the "stress tests" will have one month to develop the plan.
After the details of the "stress tests" are released on Thursday afternoon, any banks needing to augment its capital buffer will have until June 8 to develop a detailed capital plan, and until Nov. 9 to implement that capital plan, said the regulators.
"Over the next 30 days, any bank holding company (BHC) needing to augment its capital buffer will develop a detailed capital plan to be approved by its primary supervisor, in consultation with the FDIC, and will have six months to implement that plan," said a joint statement released by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair.
U.S. media have reported that about half of the 19 largest U.S. banks will be told to raise more capital after being "stress tested" by the government.
Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are reported to be among those who will have to boost their reserves.
But Bernanke on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of a new round of massive bailouts to save the U.S. banking giants.
"I've looked at many of the banks and I believe that many of them will be able to meet their capital needs without further government capital," Bernanke told the Congress' Joint Economic Committee.
In Wednesday's joint statement, U.S. regulators also vowed to support the banks if necessary.
"A strong, resilient financial system is necessary to facilitate a broad and sustainable economic recovery," said the statement.
"The U.S. government reaffirms its commitment to stand firmly behind the banking system during this period of financial strain to ensure it can perform its key function of providing credit to households and businesses," it added.
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