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The price of non-packed soya bean oil touched its all time high at Tk 3,000 per maund on wholesale market on Saturday as its supply remained tight and millers raised rates arguing adjustment to the import cost of crude oil.
   At Maulavibazar on Saturday, soya bean per maund (37.3 kilogram) reached Tk 3,000 against Tk 2960 on Thursday, Tk 2910 on Tuesday and Tk 2800 on October 1.
   Super palm, a kind of refined palm oil that is often sold by retailers as soya bean, was traded at Tk 2,910 per maund, up by Tk 150 in couple of weeks.
   ‘The prices are all time high, following an uptrend during the past couple of weeks,’ said Haji Mohammad Ali, a trader at Maulavibazar, and a member of the Bangladesh Edible Oil Wholesalers’ Association.
   The rise in wholesale prices pushed up retail prices by Tk 4 per kilogram in a day and Tk 8 in a week as on Saturday city grocers were selling soya bean between Tk 84 and Tk 86 per kilogram and super palm between Tk 78 and Tk 82.
   The supply of edible oil from importers and millers have been tight from the last week of Ramadan said Maulavibazar wholesalers, claiming that millers had been raising rates arguing increased cost of crude oils on international markets.
   The market men acknowledged the latest round of sharp rises in the prices of crude soyabean and palm oil on international market during the past few days but wondered how local millers could adjust international prices within a week.
   It takes at least six weeks for millers to reach refined palm oil to shops after they buy crude palm from Malaysia, Indonesia or Singapore and 10 weeks for refined soyabean after crude soya bean is bought from Argentina, Brazil or USA, they argued.
   Preferring anonymity, one miller, however, countered the wholesalers and claimed that market behaviour in the recent months had changed as due to intensified risk and competition local millers now responded immediately to the fluctuation in international market prices.
   Fakhrul Alam, country manager of the Malaysian Palm Oil Council in Bangladesh, told New Age that on Thursday crude palm oil was traded on international market at $930 per ton, up by more than $30 dollar over the couple of weeks, and soya bean at $980, up by $60.
   ‘Sharp uptrend in petroleum prices pushed up crude soyabean and palm oils’ prices as bio-fuel processors rushed to that market due to cost effectiveness in oil seeds to produce fuels,’ observed Fakhrul.
   On the local market, retail prices of non-packed soya bean oil became costlier by more than 60 per cent in a year as a Trading Cooperation of Bangladesh report on Friday showed that on October 19, 2006, the commodity was selling between Tk 52 and Tk 54.
   The government a couple of months ago weaved customs duty on crude soya bean and palm oils, aiming to reduce cost of edible oils at consumer level but continual rises in prices on international market has made the measure quite unfruitful.
   Facing strong criticism from the consumer group, the government also, for at least two times in the past six months, fixed retail prices of edible oils but the measure did not work well.

The International Monetary Fund opens it annual meeting in Washington Saturday in crisis mode, challenged to make fundamental reforms to survive as a relevant financial institution.
   As IMF policymakers convene, the 63-year-old Fund, controlled by the advanced economies, finds itself assailed on several fronts.
   Developing nations, the engines of global economic growth in recent years, are chafing at unequal representation.
   The IMF, whose mission is to promote global financial stability, is struggling with its own finances as many countries repay debt, some bitterly complaining of the Fund’s strict conditions.
   Interest from loans is drying up for what used to be the lender of last resort for troubled economies, as potential borrowers turn to other, easier sources of cash in a robust world economy.
   Like its 185-nation sister institution, the World Bank, the IMF is undergoing a change in leadership. World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz stepped down in June, after mounting pressure over a favoritism scandal.
   The managing director Rodrigo Rato of the IMF is leaving at the end of the month, nearly two years before his five-year mandate ends, citing personal reasons.
   Rato’s abrupt departure comes in the middle of critical reforms he himself launched. His successor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a socialist former finance minister of France, has pledged to make reform the core of his stewardship.
   All eyes will be on Strauss-Kahn when he takes the helm on November 1.
   The pressure was already evident Friday, as developing countries dismissed the pace of reforms in the troubled institution as ‘disappointing and unacceptable.’
   These countries make up the majority of the IMF’s membership but form an impotent minority in its operations.
   The Group of 24 developing countries reiterated its call for a greater voice and democratic representation.
    ‘A significant redistribution of voting power in favor of emerging market and developing countries as a group should be the overarching objective of the reform,’ said the G24, which represents African, Asian and Latin American countries, including powerhouses Nigeria, India and Brazil.
    ‘The proposals tabled to date are disappointing and unacceptable as they fall far short of the reform’s fundamental goals,’ they said in a joint statement after a one-day meeting here.
   Argentina’s vice economy minister, Oscar Tangelson, representing the chair of the G24 at a news briefing, said the group had taken ‘the fundamental step forward’ of achieving unanimous agreement on the basic criteria for redistributing the quotas, or voting rights, of member countries.
    ‘There’s no magic figure that we agreed on,’ Tangelson said in Spanish in response to a question. ‘We agreed on a process.’
   Tangelson said the process was more important, because ‘any rigid institution would be out of step with the times.’
   The G24 also said the IMF had failed to promote global financial stability, citing the current crisis in the risky US subprime mortgage sector, where loans were given to homebuyers with poor credit.
   As US housing slumped and foreclosures rose, credit seized up, rattling markets worldwide in August. The market turmoil forced the IMF this week to slash its 2008 global economic growth forecast to 4.8 per cent from 5.2 per cent, and warned that continuing fallout could slow growth further.
   The ministers ‘underscored the need to improve the Fund’s surveillance of advanced economies, putting as much focus in evaluating their vulnerabilities as it does in emerging market economies,’ the statement said.

Developing countries on Friday dismissed the International Monetary Fund’s pace of reforms to increase their voice in the troubled institution as ‘disappointing and unacceptable.’
   The Group of 24 developing countries, representing the majority of the IMF’s membership but only an impotent minority in its operations, reiterated its call for a greater voice and democratic representation in the 185-nation Fund.
    ‘A significant redistribution of voting power in favor of emerging market and developing countries as a group should be the overarching objective of the reform,’ said the G24, which represents African, Asian and Latin American countries, including powerhouses Nigeria, India and Brazil.
    ‘The proposals tabled to date are disappointing and unacceptable as they fall far short of the reform’s fundamental goals,’ they said in a joint statement after a meeting here ahead of this weekend’s IMF and World Bank meetings.
   The developing countries’ exasperation comes as the 63-year-old IMF struggles with a reform program launched by outgoing managing director, Rodrigo Rato, who will
   step down after the meetings nearly two years before his term ends.
   His successor, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former Socialist finance minister of France,
   has pledged to make reform
   the core of his five-year mandate.
   Argentina’s vice economy minister, Oscar Tangelson, representing the chair of the G24 at a news briefing, said the group had taken ‘the fundamental step forward’ of achieving a unanimous agreement on the basic criteria for redistributing the quotas, or voting rights, of member countries.
    ‘There’s no magic figure that we agreed on,’ Tangelson said in Spanish in response to a question. ‘We agreed on a process.’
   Tangelson said the process was more important, because ‘any rigid institution would be out of step with the times.’
   The developing countries were the engine of global growth in the past five years, he said.
    ‘We are living in an unprecedented situation. Today it is the advanced countries that are facing crisis conditions and the developing countries must offset the consequent decline in global demand,’ he said.
   The G24 also criticized the IMF’s failure to fulfill its mission of promoting global financial stability, citing the current crisis in the risky US subprime mortgage sector, where loans were given to homebuyers with poor credit.
   As US housing slumped
   and foreclosures rose, credit seized up, rattling markets worldwide in August.
   The market turmoil forced the IMF this week to slashed its 2008 global economic growth forecast to 4.8 per cent from 5.2 per cent, and warned that continuing fallout could slow growth further.
   The ministers ‘underscored the need to improve the Fund’s surveillance of advanced economies, putting as much focus in evaluating their vulnerabilities as it does in emerging market economies,’ the communique said.
   They also repeated their call for ‘at least a tripling of basic votes in order to enhance the voice of low-income countries.’
   Oxfam International has denounced that reform measure as not enough.
    ‘Even tripling, or quadrupling the basic vote would not mean any effective increase in the say the poorest countries have over the running of the IMF,’ the non-governmental organization said Thursday. ‘If the poorest members of the Fund have almost no say, we cannot call this a true reform.’

India has 100,000 high net worth individuals holding a collective wealth of a phenomenal $350 billion by 2006-end.
   With a growth rate of 20 per cent, India now has the second largest population of HNWIs in Asia-Pacific region. HNWI are people with net financial assets of at least $1 million, excluding their primary residence and consumables.
   The majority of the HNWI are aged between 41-55 years. Of these 858 are termed ‘Ultra-HNWI’, who hold more than $30 million of financial assets.
   ‘Robust economic growth and strong financial markets, along with gains in income and credit expansion which drove private consumption, were the key drivers of growth in India’s HNWI population’, renowned wealth management company, DSP Merrill Lynch’s head of Global Private Client, Pradeep Dokania said.
   The greatest concentration of non-resident Indians in the Asia-Pacific region is in Hong Kong, followed by Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan.
   There were 2.6 million HNWIs in Asia Pacific till the end of 2006. Asia-Pacific is home to over 27 per cent of the world’s high net worth population. The wealth of the region’s HNWIs totalled $8.4 trillion in 2006, an increase of 10.5 per cent. Japan and China accounted for 43.7 per cent and 20.6 per cent of the region’s total wealth, respectively.

Some 35,000 additional jobs are threatened in German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom, on top of the tens of thousands already being lost, according to the weekly Der Spiegel.
   The report to be published next week cites ‘internal calculations’ within the company, which employed some 249,000 people at the end of 2006, 89,000 of them outside Germany.

PRAN-RFL, one of the leading beverage and allied food products manufacturing companies of the country, on Saturday signed export contracts of $2.5 million with two leading trading companies of the Middle East.
   Under the agreement with Saudi-based M/s Ahmed Al Wadaani Est Trading, PRAN-RFL products worth $1.5 million would be exported to Saudi Arabia next year.
   Through another contract signed with Qatar-based Aspen Trading and Contracting Company, PRAN-RFL would export products worth $1.0 million to Qatar next year.
   Abul Kashem, representative of M/s Ahmed Al Wadaani Est Trading, and Md Abdul Wadud, representative of Aspen Trading and Contracting Company, and Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, deputy managing director of the PRAN-RFL Group, signed the agreement.
   Abul Kashem told the signing ceremony that there was a huge potential of Bangladeshi processed agro food products abroad, especially in the Middle East.
   Abdul Wadud said the Bangladeshi food products were not only consumed by expatriate Bangladeshis but the products had become more popular among the foreigners because of their quality.
   Ahsan Khan Chowdhury said PRAN products were being exported not only to the Middle East but also to 70
   other countries all over the world, including the Africa, America and other European countries.

Scorching oil prices blazed a record-breaking trail beyond 90 dollars this week as traders fretted over the weak US dollar and geopolitical jitters in the crude-rich Middle East.
   Prices were electrified by fears that a Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq could further tighten world energy supplies, analysts said.
   Elsewhere, the platinum hit another all-time pinnacle owing to tight supplies, while gold traded at the highest point since 1980.
   Oil: World oil prices gushed to record peaks on simmering tensions along the Turkey-Iraq border -- prompting analysts to warn of crude striking 100 dollars per barrel some time soon.
   New York's light sweet crude spiked as high as 90.07 dollars per barrel on Friday and London's Brent oil leapt to an historic 84.88 dollars on Thursday.
   OPEC chief Abdalla Salem El-Badri expressed 'concern' at the recent price spike but argued that current levels did not reflect the true state of supply and demand.
   'The issue seems no longer to be whether oil will reach 100 dollars per barrel, but when,' said Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish.
   'Once the furore has settled down, the oil market as a whole can get on the job of working out whether supply and demand dynamics mean that long-term prices should have two or three digits.'
   Iraq's Kurds vowed Friday to fight off any attack on the northern region as pressure mounted in Baghdad and Washington for action against Kurdish rebels to stave off a potential Turkish incursion.
   Traders are concerned because many of the troubled country's largest oil fields are based in the north.
   Turkey has said it will pursue diplomacy to defuse the crisis over Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq while Baghdad has tried to dissuade its northern neighbour from possible military action.
   The Turkish parliament Wednesday approved a motion authorising military strikes against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which is accused of using bases in northern Iraq for attacks on targets across the border in Turkey.
   The market was also fretting over the falling US dollar. A weak greenback makes commodities priced in the US unit cheaper for buyers using stronger currencies and therefore boosts crude demand, analysts say.
   The European single currency hit a fresh record high at 1.4319 dollars earlier Friday.
   Prices were 'still underpinned by a weakening dollar and tight fuel supplies ahead of the winter heating season,'
   said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.
   Demand for heating fuel hits a peak during the forthcoming northern hemisphere winter.
   Oil also spiked after US President George W. Bush reignited market concerns over the Iranian nuclear crisis.
   Highlighting the uncertainties in the Middle East, Bush said he had warned world leaders they must prevent crude producer Iran from getting nuclear weapons 'if you're interested in avoiding World War III.'
   Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob said the comments added a 'fear factor' premium to the prices. 'The psychological warfare between the US and Iran translate to an additional risk premium into oil futures,' he said.
   By Friday, Brent North Sea crude for December delivery leapt to 83.87 dollars a barrel, which compared with 80.85 dollars for the November contract a week earlier.
   New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, rocketed to 88.59 dollars a barrel, from 83.99 dollars a week earlier.
   Metals: The price of white metal platinum roared to another record peak thanks to supply problems in major producer South Africa, while gold enjoyed another 27-year peak, traders said.
   Platinum, used by the jewellery industry and in the manufacture of catalytic exhausts for cars, hit a record high 1,460 dollars an ounce in London.
   The precious metal, which benefits from tight global supplies and fierce demand, has won 35 per cent in value over the past year.
   The price of gold leapt to the highest level since the start of 1980, winning support from runaway crude oil prices and the weak US dollar.
   Gold prices surged as high as 771.10 dollars per ounce, which was last seen in January 1980. In the past year, gold has soared by almost 30 per cent in value.
   Prices jumped higher 'on a combination of a weaker dollar, geopolitical concerns, positive investor sentiment and record high oil prices,' said analysts at Barclays Capital.
   They added: 'Geopolitical concerns have come on the back of Turkey debating potential military action in Northern Iraq to combat Kurdish rebels while ... crude oil prices have hit fresh all-time highs.'
   Gold prices are boosted by record high oil prices, which in turn spark inflationary concerns. The precious metal is seen as a safe haven in times of both rising inflation and geopolitical uncertainty.
   On the London Bullion Market, gold jumped to 763 dollars an ounce at Friday's late fixing, from 749.50 dollars a week earlier.
   Silver climbed to 13.83 dollars an ounce at Friday's late fixing, from 13.79 dollars a week earlier.
   On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum rose to 1,452 dollars an ounce at the late fixing Friday, from 1,416 dollars a week earlier.
   Palladium eased to 370 dollars an ounce, from 377 dollars.
   Base Metals: Most base metals weakened, with lead falling away from last week's record high, as investors examined rising stockpiles in London and weak economic data in the United States.
   'The base metals complex continued to sustain losses following more stock inflows into LME warehouses and weak US housing data,' said analysts at Barclays Capital.
   Signs of a slowing US economy help push prices lower because the country is a major market for base metals.
   Lead, meanwhile, ran into profit-taking after last week's historic peak of 3,890 dollars per tonne. The metal has been plagued in recent times by chronically low stockpiles.
   On Friday, the price of copper for delivery in three months fell to 7,875 dollars a tonne on the London Metal Exchange, from 8,125 dollars a week earlier.
   Three-month aluminium prices gained to 2,559 dollars a tonne, from 2,514 dollars.
   Three-month nickel prices eased to 32,300 dollars a tonne, from 32,400 dollars.
   Three-month lead prices sank to 3,740 dollars a tonne, from 3,835 dollars.
   Three-month zinc prices slid to 2,985 dollars a tonne, from 3,125 dollars.
   Three-month tin prices decreased to 16,400 dollars a tonne, from 16,551 dollars.
   Cocoa: Cocoa prices drifted higher in subdued trade.
   By Friday on the LIFFE, London's futures exchange, the price of cocoa for December delivery jumped to 951 pounds a tonne, from 934 pounds a week earlier.
   On the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), the December contract climbed to 1,879 dollars a tonne, from 1,830 dollars the previous Friday.

Vietnam Airlines in $18.8m profit
State-owned Vietnam Airlines said Saturday that it had earned pretax profits of 18.8 million dollars in the first nine months of 2007, almost as much as the whole of last year. The national flag carrier said it had earned more than 83 per cent of its target for the whole of 2007. It did not compare its performance with the same period last year. But the airline said in a statement that it had faced obstacles. ‘Despite the air transport market’s growth of 17 per cent year-on-year in the first nine months of the year, there remained a number of difficulties in the business environment,’ it said. These included competition on international and domestic routes and higher fuel prices, it added. The carrier transported more than 5.8 million passengers between January and September, a year-on-year increase of 12.7 per cent.
— AFP

Morocco to sign high-speed rail link deal with France
France and Morocco are to sign a deal on Monday for the construction of a high-speed rail link between the cities of Tangiers and Marrakech, sources and media reports said. The agreement is to be sealed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy during his visit to the north African kingdom, several sources told AFP on Friday. French magazine L’Express reported on its website that the trains, to be built by French engineering group Alstom, the maker of the French high-speed TGV train, will run for 500 kilometres (311 miles) between Tangiers in the north and Marrakech in the south. The line, to be operational between 2012 and 2015, is to pass by the capital Rabat or Casablanca.
— AFP

McDonald’s profit warms up
Fast-food behemoth McDonald’s Corp. on Friday reported net third-quarter profits rose seven per cent to 1.07 billion dollars as overall sales strengthened worldwide. The profit excluding one-time gains and losses was in line with Wall Street forecasts at 83 cents per share. Revenues for the July-September quarter increased seven per cent to 5.9 billion dollars as same-store sales rose 6.9 per cent. ‘Our strategic focus on building the McDonald’s business by ‘being better not just bigger’ and our global ‘Plan to Win’ have combined to create enduring business momentum,’ said chief executive Jim Skinner. ‘By offering menu innovations and everyday conveniences that address the needs of our on-the-go customers, we are keeping our brand relevant and in demand.
— AFP