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The government decided to resume operation of the chemical plants of the Karnaphuli Rayon and Chemical (KRC) Limited by May after two years and a half of its closure.
   The Industries Ministry took the decision of reopening the chemical plants to ensure smooth supply of chemical materials to the country’s biggest Karnaphuli Paper Mills, officials said.
   Failure of the private channels in supplying required quantity of chemicals to the KPM has forced the government to resume operation of the plants, they added.
   ‘The paper factory had to suffer unscheduled closures for six days in the last two months causing revenue loss of at least Tk3 crore,’ a top KPC official told New Age.
   The amount of the loss even would be higher due to partial operation of the mills almost everyday for want of the adequate chemicals, the official added.
   The KPM needs a total of 10 tones of chlorine a day for making pulp but the two private suppliers– Global Chemical Limited and Sun Engineering Company Limited – frequently failed to fulfil the demand, seriously hampering paper production, sources said.
   The normal production of the paper mills is 100 tonnes per day but it declined to 40 tonnes during the recent period, sources said.
   “If the chlorine and caustic chlorine plants of KRC resume operation it will be able to produce seven tonnes of chlorine and five tonnes of caustic chlorine everyday,” the official said.
   KPM sources said that the authority already started the implementation process from early February and estimated the cost for resumption of the chemical plants at Tk2.93 crore.
   Of the money, Tk1.93 crore will be spent for renovation and maintenance of the old machinery, while the rest will be spent as raw materials and production costs, sources said.
   The ministry took the decision three months back, but the implementation process was delayed due to bureaucratic complexity, KPM sources said.
   Talking to New Age, the managing director of the KPM, Engineer Mojaffar Hossain said that they had no alternative but to resume operation of the plants to keep the KPM operative.
   ‘The private suppliers seemed very much interested in supplying chemicals to the KPM before layoff of KRC, which prompted the government to close down it,” the MD told on Thursday, adding that they (private companies) were now being failed to meet the demand of raw materials.
   He admitted that the inadequate supply of chemicals was now forcing them to keep the mills closed very often and for each day closure, the mills incurred a loss of Tk50 lakh.
   He also hoped that the chemical plants of KRC would resume its production by late May this year when the crisis of the raw materials would be totally overcome.
   The government closed the KRC, the sister concerned of KPM on December 15, 2002 as the ministry termed it sick after incurring huge losses over the years.

Rice price remained at the previous week’s level as the impact of government interventions seemed to be fading out.
   Prices of powder milk, condensed milk, sugar, ginger, potato and spices also gained further on the city market last week that ended Friday.
   Launching of open market sale of rice from February 17 and government’s step to import rice on emergency basis helped soaring rice prices drop marginally in the following two weeks by Tk20-30 a maund (37.3kg). Retail prices of different varieties of rice also declined by Tk0.50 to Tk1.50 per kilogram.
   But last week saw no sign of further decline in rice price. It was found at the different city markets that rice price remained stable like the previous week level. In the previous week, price of all varieties rice declined by Tk20-30 a maund (37.32 kilograms).
   Sarna and ratna varieties of rice were found selling at Tk610-Tk625 per maund at wholesale rate while the retail price averaged Tk18 at Mirpur, Kawranbazaar, New Market and Moulvibazaar outlets in the city.
   The wholesale prices of per maund coarse variety China Irri, BR-4, and BR-8 were quoted Tk590-600, while the retail price was Tk17 last week as was in a week before.
   Medium quality paijam sold at Tk635 a maund at wholesale market. Retail price was Tk18 a kilogram.
   Wholesale price of fine variety Nazirshail was Tk700-730 a maund and retail price ranged between Tk19 and 21 per kg.
   Tazul Islam, a wholesaler of Babubazaar rice market, said virtually a section of hoarders in Northern part of the country are still controlling the market and they are making money out of the situation.
   A retailer of Maulvibazar said OMS, though small in volume, created a psychological pressure on traders and started pulling down the prices slowly.
   But the price decline stalled at certain point and traders now forecast that the situation would remain the same until the next crop harvest, which is a month away. Prices of milk powder and condensed milk continued to go up.
   Price of per kg DANO sold at Tk285 at wholesale level and in retail level, it was Tk288-290 against the previous week’s Tk285.
   Diploma one-kg pack sold at Tk275-276 against the price of Tk265 a week ago.
   A carton (48 cans) of Danish and Star-ship condensed milk sold at Tk1660 while the previous week price was Tk1560. Price of carton of Kwality condensed milk rose to Tk1555 from Tk1480 of a week before.
   Abu Taher, a trader of New Market, said price of milk powder is increasing every week.
   Ginger price saw a significant jump last week, reaching Tk60 a kilogram from previous week’s Tk46-48 due to short supply of imported Chinese variety, traders said.
   A kilogram of sugar sold at Tk36, up by Tk2.00 from the week-ago price of Tk34.
   Prices of costly spices further jumped last week, which the traders attributed to restricted import of the items. Pesta (pistachio), Badam (almonds), Posta-dana (mawseed), Jaitree (mace), Jaiphal (nutmeg) and Kishmish (raisin) rose sharply, in some cases by 100 per cent or more, over previous week’s prices.
   Per kilogram of pistachio sells at Tk950 against the previous week’s price of Tk880, while almonds price rose to Tk640 per kg from Tk590, maw seed to Tk800 from Tk600.
   Prices of all varieties of fish, local chicken and vegetables marked a rise. Ruhi and Katla (Burmese) per kg sold at Tk65 against the price of Tk55-60, Telapia per kg (small) sold at Tk60 and big size sold at Tk90, up from previous week’s average of Tk55-60.
   Hilsha weighing 600 grams sold at Tk100, up by Tk30 to 40 from a week-ago price.
   The price of per kg local chicken sold at Tk200, up from Tk120 of past two weeks.
   Prices of some vegetables also shot up in the market as the traders claimed that the vegetable was not available in the market.
   The price of onion, salt, atta, tea and broiler chicken also remained as high as that of the previous week.
   Price of eggs, soybean oil, lentil, red chilli, garlic, beef and mutton remained unchanged.

The textile machinery exposition saw a huge crowd on the weekend Friday as a large number of entrepreneurs thronged the Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre to have a look at the array of latest technologies.
   Entrepreneurs seemed very enthusiastic about the fair saying such a show would help them pick the right ones out of a wide range of technologies and innovations in the apparel industry.
   ‘This type of fair tremendously help us as we are getting ideas of different new machines for setting up factories,’ said Asim Saha, a new entrepreneur, who just started his knitting business for the last six months in Narayanganj.
   ‘It’s a bang,’ said Monsoor Ahmed, deputy secretary of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, co-organiser of the second Dhaka International Textile & Garment Machinery Exhibition.
   The exposition is showcasing a wide variety of textile and garment related machines for yarn making and packaging, weaving, sewing, dyeing and bleaching.
   Not only garment machinery, a number of famed tech solution firms have also come up with modern generators promising uninterrupted power supply to factories, often faced with power outages.
   ‘We recognise the fair as big opportunity and potential for our business in Bangladesh as the country’s factories regularly suffer from power shortfall,’ Michael Wagner, head of marketing of GE Energy, told the news agency.
   Michael, who is an Austrian, informed he already got 6 orders for his products in last few days and sold 40 of his plants in last four years.
   Exhibitors from USA, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore, China, India, Hong Kong, Turkey, UK, Spain, Belgium, Canada, Taiwan and Austria have seen displaying and their products to local buyers.
   Visiting the fair, local buyers were found busy placing orders and making queries
   about the technical details of the latest development in textile tech put on display by foreign companies and their local agents.
   World famous garment machinery brands—Brother, Pegasus, Fukuhara, Fongs, Stoll, Bruckner, Karl Mayer, System CALTOR, Buser, Tung Fong, SIMEM are displaying the products in the 5-day exposition that began from March 1, organisers said.
   Local entrepreneurs said they could keep track of new models of machine from this type of fair.
   ‘Our main thirst is for knitting and dying machines…looking for new models,’ said MD Shamsuddin, general manager (production) of NR Group.

Mongla Port, country’s second seaport, is gradually turning idle with arrival of less number of ships mainly due to poor navigability and lack of economic activities in the region.
   Established in 1950 at Chalna and later shifted to Mongla in 1954, Mongla port has the capacity to handle 33 big ships at a time against Chittagong’s 19 ships, port officials said.
   While closure of mills and factories, especially jute mills, in Khulna region lessened the economic importance of the port, absence of regular dredging made the channel almost inaccessible to bigger vessels.
   With the drastic fall in number of ships anchoring the port, revenue earning of Mongla Port Authority (MPA) has also declined significantly. In fiscal 2003-04, the port earned Tk 47.7 crore against Tk 55.8 crore in FY 2002-03. The earning in 2001-2002 was Tk 64.6 crore and in FY 2000-2001 it was Tk75.8 crore.
   ”We fear further fall in income as the number of ships is gradually decreasing,” a top port official told the news agency.
   According to the port’s traffic division, from July 2004 to January 2005 only 85 ships anchored in the port while in 2003-04 the number was 170. In 2002-03 and 2001-02 the figure were 201 and 268 respectively.
   The port has long been used as the region’s gateway for trade – for shipping mainly Jute and jute goods to export destinations as well as bringing raw materials and industrial machinery for the region and the country as a whole.
   But closure of seven state-owned jute mills and 24 private ones, which threw about 50,000 workers out of job, also cut down the activities of the port.
   According to the MPA, some 2,891 workers are now working in the port after 1,602 were retrenched under golden handshake programme.
   In FY 2004-05, total export volume through Mongla was 135,000 tonnes of jute goods and shrimps, down from 315,066 tonnes in 2003-04 and 350,268 tonnes in 2002-03.
   Imports through the port also show signs of decline. Imports amounted to 640,122 tonnes so far in 2004-05 fiscal year, while the amount was 1.1 million tonnes in 2003-04 and 1.4 million tonnes in FY 2002-03.
   ”Traders of Khulna-Jessore belt have stopped importing food-grain, cements and other good through Mongla port due to illegal tolls collected by various gangs,” said an importer of food grain at Nawapara, Jessore.

Thai Airways is going to introduce direct flights in its Bangkok-New York route from May 1.
   Aviation sources said it would make easy and
   comfortable for those Bangladeshi passengers who would like to go to New York from Dhaka via Bangkok. The non-stop flight will take 17 hours to reach New York from the Thai capital.
   At present, Biman Bangladesh Airlines has been operating two flights on Dhaka-New York route.

Nepal has offered air travel package for Bangladeshi tourists to promote tourism of the Himalayan country.
   Under the package, Bangladeshi tourists will enjoy a free air-ticket against one return ticket Dhaka-Kathmandu-Dhaka, said officials of the Nepalese Tourism Board at a news conference in Dhaka Tuesday.
   The chief executive officer of Nepal tourism Board, Tek Bahadur Dangi, general manager of Cosmic Air, Nepal Lawrence Liew, secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of Nepal, Dr Bhoj Raj Ghimire, the Nepalese Ambassador in Dhaka, Bhagirath Basnet and the director of Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, Mushfiqur Rahman spoke on the occasion.
   Cosmic Air, a Nepalese airline offered the package prior to the Dhaka Travel Mart 2005 in Dhaka on March 4-6.
   According to the Cosmic Air, Bangladeshi tourists will have to buy the return ticket at a cost of $ 150 dollars (TK.9, 000) to avail the offer.
   The Bangladeshi tourists can also enjoy another incentive offer for a return ticket of Dhaka-Kathmandu-Delhi-Dhaka at a cost of 450 dollars (27,000).
   The NTB chief executive officer said the board has opened the doors of Nepal for Bangladeshi tourists offering different tour facilities.
   The latest political situation arisen out of the recent change of power in Nepal did not affect security in the country’s tourism sector, he added.
   With an amicable approach, Bangladeshi tourists are being facilitated, he said adding that the Himalayan country Nepal has already set a precedent by providing free visa on arrival for all SAARC nations.
   Tek Dangi said the Kathmandu Valley presents a microcosm of Nepal’s rich culture with seven UNESCO designated world heritage sites within a radius of 20 kilometres.
   To promote Nepalese tourism, the CEO, added the NTB along with other private and public tourism organisations of Nepal would take part in the Dhaka Travel Mart.

The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry signed a memorandum of understanding with the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry to develop bilateral trade relations, says a press release.
   The president of the DCCI, Sayeeful Islam and the president of the KCCI, Khalid Firoz, signed the MoU during Expo-Pakistan held in Karachi.
   Under the agreement, both the chambers will exchange information and support each other for promoting bilateral trade.
   The president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers and Commerce and Industry, Abdul Awal Mintoo and business leaders of Pakistan were present in the signing ceremony.

The foundation training course for the probationary officers of Dhaka Bank Limited concluded recently, says a press release.
   Twenty-six newly recruited officers of Dhaka Bank participated in the 22-day course organised by Dhaka Bank Training Institute.
   The deputy managing directors of the bank, Khondker Fazle Rashid and Mohammad Abu Musa, distributed certificates to the participants at the closing ceremony of the course.
   Shamshad Begum, executive vice-president and principal of DBTI, Salahuddin Ahmed, senior assistant vice-president and faculty member and Dr. M Saiful Karim Chowdhury, assistant vice-president and faculty member, among others, were present on the occasion.

The International Leasing and Financial Services Limited held its board meeting in Dhaka recently, says a press release.
   The chairman, board of directors of the bank, Mahbub Jamil, presided over the meeting.
   Nominee directors of shareholders Itrat Husain and Sajidur Rahman Khan of Singer Bangladesh Limited, CM Alam of IPDC of Bangladesh Limited, Jamal Uddin Ahmad of Shaw Wallace Bangladesh Ltd and M Matiul Islam attended the meeting. The managing director of ILFSL, Mafizuddin Sarkar, was also present.
   The meeting reviewed the activities of the company for the year 2004 and expressed satisfaction at the company's the overall performance in the year.
   The company contracted business volume worth Tk2,393 million and executed/disbursed Tk2,033 million in the year 2004 registering 54 per cent and 42 per cent growth respectively over the year 2003, the meeting was told.

The Association of Industrial and Production Engineers (AIPE) along with the Department of Industrial and Production Engineering (IPE) of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) organised a three-day programme marking the IPE Day-2005.
   As part of the function which began on March 2, a specially focused ‘Roundtable Discussion on readymade garment Indu-stry’ was held in the BUET auditorium.
   The discussion session was supported by the South Asia Enterprise Development Facility (SEDF).
   The session was arranged to generate ideas on current problems and prospects of RMG sector in Bangladesh, ways of increasing productivity through application of industrial engineering tools and techniques, and role of media in this venture and identify the role of BUET in meeting the training needs of the garment sector.
   Annisul Haque, president of the BGMEA and the president of BKMEA, government's top policymakers, media personalities, university experts and leaders of different trade bodies participated in the workshop as resource persons.
   Deepak P Adhikary, program manager of IFC/SEDF and its business development officer Raihana Rabbany were also present.

Talks to boost chances for the conclusion of a global trade pa ct in 2006 turned to the thorny issue of agriculture here Friday with a landmark World Trade Organisation ruling against US cotton subsidies weighing heavily in discussions.
   With Thursday’s WTO decision in favor of Brazil making an already bitter north-south divide over farm subsidies even more pronounced, ministers and senior officials from 33 nations met for a second and final day at this Kenyan resort.
   ‘We see it as an important victory for developing countries generally,’ said Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim. ‘Agricultural subsidies are the most harmful single piece (of commerce) that has to be reformed.’
   The impact of the WTO ruling — which compels the United States to dismantle hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies paid to US cotton farmers — was evident in the talks.
   ‘I think it’s very important,’ Amorim told reporters. ‘Now we have a ruling that makes it very clear that the way these (payments) were being used is illegal.’
   An aide to one trade official participating in the WTO ‘mini-ministerial’ said of the landmark ruling: ‘People talk about the 800-pound gorilla in the room, well this is it.’
   But European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson differed with suggestions that the cotton ruling would have ramifications on broader discussions.
   ‘Nobody has drawn those wider implications,’ he told reporters during a break in the talks.
   In Washington, a spokesman for the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office said the United States was studying the ruling, which upheld a Brazilian complaint that the US subsidies artificially drove down world cotton prices and distorted competition for its producers.
   Brazil hailed the decision and called for speedy US compliance as did west African cotton producers, notably Benin Chad, Mali and Senegal, which had supported the original complaint and an initial WTO ruling against the United States in 2004.
   But prospects for Washington’s acceptance of the ruling remained unclear, particularly in the context of the talks here which opened on Thursday under a cloud of north-south recriminations over farm subsidies.
   The USTR spokesman suggested the possibility of resolving the dispute through negotiation, possibly in conjunction with multilateral talks on rewriting the rules on global farm trade.
   But at this Indian Ocean beachfront lodge there were few signs either north or south was willing to budge on positions, mainly on agricultural subsidies and trade preferences, that derailed so-called ‘Doha round’ negotiations in 2003 in Cancun, Mexico.
   ‘We don’t see much movement,’ said an official from one of the developing African, Caribbean and Pacific nations that have been clamoring for an end to such subsidies from rich countries.
   At the same time, the developed world is insisting that poor nations ease tariffs and other trade restrictions to open their markets to foreign competition, most notably in the non-agricultural goods and services sectors.
   ‘It’s important to see progress across the board,’ Mandelson said, adding that numerous countries, including Brazil, Bangladesh, India, Japan and Senegal had made ‘excellent contributions’ in their statements on services.
   They revealed ‘a sense of urgency, realism and commitment’ to reaching a global trade deal by the 2006 deadline, he said.
   Although the Doha round of trade talks got back on track in July 2004 — in part because of a EU pledge to consider ending farm export subsidies — lingering tensions were evident even outside the meeting hall.
   More than 40 Kenyan anti-globalization demonstrators arrested on Thursday while attempting to march on the conference site to protest farm subsidies were charged with participating in an ‘illegal procession’ and could face up to three years in prison, court officials said.
   And, earlier in the week, poor countries demanded the agricultural issue take full precedence at the informal talks, warning that a failure to do so could lead to a repeat of Cancun in Hong Kong.
   Officials acknowledged that a formal agreement was unlikely to emerge from the Kenya meeting but said they hoped for new commitments on reducing or eliminating agricultural export subsidies, market access and domestic price supports.
   Such pledges will be key to meeting a July target date to prepare an ‘endgame document’ — an outline of the final accord — for ministers from all 148 WTO members to endorse at a meeting in Hong Kong in December.

President Bush said on Thursday he would focus for now on the financial problems facing Social Security, signaling a shift in tactics amid a slide in support for his private account plan.
   The emphasis on the financial problems facing the retirement system as the huge baby-boom generation begins to retire comes as opinion polls show declining support for Bush’s plan to carve investment accounts out of the programme.
   Senate Democrats asserted they had the votes to block his plan.
   Despite the polls, Bush said he felt the administration was making headway in explaining to the public that Social Security’s future was troubled.
   ‘People are beginning to say, we have a problem,’ Bush told reporters. ‘The next phase, when people say we have a problem, is going to be, what are you going to do about it?
   ‘And I’m willing to put out some ideas about what to do about it. In my judgment, ultimately, politicians need to be worried about not being a part of the solution.’
   As Bush spoke, Sen. Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada gathered the signatures of 42 senators on a letter urging Bush to publicly reject the creation of private accounts funded through Social Security payroll taxes.
   ‘Such a statement would eliminate a serious obstacle’ to garnering Democratic support for changing Social Security, the letter said. Reid’s aides said he intended to send the letter to Bush on Friday.
   With 42 Senate signatories, it appears Reid would have the votes to mount a filibuster to block Bush’s plan, aides said.
   After talks with constituents last week, several Republicans suggested Washington policy-makers may have gotten ahead of the public on the private accounts issue.
   Republicans have been struggling to build public backing for Bush’s proposal that would allow workers to shift some of their Social Security taxes into private accounts that could be invested in stock and bond funds.
   In a New York Times/CBS News poll published on Thursday, 51 per cent of respondents said diverting Social Security taxes into private accounts was a bad idea. The number rose to 69 per cent when respondents were told the accounts would result in a cut in guaranteed government benefits. Other polls reflected a similar lack of public enthusiasm for private accounts.

Oil prices slipped on Friday as dealers scooped up profits after OPEC member Nigeria said the cartel would discuss a production rise later this month, helping pull the market back from near all-time highs.
   US light crude was down 7 cents at $53.50 a barrel, having tumbled sharply from Thursday’s $55.20 peak — the highest price since the contract hit a record $55.67 on Oct. 25. Prices are up over 18 per cent in the last four weeks. London Brent crude hit $53.00 on Thursday, its highest price in 17 years of trade on the International Petroleum Exchange. It traded 20 cents lower at $51.75 a barrel.
   Nigeria’s Presidential adviser on Petroleum, Edmund Daukoru, helped undercut surging prices when he said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would focus on whether or not to raise production at their March 16 meeting in Iran.
   A number of OPEC ministers have said the cartel should keep output steady into the second quarter, despite fears that the seasonal decline in post-winter demand could lead to a hefty increase in consumer inventories. But few have advocated a hike.
   With a growing consensus in OPEC that US oil prices could remain in a $40-$50 range for the rest of the year, dealers are wary of selling the market. ‘In my opinion we are going to see higher prices than we have seen, but the market is taking a breather,’ said John Brady at ABN Amro in New York.
   ‘It raced up there and probably got a little ahead of itself. I would think usually with a kind of reversal like that, on very good volume, it would usually indicate a day or two days of potential weakness,’ he added.
   Acting OPEC secretary-general Adnan Shihab-Eldin said on Thursday that a supply disruption in already tight markets could push prices as high as $80 over the next two years.
   A slip below $53.00 could trigger a round of profit-taking, Brady said, but there would likely be a flurry of buyers waiting to push prices back up if they slid to around $50.00.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan seems like he’s everywhere these days, peering out from black horn-rimmed glasses and waxing on about Social Security, Medicare, deficits, consumption taxes, financial illiteracy, even liquefied natural gas.
   Although owlishly inscrutable when he wants to be, the Fed chief isn’t shy about offering his views on all sorts of things. And lately, with his retirement looming, he seems to be on a roll.
   From his early days as a consultant to his current job in the cat bird’s seat overseeing the world’s largest economy, Greenspan has five decades of experience watching and analyzing economic activity.
   As Fed chairman since 1987, Greenspan has helped steer the economy through good times and bad, earning credibility from both parties along the way.
   Thus, when Greenspan talks — even when it’s not about the direction of interest rates — policy-makers, investors and the public listen.
   ‘He almost has rock star status,’ said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com. ‘He has everything but the groupies.’
   Some believe his approaching retirement has something to do with his gabby streak.
   Greenspan is expected to retire in January.
   ‘He is venturing out more,’ said Sung Won Sohn, president and chief economist of Hanmi Bank. ‘He is probably considering his role in history books. He wants to make an impact on major issues while he has the bully pulpit.’
   In the last few weeks, Greenspan, in appearances before Congress, has, among other things, urged a go-slow approach on personal Social Security accounts, saying that while he embraces the idea central to President Bush’s proposed overhaul, he is concerned about stability in financial markets.
   That gave both supporters and opponents of the president’s plan ammunition, hardly the first time something he has said has played both ways in a debate.
   Then on Wednesday, Greenspan delivered to Congress one of his strongest warnings to date. Unless policy-makers reduce the growth of Social Security and Medicare benefits, the resulting huge federal budget deficits in the future could create economic ‘stagnation,’ he said.
   On Thursday, Greenspan jumped into the fray over revamping the tax system. He told a presidential panel that some form of a consumption tax — such as a national sales tax — could spur greater economic growth. But, he cautioned that the government would face significant problems making the transition to such a system.
   While Bush’s economic advisers have talked favorably of a consumption tax, Democrats, who believe it would hit the poor the hardest, were stung by Greenspan’s remarks. So were retailers.

US gasoline prices are almost certain to hit fresh record highs this spring or summer when motorists hit the roads for vacation season, the AAA auto group said on Thursday. ‘All of the dynamics are in place for US motorists to pay new record high prices again this year,’ said Geoff Sundstrom, spokesman for the AAA.
   US average pump prices for self-serve gas are currently $1.92 a gallon, about 13 cents below the all-time record hit last May and 22 cents higher than a year ago, the AAA said in its daily survey on Thursday.
   Sundstrom said a spike in US gasoline futures to new peaks on the New York Mercantile Exchange and soaring costs for crude oil, the feedstock refiners use to make fuel, had already caused some pump prices to rocket higher.
   NYMEX gasoline futures prices serve as a benchmark for most wholesale gasoline traded in the United States, and they have surged amid concerns over strong demand growth and worries OPEC could become comfortable defending higher crude prices.
   One OPEC official said $80 crude was possible.
   ‘Some retailers have overreacted to some of the media reports of $80 a barrel crude and now the two-day run-up in the wholesale futures by posting 20-cent increases in their pump prices,’ said Sundstrom.
   He cautioned retailers to wait to see if the price hikes some see are realized once they get supplies at their stations. Sundstrom said the AAA had reports of the 20-cent price hikes at pumps in Cleveland, Ohio.
   An analyst with the US Energy Information Administ-ration, the statistical arm of the Department of Energy, said he would not be surprised if prices broke the record this year, but added that it’s not a given.
   ‘We may never see today’s record NYMEX gasoline price translate into a record retail price because the NYMEX price represents New York Harbor reformulated gasoline, and a lot can happen by May or June, when we are looking for a peak,’ said Mike Burdette of the EIA.
   On Thursday, NYMEX gasoline futures hit a record of $1.5450 a gallon. By the time the NYMEX ended active trade, gasoline had settled at $1.5075 a gallon. A year ago, wholesale gasoline futures on the NYMEX were 40 cents lower.

Kenya should urgently lower duty on Pakistan rice to resolve a trade spat between the two countries and hit prices for Kenya’s vital tea exports, a senior Pakistani minister said on Wednesday.
   Tea purchases at Kenya’s Mombasa auction by Pakistan buyers, the largest market for Kenya’s tea, have dropped since early January when Kenya raised duties on Pakistan rice in line with a new regional customs union.
   ‘The government of Pakistan is under pressure from stakeholders and we hope the matter can be resolved amicably,’ Pakistan Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan said.
   The dispute was triggered when Kenya raised import duties on rice to 75 percent from 35 percent in line with new tariffs agreed with Uganda and Tanzania under a new East African Community customs union. Pakistan is the leading exporter of rice to Kenya.

The productivity of American workers rose at an annual rate of 2.1 per cent in the final three months of last year, sharply higher than originally believed.
   The Labour Department had initially reported a month ago that productivity — the amount of output per hour of work — had risen by just 0.8 per cent in the October-December quarter, a figure that had jolted financial markets because it raised worries that inflation pressures could be mounting.
   The better-than-expected 2.1 per cent revised estimate for productivity left this indicator for all of 2004 rising by 4 per cent, the department said Thursday, capping the strongest three-year period for productivity growth in more than a half-century of record keeping.
   Productivity is the key component for rising living standards.
   In a separate report, the department said the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits dipped by 1,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 310,000.

The dollar edged up against the yen on Friday as investors bet that healthy employment figures would strengthen the case for a faster pace of rises in US interest rates.
   The dollar has found support this week on expectations that US non-farm payrolls data, due at 8:30 a.m. EST, will show that around 220,000 new jobs were created in February compared with 146,000 the previous month.
   Recent upbeat US indicators have fueled talk of a larger figure for February though some traders were cautious, saying a buoyant reading had been factored into the dollar so a weaker figure would let the currency down.
   ‘The market is a little optimistic about the numbers, maybe a bit too optimistic,’ said a trader at a European brokerage.
   ‘Even if it doesn’t make expectations, if something like 160,000 or 170,000 comes up — that’s still a very good figure. But the market’s not going to be satisfied with that,’ he said.
   Monthly job creation has not topped 200,000 since October, when 282,000 jobs were added to US payrolls.
   As of 1 a.m. EST, the dollar was up 0.2 per cent on the day at around 105.45 yen adding to a 0.5 per cent gain on Thursday. It has climbed almost 3 per cent so far this year. The dollar pair was unable to break 105.50, where Japanese exporters were seen ready to sell dollars.
   As the market braced itself for the payrolls data, the dollar was barely moved against other major currencies, including the euro, the pound and the Swiss franc.
   The euro was flat from late New York levels at around $1.3110 down about 3.3 per cent since the start of the year.
   The dollar has clawed back from a record low of $1.3670 to the euro in December. Interest rate rises by the Fed and sluggish euro zone data have helped outweigh lingering concerns about the size of the US fiscal and external deficits.
   Ahead of the payrolls data, the dollar also got a boost on Thursday when the employment component of the Institute for Supply Management’s service sector index for February came in at 59.6, the highest since the survey started in 1997.

Despite a spike in oil prices and stormy weather in the Northeast and Midwest, consu-mers extended their shopping spree into February, handing retailers better-than-expected sales for the month.
   As merchants reported their results Thursday, it was clear that factors including new spring fashions and bigger tax refunds helped boost spending, but analysts also pointed to a generally improving economy, particularly the job market, that has helped reinvigorate business since the beginning of the year.
   Especially encouraging were reviving sales at mid- and lower-priced department stores, such as Kohl’s Corp. and Sears, Roebuck and Co., which had struggled as customers worried about job security cut back their spending.
   A broad range of companies beat Wall Street sales forecasts, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Nordstrom Inc., Talbots Inc. and teen retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch Inc.
   Among the few disappointments were Limited Brands Inc. and May Department Stores Co., which announced Monday it was being acquired by Federated Department Stores Inc.
   ‘The final February tally is very robust,’ said Ken Perkins, retail analyst at RetailMetrics LLC., a research firm in Swampscott, Mass. ‘The strength was across all retail categories. The economy appears stronger than initially expected. And consumers are responding to spring fashions, despite the cold weather snap.’

US economy generates 2.62
lakh new jobs
The US economy generated 262,000 new jobs in February, a sharp increase from 132,000 in January, the Labor Department said Friday. The payrolls report, a key to sustaining economic growth, was much better than the 225,000 new jobs predicted, on average, by private economists. But a separate survey showed the jobless rate increased to 5.4 percent from 5.2 percent. The apparent contradiction is explained by an increase in the number of active job seekers. Gains in nonfarm payrolls in January and December were revised up by a total of 6,000. The report also showed average hourly earnings were unchanged at 15.90 dollars.
— AFP

India’s inflation hits 40-month low
India's inflation rate fell below five percent to hit a 40-month low, the government said Friday. The rate dropped to 4.83 percent in the week to February 19 for the first time in more than three years on the back of easing edible oil, food and vegetable prices. The Wholesale Price Index, India's most widely-tracked price monitor, slipped 0.18 percentage points to 4.83 percent from 5.01 percent the previous week. Inflation has been cooling since September after hitting a peak of 8.74 percent in late August, compared to a low of 4.32 percent in late April 2004. The inflation drop will provide some respite to the Congress-led coalition government after it resorted to a series of fiscal measures, including cutting duty on petroleum products, to curb cost increases and shield the poor.
— AFP

Turkey to forego $1b in US aid
Turkey's economy has improved to the point where it can forego a billion dollars in US aid, the national treasury said Friday. "In the most recent period, the Turkish economy has posted better than expected results and sustainable growth has taken root," the treasury said in a statement. Given that trend, "we have emphasized during contacts with US authorities that we no longer consider the use of this kind of financing necessary." On September 22, 2003, the United States pledged a billion dollars to Turkey to underpin economic reforms and compensate negative effects from the US invasion of neighboring Iraq. On Friday, the World Bank's representative to Turkey hailed the treasury statement, saying it showed "to what extent the Turkish economy is healthy".
— AFP

Eurozone Jan unemployment stable at 8.8pc
Unemployment in the 12-nation eurozone was stable in January at 8.8 percent of the workforce, the EU statistics agency Eurostat said Friday. Eurostat revised the 12-month rate for December down from a previously reported 8.9 percent. In the 25-member European Union, unemployment edged down to 8.8 percent in January from 8.9 percent in December, and from 9.1 percent in January 2004. The highest rates were in Poland (18.2 percent), Slovakia (16.5 percent), Greece (10.5 percent) and Spain (10.3 percent). The lowest figures were for Ireland (4.3 percent), Luxembourg (4.4 percent) and Austria (4.5 percent).
— AFP

German manufacturing orders fall
Orders placed with companies in the German manufacturing sector fell sharply in January, largely in a corrective move from the unusually strong surge in orders seen the previous month, official data showed on Friday. The Economics and Labour Ministry calculated that German manufacturing orders fell by 3.4 percent in January from December, after an unusual number of big-ticket orders had caused orders to jump by 7.6 percent the previous month. The decline in January was largely a correction to that strong rise, the ministry said in a statement. Capital goods orders, which had soared by 15.1 percent in December, fell by 7.8 percent in January, the ministry said. Orders for semi-finished goods edged up by 0.6 percent in January and orders for consumer goods rose by 0.2 percent.
— AFP

GM chooses Opel to build mid-size cars
General Motors, the world's biggest car maker, said it had chosen its German unit Opel over Swedish subsidiary Saab to make its mid-size cars in future in return for big concessions from the German workforce in terms of pay and working hours. GM has decided to build specific Opel and Saab models, based on a common platform, at (Opel's main site) Ruesselsheim from 2008," GM Europe announced in a statement. Following an "intensive" analysis of both the Ruesselsheim site just outside Frankfurt and Saab's Trollhaettan plant outside Goeteborg in Sweden, GM Europe found the German plant was 200 million euros (260 million dollars) more cost-effective than the Swedish factory. The in-depth analysis examined each factory in terms of output capacity, investment, labour costs, efficiency, flexibility, logistics and currency.
— AFP

European airlines want to buy US rivals: EU
European airlines will push for the right to buy US rivals during a new round of open skies' talks this month with the United States, European Union transport commissioner Jacques Barrot said. Barrot told the Financial Times that Washington should seriously consider the European view because US carriers faced serious financial problems. "The Americans need to have investment in their companies, which are struggling, and because of their rules they are depriving themselves of capital," the European Union commissioner said. He sought to balance the EU's position, however, by saying that the thorny topic of cabotage-an airline's right to serve domestic routes in a country other than its own-was no longer a priority issue.
— AFP

Hero Honda to foray into scooters
Mumbai, March 3: Hero Honda Motors, the country's biggest motorcycle maker, is planning to launch a scooter model. "We will launch a scooter by March 2006," said Atul Sobti, executive director-business operations. He declined to give further details. The decline in the domestic scooter market has been arrested and it is currently witnessing a resurgence. Chairman Brijmohan Lall Munjal and his son and managing director Pawan Munjal with senior representatives from Honda Motors were here today to launch Super Splendor, a four-stroke 125cc bike. With this launch, Hero Honda is planning to take on rivals like Bajaj Auto who have a considerable ground in the 125cc segment. Hero Honda, in which the Munjal family and Japan's Honda Motor Co hold a 26 per cent stake each, said the Super Splendor uses a more fuel-efficient and robust engine. It is priced at Rs 42,231, ex-showroom.
— Telegraph