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Bangladesh Bank is planning to increase its key interest rates in the next monetary policy statement as inflation shows no sign of easing, sources in the central bank said.
   The inflation figure rose to a nine-year high of 8.24 per cent in April from 7.43 per cent in March. The overall domestic credit also expanded by 18 per cent in March, according to data released by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and central bank.
   The central bank has two instruments to contain demand-side inflation – reducing money supply and increasing key interest rates, said an official of the central bank.
   It will continue the cautious monetary policy in the backdrop of excess liquidity with banks and soaring private sector credit growth, he said.
   Another official said money supply was not the factor behind the rising inflation, so there was no point in tightening the policy.
   He said inflation might go up in May but come down in June, but the June figure is expected to be higher than in March.
   The government is taking up various measures to bring down inflation figure to a reasonable level, he said adding that private sector should also play its role.
   Citing the latest import figures, the central bank executive said settlement of import letters of credit for rice, wheat, sugar and edible oil jumped by more than 400 per cent in May, which should help the commodity market to stabilise.
   L/C settlement for rice in May stood at $28.41 million against $6.53 million in last year’s May, while it was $48.24 million for wheat against $26.79 million of the year-ago period, $23 million for sugar against $9.1 million, and $60.15 million for edible oils against $29.13 million, revealed BB statistics.
   The official believed that the BDR’s initiative to sell essential commodities across the country at fair prices would definitely have an impact on price level.
   Growth of domestic agricultural production, including that of aus, aman and boro, remained almost static, while soyabean oil price hit record high. Although petroleum prices marked some declines, metal prices increased in the international market. All the factors have a direct bearing on domestic price levels, the central banker pointed out.
   ‘Since supply of most of these commodities is import-dependent and the price of such commodities soared up international market, the government could not put a rein on the price rise despite its best efforts,’ finance adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said in his budget speech for 2007-08 fiscal year.
   He said unbridled inflation not only hurts the people, it also undermines the economic stability and discourages investment.
   To contain inflation, the government has withdrawn import duty from major food items, including rice and wheat.
   The finance adviser expected that average inflation would hover around 7 per cent up to June 2007 and settle down to 6.5 per cent in new fiscal year that began Sunday.
   In April, food inflation rose by 8.98 per cent and non-food inflation by 7.35 per cent.
   The governor at a programme recently said coordination among revenue, trade and monetary policies is needed to contain inflation.
   The country’s macroeconomic fundamentals are good but food price remains a big challenge for the government, Salehuddin Ahmed said.
   The governor also stressed import substitution policy giving to cushion the shocks of global price volatility.
   Former deputy governor Allah Malek Kazemi said government borrowing reduced to Tk 3,200 crore and so it did not have any impact on inflation.

Chittagong Customs House was divided into two wings on Sunday for handling the import and export cargoes individually.
   The chairman of National Board of Revenue, Badiur Rahman, inaugurated the bifurcation by pressing two buttons.
   The inaugural function was also addressed by Chittagong divisional commissioner Moklesur Rahman, member of the NBR   Mosrur Ahmed, president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saifuzzaman Chowdhury and first vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association MA Salam.
   At the inaugural function held on the customs house premises, the NBR chairman said, ‘It’s a milestone in customs service as the traders can now derive much benefit from the operation of separate wings for import and export cargoes.’
   Such an initiative will help increase revenue earnings by checking any unethical practice, he hoped, saying that the traders have been demanding the bifurcation of the customs house for long.
   All the 659 officials and employees of the customs house were posted at import and export wings.
   The incumbent commissioner of customs house Farid Uddin was posted as the commissioner of import wing. He was also given additional charge to look after the export wing until the appointment of another commissioner.
   Earlier, initiatives were taken several times to implement the plan for bifurcation of the customs house, but red tapism and other tangles in procuring logistic supports, appointment of people and development of infrastructures delayed the move, customs house sources said.
   The National Board of Revenue took the initiative in line with the budget proposal made in 2004.
   The sources said an increase in traffic through Chittagong port and delay in completing custom formalities both for import and export cargoes prompted the government to take the plan for dividing the customs house into two wings.
   Bdnews4.com adds: The NBR will target five additional tax zones, including Chittagong and Rangpur, from July 5, apart from the drive to identify new taxpayers in Dhaka.
   Badiur Rahman announced the new drive from Chittagong Customs House on Sunday.
   Rahman added that 28 teams would work in six tax zones to bring new businessmen into the income tax system. In addition, Dhaka’s survey team will increase to 20. The latest drive will cover the city corporations of Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi and Barisal, and a separate tax zone of Rangpur.
   Rahman urged income tax-liable businessmen to come forward voluntarily and said: ‘In Dhaka, 18,000 new taxpayers have been identified. Those who fail to take the opportunity to register by July 31 will face stern legal action.’
   ‘Defaulters will be fined up to 250 per cent of their tax bill and face possible legal action. Some cases have already been filed,’ he said.
   The NBR chairman called on customs officials not to treat businessmen as their adversaries.
   ‘Old habits involving bribes and “commissions” to facilitate the process of tax collections should be replaced by a system involving mutual respect.”
   ‘If our officials are found involved in corrupt practices punitive action will be taken against them,’ he said.
   During a question-and-answer session, the NBR chairman said: ‘The tarnished image of Chittagong Customs House has been overcome.’
   He hopes that the realisation of duty would be more transparent after the separation of the import and export branches.

Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed Sunday said regulatory and supervisory regimes for banks and financial institutions in Bangladesh were steadily being upgraded to the standards of international best practices, towards ensuring the soundness and solvency of the individual institutions and the intermediation efficiency of markets.
   He was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural ceremony of a workshop titled financial crimes organised by Citibank, NA Bangladesh, said a press release.
   The governor emphasised the need for strengthening supervision, monitoring and investigating capacities of banks and relevant regulatory as well law enforcing organisations and above all to raise social awareness against financial crimes.
   ‘We have to understand that capital flight, smuggling, hundi, and loan default are mainly the results of illegal activities of concerned parties, misalignment of currency and supervisory shortcomings and weak corporate governance in the banking system,” he said
   He reiterated the initiatives taken by the Bangladesh Bank that attempted improvement of legal aspects, corporate governance, loan recovery, exchange and interest rates liberalisation, corporatisation of NCBs, risk management and efficiency of the central bank.
   The workshop attended by 30 participants from Bangladesh Bank, chief adviser’s secretariat, police, army, joint task force, ministry of commerce, ministry of law, National Board of Revenue, Board of Investment, Securities and Exchange Commission, US embassy in Bangladesh, Dhaka Stock Exchange and Chittagong Stock Exchange was also addressed by Mahbubur Rahman, director and head of financial institutions at Citibank, NA and Mamun Rashid, managing director and Citigroup country officer, Bangladesh.
   Atiqur Rahman, anti money laundering compliance officer, and Omar Faruqe, country compliance officer at Citibank, NA conducted different sessions at the workshop.

US president George W Bush lost his special trade power at midnight Saturday as opposition Democrats flexed their new grip on Congress and refused White House appeals to renew it.
   Democrats, who wrested control of Congress from Republicans in January, were eager to reclaim the constitutional trade authority and set their own stamp on trade policy.
   With the expiration of the nearly five-year-old Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), known as ‘fast-track,’ the United States sets a new, Democrat-steered course on trade at a time when the Doha Round of global trade talks is near collapse.
   Hours before Bush’s fast track authority expired at midnight, US and South Korean negotiators on Saturday inked a trade deal—the biggest since the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. But congressional support for the agreement looked slim.
   Under the TPA, Bush negotiated trade agreements that could only be approved or rejected by the legislature, but not amended.
   Bush won a two-year extension in 2005 as US trade negotiators argued they needed the precision tool to advance the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round.
   The US and others had used the potential expiration of fast track as a prod to keep the WTO talks moving. Now that impetus is gone, hope dimmed for progress in the round.
   ‘This removes a deadline that’s useful’ in keeping the trade talks moving, Edward Alden, a trade expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based think tank.
   The Doha Round will be left in ‘limbo, probably for the next couple of years,’ he told AFP on the eve of the fast track expiration.
   Alden suggested the US political situation was working against renewal of the fast track authority any time soon.
   With the November 2008 presidential race already in full swing, it would be unlikely the next president would get fast track renewal unless a single party wins control of both the executive and legislative branches, he said.
   The end of TPA also highlighted a waning appetite for free trade among Americans in the face of a burgeoning trade deficit. Critics blame a swelling multi-billion-dollar trade gap with China and others for the loss of thousands of US manufacturing jobs.
   Democratic lawmakers hammered home Friday their newfound clout.
   ‘Our legislative priorities do not include the renewal of fast-track authority,’ House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leading Democrats said in a statement.
   The House Democrats said they had a plan to improve US trade policy, while at the same time addressing increased economic insecurity felt by US families.

Ten years after the Asian financial crisis stung unwitting investors, stock markets have returned to record highs and free-wheeling capitalism is back, prompting many to ask, can it happen again?
   Probably not, according to analysts, who argue the fiscal psyche of the region was fundamentally changed by the social and economic upheavals of 1997 and 1998 that marked an end to decades of unprecedented regional growth.
   David O’Rear, chief economist with the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce said there were no reasons why the same circumstances that led to the Asian crisis could not happen again but the odds are low.
   ‘First and most important, the decision makers have been there, done that, and got the message,’ he said. ‘Experience is a great teacher and no one in Asia will forget the economic depression of the late 1990s.’
   The crisis was sparked on July 2 1997 when Thailand attempted to ease immediate pressure on its own faltering economy by floating its currency which had remained pegged within narrow trading band against the US dollar.
   Other currencies followed suit and crashed under crippling debt levels and amid soaring interest rates. Governments were forced to slash budget spending and drastically reduce subsidies to business and the poor.
   Widespread and often bloody protests erupted around the region, governments were thrown out of office and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) extended bailout packages to South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.
   The harsh economic conditions tied to those packages had others, like Malaysia, rejecting IMF advances. Stock markets collapsed and bankruptcies beckoned.
   Then, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the outbreak of bird flu in 1997 and then and SARS in 2003 compounded the problems and it was not until 2005 that the region’s economy returned to an even keel.
   Absent from today’s bustling economic growth numbers are the extraordinary debt levels of the 1990s and O’Rear added that 3.0 trillion dollars in foreign exchange reserves currently being held by central banks are sufficient.

President Hugo Chavez said Saturday he might withdraw Venezuela’s application for full membership in the Mercosur trade bloc, his press office said, after a tiff with Brazilian lawmakers.
   ‘We have no problem if they do not want us in Mercosur,’ which he said is ‘endorsed by capitalism and ferocious competition.’
   ‘We are not ready to join an antiquated Mercosur that does not want to change,’ he said in Tehran.
   ‘I could even withdraw the application,’ he said.
   Chavez carried a long-running spat with Brazilian officials to Iran, where he is on an official visit.
   His comments came in response to Brazil’s foreign minister Celso Amorim who said this week that Brazil would condition Venezuela’s accession to Mercosur on Chavez’s retraction of statements he made against Brazil’s congress.
   ‘No one is asking for Venezuela’s self-flagellation. (But) a positive gesture toward the congress is needed,’ he said.
   Chavez called Brazilian lawmakers ‘parrots’ for repeating US criticisms of his denial to renew the broadcast license of Venezuela’s largest television station.
   Brazil’s government formally rejected his comments and lawmakers threatened to deny Venezuela accession to Mercosur, a trade bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile and Bolivia as associate members.

The entire EU energy market was thrown open to competition on Sunday, allowing consumers to choose their gas and electricity suppliers and spelling an end for monopolistic state-run utilities.
   The liberalisation process has been resisted in some countries and welcomed in others, highlighting different attitudes to competition and the notion of protecting national interests in the energy sector.
   The European Commission, which has championed the process, notes that reforms have not been fully implemented in some parts of the EU, meaning a handful of former state energy monopolies still enjoy a crushing grip on their domestic markets.
   ‘It is undeniable that great progress has been made,’ EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said in a recent speech. ‘However, it is equally undeniable that many of our basic objectives have not yet been achieved.’
   ‘Markets remain stubbornly national in scope, cross-border trade is difficult and limited, and far too many customers have little or no real competitive choice of supplier,’ he added.
   In theory, companies have been able to choose a supplier for their gas and power since 2004. Sunday marks the first time the household market has been opened to competition throughout the EU.
   Ten of the EU’s 27 member states have led the liberalisation vanguard ahead of the deadlines, with Britain setting the trend by opening its markets to competition as far back as 1990.
   But the long journey to full market liberalisation, which has taken 11 years to complete, has been marked by frequent battles between the European Commission and more reluctant member states.
   The Commission, the EU’s executive arm, still believes former state monopolies have too much market power and there is evidence that consumers in some countries are paying too much for their gas and electricity.
   To counter this and increase the benefits of the liberalisation process, which is intended to lower energy prices for consumers, the Commission is likely to continue to press for more reforms.

Japanese auto major Honda today said it plans to take on the likes of Maruti’s Swift and Hyundai’s Getz Prime with its global small car developed with the Indian market in mind, even as it considers a $3,000 car as announced by Renault-Nissan ‘out of range’.
   ‘Personally, I would be surprised... The $3,000 car is out of range,’ Honda Motor Co Chairman Fatoshi Aoki told reporters here, when asked about the company’s view on Renault-Nissan announcement to launch $3,000 car in India.
   He said the company would have to see if it would be a viable option to develop such a cheap car.
   ‘We cannot just make a small car without Honda-like characteristics,’ Aoki said at the foundation stone laying ceremony of the second plant of its Indian subsidiary, Honda Siel car India.
   On the company’s small car, Aoki said although its a global product, the company’s priority would be to cater to the Indian market first.
   HSCI President Masahiro Takedagawa said Honda’s small car, which would be launched in 2009, would qualify for the excise duty benefits given to small cars with a length of four metres with an engine capacity of 1,200 cc for petrol and 1.500 cc for diesel.
   ‘Definitely our aim with the small car is to qualify for the excise duty benefits,’ he said, while declining to disclose details.
   This will pitch Honda’s small car against the likes of Maruti Swift and Hyundai Getz, which are currently placed at the premium end of the hatchback segment, he said.

Europe’s great powers once scrambled for dominance across vast, underdeveloped African lands rich in raw resources, including the scarlet palm oil used to grease the first cogs of the industrial revolution.
   A century later, a new group of nations are competing for a different valuable, viscous material, with Sub-Saharan Africa closing in on the Persian Gulf as the prime overseas supplier of oil to the last remaining superpower.
   As China and India increasingly prospect for resources here, terrorism concerns rise and the US military seeks a permanent military presence in Africa, the continent has its greatest international influence in decades. Whether Africa can use its newfound might to end its longtime blight is a separate issue.
   ‘There’s a new dynamic in play’ for African nations, says Antony Goldman, an independent risk-analysis consultant based in London. ‘And the challenge for those countries is how to manage that.’
   An AP analysis of US oil import figures shows the stakes.
   In 1993, the earliest year for which there are full figures, the main African oil producing countries — Nigeria, Angola, Cameroon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon — shipped about 494,000 barrels per day of oil to the United States, data from the official Energy Information Administration show. That’s about 7 per cent of total US imports. In the same year, the Persian Gulf nations averaged 1.6 million barrels per day, or about one quarter of all US imports.
   By 2006, sub-Saharan African oil constituted about 18 per cent of all US imports, or about 1.8 million barrels per day; the Persian Gulf made up 2.2 million barrels per day, or 21 per cent of total daily imports.
   But the oil producers are among the sickest countries in Africa. While poorer nations such as Senegal, Mali, Liberia, Burundi, Ghana and others have made democratic advancements, the oil countries are still mostly run by weak, or illegitimate leaders.
   Angola is emerging from one of the continent’s longest-running civil wars. Chad, which has only been exporting oil for a few years, is in the depths of one. Chad’s crude reaches African export terminals in oil-rich Cameroon, whose president has been in power for a quarter of a century.
   Next door is Equatorial Guinea, where per-capita gross domestic product boosted by oil revenues is among the highest in the world, while its ranking on the United Nations human-development index is near the bottom.
   And then there is Nigeria, where the challenges facing Africa, and particularly its petroleum producers, are on desperate display. Nigeria is Africa’s biggest producer of oil and among the top three outside suppliers of crude to America.
   Among the first Europeans to arrive here centuries ago were slave merchants and traders seeking palm oil, which women still produce in Nigeria’s crude-rich Niger Delta by crushing bright-crimson, palm-tree kernels on potholed roads outside massive oil installations that belch smoke and flames.
   Crude oil was first exported from Nigeria in 1958, two years before independence from Britain. Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars of oil revenues — there was another massive oil boom in the 1970s — the country’s 140 million people remain desperately poor. Some 70 per cent of the population live on less than $2 per day, U.N. figures show.
   Much of the oil money has been stolen by corrupt leaders or misspent on wasteful government boondoggles. In Nigeria alone, the World Bank estimates about $300 billion of government oil funds can’t be accounted for. By contrast, oil-rich Norway has about that same amount in a government-controlled fund where the petroleum surpluses are kept.
   Norway sits atop the U.N.’s 2006 human development index, which groups social indicators like literacy and infant mortality. Nigeria is among the worst performers, at 159 out of 177 countries surveyed.
   The late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha is estimated to have salted billions of dollars away in overseas bank accounts, with about $730 million in Swiss accounts having been returned.

Etihad Airways has appointed Maija Eklof as the airline’s new vice president in-flight services with responsibility for all areas of cabin crew management and performance.
   Ms Eklof has more than 20 years of airline industry experience, and joins Etihad from the Scandinavian carrier, Finnair, where she had held the position of VP cabin operations since 2002.
   Geert Boven, executive vice president sales and services, said: ‘In-flight service is crucial to the success of an airline and we look forward to having someone with Maija’s experience and expertise join Etihad. Her extensive industry knowledge will enhance further the in-flight experience for our customers.
   Ms Eklof successfully implemented several internal programmes, at the Helsinki-based national airline of Finland, to increase the performance and competence levels of cabin crew.
   She is also vice chairman of the board of International Air Transport Association In-flight, which involves work on legislation issues as well as raising standards of in-flight cabin safety and security.

Asian currencies ended the week mainly up against the US dollar, with the Australian dollar hitting a new 18-year high.
   Japanese yen: The yen gained slightly against the dollar on the week, but tumbled from a mid-week peak as cautious market players favoured the higher-yielding greenback.
   The Japanese currency stood at 123.47-49 to the dollar late Friday, slightly higher than 124.06-08 to the dollar a week earlier.
   On Wednesday, it peaked at 122.41 to the dollar when investors turned cautious about yen-selling after Finance Minister Koji Omi warned of the risk of one-sided bets on the yen’s weakness.
   But the yen then tumbled as market players kept focusing on the gap in interest rates between Japan and the United States.
   The US Federal Reserve on Thursday left its key lending rate unchanged at 5.25 percent, as expected, and said inflation remained its ‘predominant policy concern.’
   The statement was ‘lifting the value of the dollar,’ FX Prime Corp. currency analyst Marito Ueda said Friday.
   At 0.5 percent, Japanese interest rates are the lowest among the major economies by far and market watchers see a risk of further yen losses.
   ‘I would say the dollar-yen exchange rate could reach near the 124 yen level pretty soon,’ Ueda said.
   This week, market players will be watching economic indicators including Japan’s ‘Tankan’ business sentiment due out on Monday and US job data on Friday, the business daily Nikkei said on its weekend Internet edition.
   Australian dollar: The Australian dollar is expected to continue to gain against the greenback in the coming week after hitting a fresh 18-year-high at Friday’s close.
   The Aussie was trading at 85.04 US cents at 5:00 pm Friday, up from the previous week’s 84.79 US cents and at its highest level in almost two decades.
   Westpac chief currency strategist Robert Rennie said the Australian dollar could reach the 85.20 US cent mark early in the week if traders continued to sell the low-yielding Japanese yen.
   Dealers said that in the longer term the currency was set to rise, possibly pushing the 90 US cent mark by the end of the year.
   TD Securities senior currency strategist Joshua Williamson said expectations of an interest rate rise in Australia, softness in the US economy and a China-driven commodities boom were supporting the currency.
   He said traders also viewed Australia’s political stability as an asset.
   ‘The Australian dollar is seen as a safe haven,’ he said.
    New Zealand dollar: The New Zealand dollar ended the week at 76.92 US cents, up from 75.39 the previous Friday.
   The kiwi rose early Friday above 77 US cents for the first time since it was floated in 1985, reaching a peak of 77.11 cents.
   The dollar was supported by data released on Thursday showing the current account deficit had declined in the March quarter to the equivalent of 8.5 percent of gross domestic product, from 9.0 percent the previous quarter.
   Economic growth data on Friday showed the economy grew 1.0 percent in the March quarter, which was in line with expectations. That sent the currency back below the 77 US cent mark.
   Chinese yuan: The yuan closed at 7.6140 to the dollar Friday on the exchange-traded market, compared with Thursday’s close of 7.6155, and a closing price of 7.6213 to the dollar the week before.
   On the over-the-counter market, it ended at 7.6132 to the dollar against 7.6151 the previous day.
   The central bank had set the yuan central parity rate at 7.6155 to the dollar Friday, compared with 7.6178 on Thursday.
   The People’s Bank of China allows a trading band of 0.5 percent on either side of the midpoint.
   Hong Kong dollar: The US-pegged Hong Kong dollar ended the week at 7.816, from 7.813 a week earlier.
   Indonesian rupiah: The rupiah ended the week trading at 9,045/9,055 to the dollar, compared to 9,015/9,025 to the dollar a week earlier.
   Philippine peso: The Philippine peso traded lower at 46.24 to the dollar on Friday from 46.06 on June 22.
   Singapore dollar: The dollar was at 1.5324 Singapore dollars from 1.5374 the week before.
   South Korean won: The won rose to finish the week at 923.80 won to the dollar, as compared with 928.0 won a week earlier, on reports that South Korea’s current account swung back into the black in May.
   Major exporters dumped their dollar earnings as overseas players also sold the greenback for the South Korean currency, sending the value of the won higher.
   South Korean authorities attempted to talk down the won when the assistant finance minister, Cho Won-Dong, told KBS radio that the government was always ready to intervene in the market for ‘smoothing operations.’
   Taiwan dollar: The Taiwan dollar was nearly flat, closing at 32.735 against the US dollar, as compared with 32.736 a week earlier.
   Thai baht: The Thai baht was up slightly against the dollar in light trading, closing the week at 34.53-54 baht to the US greenback, as compared to 34.59-60 the previous week.

If the 1997 Asian financial crisis had any winner it was China, which emerged an economic powerhouse showered with praise for standing firm while all about, others lost their heads.
   The crisis had the unexpected effect of pushing China further down the track it had chosen for itself—of opening up its economy to the outside world while keeping its financial system under tight control.
   ‘China’s decision not to devalue (at the height of the crisis) certainly enhanced its reputation as a responsible international citizen,’ said Leong H. Liew, an expert on Asian business at Australia’s Griffith University.
   ‘The crisis also reinforced China’s determination not to open its financial sector too quickly,’ he said.
   In the years prior to the financial crisis, China stood out as slightly eccentric for not bowing to the free-market orthodoxy of opening up borders to financial flows as a speedy means of achieving maximum efficiency.
   But once the crisis started spreading in the summer of 1997, China benefited from the insulation that a closed capital account and an inconvertible currency provided it with.
   At the same time, after a 50 percent devaluation of the yuan in 1994 designed to fire up its export engine, speculators had less to go on while China’s closed financial system forced the wolf pack to go hunting elsewhere.
   The near-death experience of the late 1990s left China with a lasting legacy of extreme caution when it comes to opening up its financial markets and it is still drawing on the lessons learned in the late 1990s.
   These are lessons that may again be applicable in a context that, according to central bank deputy governor Wu Xiaoling, has uncomfortable similarities with the situation today.
   ‘It is significant to look back on the 1997 Asian financial crisis as we are addressing an unbalanced global economy, excessive liquidity and fickle financial markets,’ Wu was quoted as telling an audience in Beijing recently.
   ‘A country’s financial sector should open in a way commensurate with its domestic financial system. Opening without due management will pose a threat to financial stability,’ she said.
   China’s rampant stock markets is a prime example of the nation’s careful stance, with foreign funds still kept to very modest access for what analysts say are very sound reasons.
   ‘China’s markets are still immature, containing a largely speculative element dominated by (individual) punters,’ said Friedrich Wu, an international relations scholar at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.
   ‘If mixed with foreign speculative hot money, it could become the perfect ingredient for a financial crisis.’

While stock markets in the rest of Asia have more than recovered from the 1997 financial crisis, with several reaching new highs, the Thai bourse remains mired at less than half of its pre-crash peak.
   Many analysts say local shares are currently undervalued but foreign investors still shy away due to Thailand’s tumultuous politics, especially in the aftermath of last year’s coup.
   That made the Stock Exchange of Thailand the worst performer in Southeast Asia last year, losing 4.75 percent, while this year so far it is up only about 9.5 percent, a reasonable performance but lagging badly the regional gains.
   It is also still well short of the all-time high of 1,753.73 points reached on January 4, 1994 as the economy bounded along, driven by growing exports and foreign investment.
   ‘We are just half way to returning to the pre-crisis level while several key Asian markets—including (South) Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China—have completely recovered from the plunge during the crisis,’ said Maris Tarab, managing director of ING Funds.
   The blame lies with Thailand’s frequent changes of government, which in turn have seen the country posting slower economic growth than much of the region, he said.
   That has given foreign investors less reason to put their money here than in neighbouring countries where they can expect to see better returns, he added.
   Since Thailand floated the baht on July 2, 1997 — the decision that kicked off the regional meltdown—the country has had four prime ministers, three constitutions and one coup. The market hit its trough on September 4, 1998, when the main index fell to just 207.31 points.
   Stocks began to recover during the five-year administration of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a billionaire telecom tycoon who swept into office vowing to use his business savvy to restore Thailand’s economic fortunes.
   He led the country out of the International Monetary Fund’s tutelage following the crisis but was dogged by corruption allegations.
   The military ousted him last year, vowing to root out corruption, but have raised alarm among foreign investors by unveiling economic policies strongly tinged with a strong nationalist streak.
   Assuming that elections go ahead as promised later this year, Kasikorn Securities predicts the main SET index will finish the year at 780 points and could reach the 880 mark next year.
   ‘A huge amount of money from foreign funds has been waiting to flow into Thailand where stocks are undervalued,’ said Vorapak Tanyawong, JP Morgan’s senior country officer.
   ‘Without politics, the SET index could soar.’

US stocks failed to hold their earlier gains and ended lower Friday despite some upbeat economic news, but as oil prices streaked higher in New York.
   Apple's shares caught significant attention and bucked wider market declines, as the computer and gadget maker launched its sleek iPhone in retail stores nationwide.
   The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 13.66 points at 13,408.62 while the Nasdaq composite lost 5.14 points to 2,603.23. The broad-market Standard Poor's 500 index shed 2.36 points at a close of 1,503.35.
   Stocks failed to hold their early momentum, triggered by a government report which appeared to show inflation was moderating. The survey came a day after the Federal Reserve opted to keep US short-term interest rates anchored at 5.25 per cent.
   'The discovery of a car bomb in London lent a note of anxiety to the market,' said Al Goldman, a chief equity strategist at A.G. Edwards.
   British police said they had defused two potential car bombs in London on Friday as the authorities launched a hunt for those who produced the devices.
   'Wall Street experienced some extreme swings in the final hour on the way to modest losses for the major averages,' he added.
   Stocks had gained in morning activity after a Commerce Department report showed core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices and is considered by the Fed to be a better barometer of prices, rose 0.1 per cent in May, matching the expectation of most analysts.
   Core inflation over the year to May moderated to a gain of 1.9 per cent, a slower pace than April's reading of 2.0 per cent and March's reading of 2.1 per cent.
   The moderate inflation readings helped boost sentiment, traders said. However, investors' enthusiasim waned in late afternoon deals.
   Apple's stock fared well as it launched the iPhone. The Cupertino, California-based firm and its chief executive Steve Jobs hope the iPhone, a small lightweight device that fits in the hand, will prove as popular as its best-selling iPod music players.
   Apple's shares closed up at 122.04 dollars, after having surged 1.48 dollars, or over one per cent. Shares in ATT, the telecoms giant, which has a contract to sell the new iPhone in its stores also gained as its stock rose 76 cents, well over one per cent, to 41.50 dollars.
   The iPhone packs an iPod music and video player, a two-megapixel camera, and the Safari Internet browser as well as a phone and e-mail capabilities.
   Separately, the United Auto Workers said it had ratified a new contract with bankrupt auto parts maker Delphi Corp., a former subsidiary of General Motors Corp.
   The agreement, which includes dramatic wage cuts and job losses, allows GM to sidestep a crippling strike at its largest parts supplier.
   The new contract will reduce the top wage for Delphi employees from 27 dollars an hour to 18.50 dollars an hour among other considerations.
   GM set aside seven billion dollars last month to complete the restructuring of Delphi and cover liabilities it would assume under the deal.
   Bond prices swung higher, suggesting some investors were positioning for lower inflation.
   The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond fell sharply to 5.033 per cent from 5.118 percent Thursday and that on the 30-year bond dropped to 5.126 percent from 5.221 per cent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Japan’s central bank could set the scene for another interest rate rise this week when it publishes a key survey expected to show solid corporate sentiment and rising investment, analysts say.
   The Bank of Japan’s quarterly ‘Tankan’ survey, due on Monday, is likely to show confidence holding firm close to a two-year high, they add.
   Major companies are also expected to have upgraded their capital expenditure on new plants and equipment, helping to maintain Japan’s longest sustained expansion since World War II.
   ‘We believe that profit forecasts will be upgraded. In that context I think the capex plans will be upgraded as well,’ predicted Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist for Credit Suisse in Tokyo.
   The March Tankan survey of over 10,000 firms showed that large companies in all industries planned to raise capital spending by 2.9 per cent in the current fiscal year to March 2008, after an 11.9 per cent rise last year.
   Japanese firms tend to be cautious on spending at the start of the fiscal year and gradually upgrade their plans, and market expectations are for an upgrade to growth of between 8.0 and 9.0 per cent.
   Mamoru Yamazaki, chief Japan economist at RBS Securities, said that should be enough to prompt the Bank of Japan to hike its interest rates by a quarter point to 0.75 per cent as soon as August.
   If the spending plans are revised upwards, ‘the BoJ and market participants will continue to have confidence in the future course of the private capex and overall economic activity,’ said Yamazaki.
   The Tankan survey is expected to show some concerns about the impact of slowing US economic growth, however, with the headline index of business confidence among large manufacturers seen holding steady at 23.
   But that would still indicate generally upbeat sentiment and is within sight of a two-year high of 25 seen in December.
   A positive reading means confident firms outweigh the pessimistic ones.
   The big manufacturers’ index is still well up from a low of minus 38 seen just five years ago as the economy recovers from its long slump, even if it is down from a 13-year high of 26 reached in September 2004.
   Some economists, including Morgan Stanley’s Takehiro Sato, are not ruling out a possible improvement in the headline index.

The Australian share market will continue to soar this financial year as a China-driven resources boom that fuelled 24 percent growth in the past 12 months shows no signs of abating, analysts say.
   The benchmark SP/ASX 200 rose 1,201.0 points to 6,274.9 in the financial year to June 30, and experts predict it will hit 7,200 in the next 12 months.
   They say a domestic economic backdrop of solid growth and benign inflation has encouraged investors, with activity from cashed-up pension funds and mergers helping bolster the positive sentiment caused by the resources boom.
   AMP Capital Investors head of investment strategy Shane Oliver said there had been increased volatility in recent months following the February sell-off on the Shanghai bourse but he expected the market to post another surge soon.
   ‘While the Australian share market has been stuck in a range between about 6,200 and 6,400 since early May it is likely to soon break decisively through the 6,400 level, and past experience suggests that when it does it will be followed by a quick run-up to around the 6,600 level,’ he said.
   Oliver said he expected the index to climb to 7,200 by June 2008, a rate of growth only slightly lower than that seen in the financial year just completed.
   Commsec chief equities analyst Craig James predicted a lower outcome of 7,000 points after what he described as a ‘stellar’ 12 months that followed three years of strong growth in the Australian market.
   ‘On average, share market returns have grown by 25 percent per annum over the past four years, well above the long-term trend of around 13-15 percent,’ he said.
   ‘With the Australian and global economies in good shape and valuations still favourable, we expect the share market’s bull run to continue over 2007/08.
   ‘But returns are expected to be more ‘normal’ at around 15 percent, a step down from the experience of the past four years.’
   Resources were the standout sector, with mining giant Rio Tinto becoming the first Australian-listed blue chip stock to break through the 100 dollar a share (85 US) barrier in June, rising about 20 percent during the year.
   BHP Billiton’s Australian-listed shares hit a record high of 35.60 dollars on June 22 as investors took the view that the company would benefit from further consolidation in the global resources sector.
   It recorded a barnstorming performance in the second half of the year, rising 38 percent.
   Nomura Australia investment strategist Eric Betts said the strength of the resources sector was reflected in rising prices for metals such as nickel and hefty oil prices, as well as merger and acquisition activity.
   ‘I guess the resources sector was back in vogue,’ Betts said.
   Mergers and acquisitions also helped the market, with even a failed private equity bid for Qantas resulting in huge turnover as investors looked for a profitable outcome.

The United States and South Korea signed Saturday a landmark free-trade agreement, the biggest such deal for Washington in nearly 15 years, but the US Congress has indicated it may not approve the pact.
   US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and her South Korean counterpart Kim Hyun-chong inked the deal on Capitol Hill, where mostly Democratic lawmakers have vowed to vote against it unless it is amended to address South Korea’s non-tariff barriers, especially in the automotive industry.
   But Schwab made it clear Saturday that the signed FTA ‘will stand on its own, without amendment,’ saying the Democratic-controlled Congress ‘will come to understand the details and learn just how compelling a deal it is.’
   ‘We must not fall back,’ Kim said, calling it a comprehensive agreement with ‘enormous benefits’ for both sides.
   The agreement was signed just hours before President George W. Bush’s ‘fast track’ trade authority expires at midnight Saturday.
   ‘Fast track’ gives the president authority to broker trade agreements, which Congress may approve or reject, but may not amend.
   Bush in a statement called on Congress to ratify the agreement anyway, saying it would bring ‘considerable benefit’ to Americans and boost the US-South Korea partnership, which he said had served as a force for stability and prosperity in Asia.
   ‘It will generate export opportunities for US farmers, ranchers, manufacturers and service suppliers, promote economic growth and the creation of better paying jobs in the US, and help American consumers save money while offering them greater choices,’ he said.
   The agreement is the biggest US free-trade deal since the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, and the two sides concluded negotiations on the pact on April 1 after 10 months of talks.
   ‘The United States and Korea have shown the world that two advanced, industrial countries were able to agree on a gold standard FTA,’ Schwab said.
   ‘What is more impressive is that we did it in only one year.’
   The pact eliminates nearly 95 per cent of tariffs on bilateral trade in consumer and industrial goods within three years and almost two-thirds of US farm exports will be immediately duty free when the FTA is implemented, said US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.
   ‘This is the most commercially significant trade agreement for the US in nearly 15 years,’ he said.
   But Democratic leaders, including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top presidential contender Hillary Clinton, as well as several lawmakers from Bush’s Republican party are against the pact.
   They are worried it would increase the already large US trade deficit, cost US jobs and make the United States less competitive.
   Many are particularly concerned over the automobile provisions in the agreement, which they said did not go far enough in dismantling the non-tariff barriers in South Korea. They also want Seoul to fully open up its beef market.
   Last year, for example, South Korea exported more than 700,000 cars into the United States while the United States exported fewer than 5,000.
   ‘We cannot support the (agreement) as currently negotiated,’ Pelosi and four powerful lawmakers from her Democratic party said in a statement on the eve of the signing.
   An amendment seeking stronger labor and environmental standards was included in the pact at the last minute after the Bush administration and Congress reached a bipartisan deal in May to include such provisions in all trade pacts.
   US-South Korea goods trade was valued at 78 billion dollars last year and studies indicate that the FTA will add anywhere from 17 to 44 billion dollars a year to the US economy.
   South Korea is America’s seventh largest trading partner while the United States is the Asian nation’s third trading partner and largest source of foreign direct investment.
   Washington believes if the agreement is approved, it could trigger a wave of trade liberalization and economic reform throughout Asia, where it has such pacts only with Singapore and Australia.

Lamps, birthday candles, mouse traps and flip-flops.
   Such is the stuff that binds the modern American family to the global economy, author Sara Bongiorni discovers during a year of boycotting anything made in China.
   In ‘A Year Without ‘Made in China,’’ Bongiorni tells how she and her family found that such formerly simple acts as finding new shoes, buying a birthday toy and fixing a drawer became ordeals without the Asian giant.
   Bongiorni takes pains to say she does not have a protectionist agenda and, despite the occasional worry about the loss of US jobs to overseas factories, she has nothing against China. Her goal was simply to make Americans aware of how deeply tied they are to the international trading system.
   ‘I wanted our story to be a friendly, nonjudgmental look at the ways ordinary people are connected to the global economy,’ she said in an interview before the book appears in July.
   As a business journalist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Bongiorni wrote about international trade for a decade. ‘I used to see the Commerce Department trade statistics, the billions of dollars, and think it had nothing to do with me,’ she said.
   The reality was far different.
   As the year unfolded, ‘the boycott made me rethink the distance between China and me. In pushing China out of our lives, I got an eye-popping view of how far China had pushed in,’ she wrote.
   About 15 per cent of the $1.7 trillion in goods the United States imported in 2006 came from China, economist Joel Naroff writes in the foreword. Much of that is the manufactured stuff that fills Wal-Mart and other retailers—the necessities and frivolities sought by lower- and middle-income Americans.
   Lower prices have been one benefit of Beijing’s rise and make it very hard for consumers to forswear Chinese imports.
   And hard it was.
   For all of 2005, minor purchases required dogged detective work as Bongiorni scoured catalogues and read labels.
   She repeatedly struck out trying to buy inexpensive shoes for her son, and even the chic local boutique that sold fancy European labels had gone out of business. So she shelled out $68 for Italian sneakers from a catalogue.
   Broken appliances gathered dust because the spare parts came from China. And, with the Asian country having a near lock on the toy aisles, her 4-year-old son grew tired of taking Danish-made Legos to birthday parties as gifts.
   The family resorted to snapping mouse traps when the gentler catch and release kind came from, you guessed it, China.
   Bongiorni got a lesson in the global economy after products advertised as Made in USA turned out to have Chinese parts. She decided to keep a lamp with just this problem after speaking to the manufacturer and learning how China is ‘eating the lunch’ of the few U.S lamp producers left.
   Since the boycott’s end, Bongiorni has chosen a middle ground. Her family seeks alternatives but accepts Chinese products when most practical. But one habit from the boycott remains: It required her to think hard about what she buys.

The Hollywood tradition of product placement will soar to a new level when the Steven Spielberg-produced action film ‘Transformers’ is unleashed on US cinema-goers this week.
   Based on the successful line of toys launched during the 1980s which spawned a popular cartoon series and several comic books, the new movie version of ‘Transformers’ has become one of the most talked about films in years.
   But while film buffs marvel at the spectacular computer-generated pyrotechnics, US automaker General Motors (GM) is hoping that big box-office will translate into big car sales.
   Four GM models have prominent roles in the film, which sees them ‘transform’ from cars into robot warriors battling to save planet Earth from destruction against evil rival robots.
   The GM vehicles, which unsurprisingly feature in the film as the good guys on the side of mankind, have featured prominently pre-release publicity for the film, which lands in US cinemas on Monday.
   Dino Bernacchi, associate director of marketing alliances and branded entertainment
   at GM, said ‘Transformers’ represents a rare conver- gence of big-business and Hollywood.
   ‘We try to find properties where the cars are the stars, and literally our cars are the stars of this movie,’ Bernacchi told
   The Hollywood Reporter. ‘You don’t get any more heroic than the roles that our four vehicles play.’
   The car-robot given pride of place in the film, a Chevrolet Camaro, went out of production in 2002 but is set to be re-launched in 2008.
   Alongside the Camaro is a gas-guzzling Hummer H2, a super-sized GMC Topkick pick-up truck and a low-cost Pontiac Solstice convertible.

A dazzling new storefront here, a bare midriff there—a transition to a market-based economy is changing Syrians’ way of life and, analysts say, stretching the gap between rich and poor.
   In 2005, at the ruling Baath party congress, Syria committed itself to a process of economic liberalisation through a market economy system aimed at ‘attracting investments, relaunching growth and creating jobs.’
   Two years later and the changes are tangible, from chic new streetwear to luxury cars, computers and satellite television—Syrian consumers have never had it so good or so liberal.
   Take a drive around Damascus and roadside billboards offering the latest deals and gizmos are slowly replacing the portraits of political leaders that once dominated the landscape.
   In the chic Abu Rummaneh district, crowds window-shop under the gaze of coffee-aficionados apparently captivated by the low-slung hipsters, bare bellies and tight T-shirts currently in vogue.
   ‘The liberalisation of the economy has allowed a real clothing revolution. Even if the standard of living leaves much to be desired, and ‘designer label’ clothes are still the privilege of the rich, the label ‘made in Syria’ is producing fashionable clothes at affordable prices,’ says Salem Seif, a specialist in ready-to-wear gear.
   The old cars of the 1960s and 1970s, patched-up and welded together by skilled metalworkers, are ceding place to new luxury models, preferably German.
   And the information technology revolution is in full swing, with an explosion of satellite dishes and Internet cafes where only last decade communications were once tightly monitored by paranoid officialdom.
   ‘Only 12 years ago, telecommunications were just a pious vow. Everything that resembled a telephone link was under tight surveillance,’ recalled Mazen, a mobile phone distributor.
   Ownership of a fax was punishable by a spell in prison, the Internet didn’t exist and local television was limited to two boring stations.
   Now, according to official figures, nearly 65 per cent of Syrian homes have a satellite dish compared with 18 per cent in 2000.
   Nearly 1.1 million out of Syria’s 19-million people are now connected to the Internet, according to figures from the Syrian Telecommunication Establishment. At the end of 2006 some 4.2 million Syrians were mobile phone subscribers.
   Officially, Syria is cautiously carrying out its economic reforms based on the progressive disengagement of the state to the benefit of the private sector without neglecting the social balance.
   Analysts however question the ‘anti-social’ results of a transition they say accentuates inequality.
   ‘Economic power is moving towards an influential class close to the authorities,’ writer Yassin Hajj Saleh said in a recent article in the pan-Arab Al-Hayat newspaper.
   This ‘politico-mercantile class is formed of a new alliance between the authorities and capital,’ said the analyst, questioning its impact on the ‘social chapter.’
   ‘Liberalism is being reflected on the social level by a worsening of basic services, notably health, education, housing and transport, while a private sector—very expensive and reserved for the rich stratum—is developing in parallel,’ said Hajj Saleh.
   He sees as evidence of this double track evolution ‘the development of poverty belts (slums) around the main towns,’ the result of a rural exodus, in parallel with the appearance of ‘luxury suburbs dotted with huge villas and leisure centres.’
   ‘Corruption, lack of profitability and bad management have transformed the public sector into a field plundered by an (influential) class,’ said the private weekly newspaper, Bourses and Markets, which reckons the sector has lost 1.7 billion dollars.
   ‘Privatisation is now unavoidable,’ said the paper which criticises the ‘social disengagement of the state.’

While many who snapped up Apple Inc’s iPhone were using the latest must-have gadget even before leaving the store, some buyers were put on hold as they experienced frustrating delays in activating their cell phone service.
   ‘A vast majority’ of customers were up and running within minutes, said Michael Coe, a spokesman for AT&T Inc., the phone’s exclusive carrier. But he acknowledged Saturday that some were facing delays because the high volume of activation requests were taxing the company’s computer servers.
   Tim Johnson of Collegeville, Penn., found himself still staring at a crippled — albeit sleek and sexy — gadget on Saturday afternoon, more than 18 hours after he had waited in line to buy the device.
   ‘It looks cool, but I can’t do anything with it,’ he said. ‘I’m angry and frustrated and feel like I wasted my time standing in line.’
   Coe wouldn’t say how many customers were affected, or how long some of them would have to wait. The company was working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, he said.
   Jennifer Bowcock, an Apple spokeswoman, said Apple was also working to minimize the problem for its customers.
   The sleek, touch-screen cell phone that triples as an iPod media player and a wireless Web device went on sale at Apple and AT&T stores Friday evening after months of breathless hype and anticipation.
   Apple has not disclosed how many were available at launch, but thousands were sold across the nation to eager customers who camped out in front of stores for as long as four days.
   A feature that allows customers to activate their iPhone’s cell phone service by logging onto Apple’s iTunes software from their computers led many buyers to head straight home to christen the device. Some even logged on from their laptops outside the stores Friday and quickly started using the phone, saying the activation process took only minutes.
   ‘It’s amazing and it was so easy to set up,’ said Liz Cecchini of San Antonio, Texas. She and her husband lined up a day before the launch, enduring pouring rain to buy four — one each for themselves, their 15-year-old daughter and a friend.
   But untold others were stalled Friday when they received a computer message saying the process ‘will take some additional time.’
   Bowcock would not disclose whether Apple stores were already running out of stock Saturday. The company’s flagship store in San Francisco had sold out of the 8-gigabyte $599 model by Saturday but still had $499 4-gigabyte versions available.

The booming private sector with rising salaries of corporates is no match to the civil services when it comes to the first career choice for the youth, a survey has said.
   About 80 per cent of 300 young executives, who opted for placements in the corporate sector and responded to the survey - Have Civil Services Lost their Charm with Advancement in Liberalisation - agreed that civil services continued to attract the best available talent despite complaints of low salary and falling standards.
   The findings are contrary to the popular belief that flight of talent has shifted more toward the private sector with fast advancing liberalisation, the Assocham study said.
   The assertions that civil services are loosing their sheen and lustre are totally malicious and disparaging as every aspirant cannot withstand the rigours of civil service examinations, Assocham president Venugopal N Dhoot said.
   ‘Sixty-five per cent of executives, however, felt that though other channels for employment have opened up, particularly in the ICT sector, it would be wrong to conclude that the first grade talent is getting attracted toward these sectors,’ Dhoot said.
   Over 70 per cent of the respondents said that the private sector does not provide security though it may offer handsome package to young executives.
   More than half of the respondents blamed the system for discouraging young candidates opting for civil services. The often reported interventions by politicians in civil servants’ daily activities also work as a discouragement for the aspirants, the survey said.

Iran’s president Saturday defended a rationing scheme to cut back on petrol guzzling in the world’s fourth largest oil producer, saying even tighter controls are on the way.
   ‘In recent days, petrol consumption has dropped from 80 million litres (17.5 million gallons) per day to 70 million and (it) must go down to less than 60 million litres per day,’ President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, as cited by the official news agency IRNA.
   Ahmadinejad’s government on Tuesday night suddenly announced petrol rationing throughout Iran, saying private cars using petrol would be limited to 100 litres of petrol a month and those using both petrol and liquefied gas would only be allowed 30 litres.
   The rationing would continue for four months and might be extended to six months, it said.
   The announcement triggered nationwide protests, with angry demonstrators torching petrol stations and yelling slogans against Ahmadinejad and his government.
   IRNA quoted the president as saying that his government was now planning to alter vehicles so that they can operate on gas as well as petrol.
   ‘If we apply this scheme to taxis, trucks and public transport, we will save between 24 and 26 million litres per day,’ he said.

Tognum set for biggest German IPO in 7 years
German engine maker Tognum said it expects its stock market listing on Monday to bring in around 2.07 billion euros (3.39 billion dollars), making it the biggest IPO in Germany in seven years. In a statement Sunday, the firm formerly known as MTU Friedrichshafen set the offer price at 24 euros per share and said it expects to receive gross proceeds from the listing of around 268 million euros. If successful, the initial public offering would be the biggest since Deutsche Post went public in November 2000. Tognum is currently owned by Swedish private equity group EQT, which bought MTU Friedrichshafen from DaimlerChrysler at the beginning of 2006. It has annual sales of 2.5 billion euros and employs a workforce of 7,500.
— AFP

$650,100 bid wins lunch with Buffett
Two investors put in the winning bid of $650,100 in a charity auction to break bread with billionaire Warren Buffett. Mohnish Pabrai, who will put up most of the money, said Saturday that he’s going to be well-prepared by the time he meets the famed investor at a New York steakhouse. ‘I’ll probably download the menu and see what we want so we don’t waste our time looking at the menu,’ Pabrai said. ‘My wife’s not a big fan of steakhouses — but I told her they serve fish, as well.’ Pabrai, who manages about $600 million for Pabrai Investment Funds in Irvine, Calif., teamed up with a friend to bid $30,000 more than the top bid from last year’s auction. The 43-year-old investor said he bid unsuccessfully in the previous four auctions. ‘We are elated,’ Pabrai said. ‘We wanted to make sure that this year we blew everyone out of the water.’ The auction, which ended Friday night, benefits the Glide Foundation, which provides social services to the poor and homeless in San Francisco.
— AP