Main Page «
Front Page «
Metro «
International «
Sports «
National «
Editorial «
Op-Ed «
Home «
Timeout «
Letters «

Archive «
Launch Supplement «
Special Supplements «

A section of traders are making fortune out of export of waste cotton and yarns, limiting their supplies to the local denim fabric making units, industry sources said.
   Waste cottons and yarns are the leftover of spinning and knitwear industries, and recycled into low-cost rotor yarns for the denim industry.
   But local denim makers are gradually losing the low-cost raw materials, which have found a rapidly-expanding export market, mainly India, in recent years.
   Export Promotion Bureau data showed exports of waste cotton and yarns, listed as exportable textiles, have been on rapid increase in during the last couple of years.
   In the fiscal year 2006-07, traders shipped waste cotton and yarn worth Tk 274 crore or about $40 million.
   During the first four months of the current fiscal year, export of waste yarn increased by more than 67 per cent to Tk 27.3 crore (about $4 million) while that of cotton waste grew by more than 74 per cent to Tk 4.4 crore.
   The Bangladesh Textile Mills Association urged the government to take steps, like imposing duty, to stop exports of waste cotton or yarn.
   ‘Waste cotton and yarn are very much suitable to be recycled into thick yarns required by denim makers. But these are being leaked out of country in the name of export,’ said Abdul Hai Sarker, president of the BTMA that represents both spinners and denim makers.
   The growth of spinning and knitwear industries increased the availability of waste cotton and yarn, giving a section of traders to explore export market depriving local denim makers of low-cost yarns.
   There are around 300 spinning units and most of them supply yarns to export-oriented knitwear manufacturers, which are around 2000 in number now.
   Industry leaders said export of the waste would have a damaging effect on the industry since Bangladesh, as a net cotton importer, spent worth about $800 million on nearly a million tonnes cotton in the last fiscal to feed the country’s huge textile sector.
   The leftovers, which were supporting the local denim industry, are finally benefiting the Indian denim makers. The Indian government has a policy to discourage export of recyclable cottons for their further use in the local industry, sources said.
   ‘As a supportive measure for their local denim makers, Indian government imposed high duty and other restrictions on export of waste cotton and yarn,’ said Showkat Aziz Russell, managing director of the Partex Denim Limited.
   He suggested that the Bangladesh government should take similar measures to stop such exports.
   At present there are around 20 denim fabric factories which supply to export-oriented denim apparel manufacturers. Denim apparels, mainly jackets and jeans, shared at least one fifth of the country’s entire apparel export revenues, which were $9.5 billion in the last fiscal.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association has hailed the Bangladesh Bank plans to reduce rate of interests, especially on industrial and export financing.
   A statement of the country’s apex trade body of exporters on Tuesday hoped that implementation of the plan would help Bangladeshi exporters to face fierce market competition globally.
   ‘We are delighted to hear that the Bangladesh Bank aims to work on reducing interest rates minimising the gap between interest rates for borrowers and that offered to depositors,’ the statement quoted the BGMEA president Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury Parvez.
   The finance adviser, following an inter-ministerial meeting early this week, started tasks to make industrial and trade financing easy as it wants boosting of investment and exports.
   The BGMEA said reduction of rates of interests would directly cut the cost of business in export industries.
   BGMEA has long been campaigning against high rates of interest in project financing and which is provided as current capital to industries.
   It argued entrepreneurs in other apparel souring countries receive bank loans at interest rates between three per cent and six per cent while in Bangladesh it range between 12 per cent and 18 per cent.

The turnover at the Dhaka Stock Exchange on Tuesday climbed to its highest ever mark at Tk 372.37 crore, breaking its previous highest of Tk 343.77 crore a day back, mainly due to offloading of the Meghna Petroleum’s shares in large-volume.
   The state-owned oil marketing company accounted for 41.23 per cent of the total turnover at the bourse with transaction of Tk 153.53 crore.
   The Chittagong Stock Exchange also recorded its highest ever turnover mark on Tuesday with Tk 65.86 crore from its previous highest of Tk 63.13 crore on Monday.
   The Meghna Petroleum topped the turnover leaders also at the CSE with Tk 24.39 crore.
   A DSE stock broker said sale of Meghna Petroleum’s shares in large-volume contributed significantly to the record turnover at the bourses.
   According to a report of ICB Securities Trading Co, selling agent of Meghna Petroleum, a total of 51,28,000 shares of the oil marketing company were offloaded at the bourses on Tuesday, DSE sources said.
   Up to Tuesday, the Meghna Petroleum, which made its debut on January 14, sold off its 93,55,500 shares out of 1,20,00,000 securities, the sources said.
   Stock market analysts attributed the rise in liquidity inflow to the latest moves taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the capital market regulator.
   They said the investors, institutional or retail, injected funds into the market eased by the moves of the stock market watchdog.
   The total turnover at the Dhaka and Chittagong bourses soared to its highest ever mark at Tk 438.23 crore on Tuesday, surpassing the previous highest of Tk 406.90 crore on Monday.
   On Sunday, the SEC raised the maximum rate of margin loan for merchant banks at 1:1 with effect from February 10 with a view to improving the liquidity situation at the market which had recently been experiencing somewhat shortage in inflow.
   To improve the liquidity situation at the market, the SEC also reintroduced financial adjustment facility on last Wednesday against the trading of shares of ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘G’ and ‘N’ categories from Sunday.
   Stocks prices, however, lost on Tuesday due to profit taking selling pressure from the investors after the previous day’s rise, said the DSE broker.
   The DSE general index lost 17.30 points or 0.59 per cent to close at 2922.63, while its blue chips index, DSE20, shed 33.90 points or 1.42 per cent to close at 2347.05.
   The CSE selective categories index lost 31.83 points or 0.66 per cent to close at 4778.73, while its blue chips index, CSE30, shed 74.21 points or 1.10 per cent to close at 6668.02.
   Of the total 238 issues traded at the DSE, 78 advanced, 151 declined and nine remained unchanged, and out of 142 issues traded at the CSE, 35 posted gains, 99 dropped and eight remained unchanged.

Regional telecom giant Singapore Telecommunications Ltd on Tuesday said its share of pre-tax losses in CityCell, excluding exceptional items, decreased by 75 per cent to 5 million Singapore dollars in the quarter that ended on December 31, 2007.
   SingTel owns 45 per cent of CityCell, the fifth largest mobile phone operator among the six in Bangladesh.
   CityCell, the oldest operator in the country is the only one which uses Code Division Multiple Access, a technology platform to provide mobile phone service in the country.
   SingTel said that the loss was incurred primarily due to lower subscriber acquisition costs from lower net additions. CityCell is struggling to acquire enough subscribers amid strong competition from its rival operators.
   During the September to December period, CityCell added 87,000 subscribers, an increase of 6.6 per cent from the preceding quarter. Its total mobile subscriber base reached 1.4 million at the end of December, up by 30 per cent or 3,26,000 from a year ago, said the third quarter’s report of the company.
   At the end of the third quarter, the company’s market share shrank to 4 per cent as it was gradually losing its share to its rival operators.
   SingTel also said it had compensated the Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission by paying around 14 million Singapore dollars, as owner of part of CityCell, because of alleged misuse of CityCell’s products by some of its subscribers in Bangladesh.
   In December CityCell agreed to compensate the BTRC by paying Tk 150 crore because of alleged misuse of its products by some of its subscribers who illegally transferred international calls.
   ‘CityCell has not accepted any liability and has maintained that it has been conducting its business in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations and will continue to do so,’ said the report.
   However, out of ‘goodwill’, CityCell agreed to pay the compensation as full and final settlement. The other mobile operators have faced similar charges and have also opted for settlement, it said.

UAE investors are keen to invest in India’s textile sector where the government is giving many incentives including 100 per cent equity allowed in the Special Economic Zones, a senior Indian minister said.
   ‘We got a very positive response from potential investors,’ union textiles minister Shankersinh Vaghela, who is leading a delegation of textile ministry and industry on a four-nation tour of Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and the UAE, said at a press conference in Dubai.
   Insisting that the ‘Made in India’ brand had better credibility than Chinese products, he said the Gulf region held immense potential for Indian textile exports.
   ‘There is no point comparing Chinese textiles with Indian goods. We cannot compete with the Chinese in terms of price but the brand credibility of Indian products is better across the world,’ Vaghela said last evening.
   With Indian government taking series of initiatives to boost textile exports, the Gulf region could emerge as an important destination for Indian manufactures, according to Vaghela.
   ‘There is a lot of scope for the export of Indian textile and related goods in the Gulf countries as till now India is exporting its two third textile products to the US and European countries,’ he added at present, India’s textile and garment exports to the UAE total $1.068 billion out of the total $12 billion exports to the country. While India’s total textile exports were $19 billion.
   The minister said the delegation had fruitful talks with government leaders, local business representatives and members of the Indian textile community in Dubai.

Thailand further relaxed its foreign currency controls, making it easier for individuals and corporations to invest overseas, the central bank said Tuesday.
   The military junta that has run Thailand for the last 16 months imposed tough currency controls in December 2006 in a bid to a halt the baht’s rapid rise against the dollar.
   The controls spooked foreign investors and caused the biggest one-day drop in the Thai stock market in late 2006, with losses worth 23 billion dollars.
   Many exemptions have since been made to the currency rules, but the general policy remains in place.
   In the latest shift, corporations can now invest or lend up to 100 million dollars a year to its overseas subsidiaries.
   Thai subsidiaries can also invest or lend up to 100 million dollars to parent companies overseas, the Bank of Thailand said.
   Corporations listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand will have no limits on overseas investments or lending with subsidiaries, it added.
   The central bank also relaxed rules for companies and individuals buying property overseas, allowing real estate investments of up to five million dollars, up from one million dollars.
   Thailand’s economy has been hit by sluggish consumption and weak business confidence since the coup.
   The economy grew by 4.5 per cent last year, among
   the slowest rates in Southeast Asia.
   Investors are hopeful that the country’s new government under prime minister Samak Sundaravej, who is set to unveil his cabinet Wednesday, would implement economic stimulus measures.

The tax ombudsman, Khairuzza-man Chowdhury, Tuesday afternoon visited the Benapole land port and met with customs officials, leaders of the Jessore Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Benapole Customs and Clearing and Forwarding Agents Association.
   In the meetings, the tax ombudsman called upon the customs and land port authority officials, businessmen and port users to discharge their duties properly so that the country could be benefited. AS Jahir Ahmed, adviser (direct) to the tax ombudsman and Dr Rashid Ahsan Chowdhury, adviser (indirect), accompanied him.
   The meetings were attended among others by Abdul Kafi, customs commissioner, Benapole, Shahidul Islam Milon,  president, Jessore Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Mofizur Rahman Sazan, acting president of Benapole C & F Agents Association, and Mohshin Milon, office secretary of the association.

The Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited and the Islami Development Bank will work together for the development of the country.
   Mohammad Hasan Salem, director of the IDB special assistant office, said this in a function organised by Islami Bank Bangladesh at a city hotel in Dhaka on Sunday, said a press release.
   Abu Nasser Muhammad Abduz Zaher, chairman of the board of directors of Islami Bank Bangladesh, delivered the welcome speech at the function also attended by former chief justice, top executives of government and non-governmental organisations, diplomats, industrialists, educationists and others.
   Abu Nasser congratulated the IDB delegation. He presented the loss and damages caused by sidr and thanked the IDB for their assistance.

The United States will join trade negotiations on investment and financial services next month among Singapore, Chile, New Zealand and Brunei, the top US trade negotiator said Monday.
   ‘We see these investment and financial services negotiations as an opportunity to further our engagement with countries committed to high-standard trade agreements,’ US trade representative Susan Schwab said in a statement.
   The so-called ‘P-4’ group of countries negotiated its own Free Trade Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership, based largely on the United States’s FTAs with Singapore and Chile, the statement said.
   That FTA took effect in 2006, but the investment and financial services chapters remain to be negotiated.
   Schwab said that president George W Bush’s administration, as part of the US participation in the negotiations on these two issues, also would begin an exploration of ‘whether it should participate in the full Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership.’
   ‘This initiative also will provide another opportunity for the United States to participate in the regional trade architecture that is emerging in the vitally important Asia-Pacific region,’ she said.
   The announcement drew swift applause from the US manufacturing industry.
   ‘These negotiations are a great opportunity for the United States to extend the highest-quality investment and financial services language — including robust investor-state provisions — to strong trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region,’ said Frank Vargo, the National Association of Manufacturers’ vice-president of international economic policy.

South Korean banks have so far lost 563 million dollars after investing in US subprime mortgage-related instruments, financial regulators said Tuesday.
   Seven local lenders invested 682.5 million dollars in US collateralised debt obligations derived from subprime mortgages, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.
   As of the end of December they had lost 563 million dollars or 83 per cent of the total, it said.
   Woori Bank, the country’s second largest lender, posted the biggest losses with 445 million dollars, followed by the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation with 107 million dollars.
   Shinhan Bank wrote down losses of about 1.5 million dollars from its subprime-related investments last year. Korea Exchange Bank, controlled by US private equity fund Lone Star, lost 1.17 million dollars.
   In a separate report, the watchdog said the net profit of 18 local banks rose 10.6 per cent year-on-year to 15 trillion won ($15.9b) in 2007 compared to 13.6 trillion won a year earlier.
   It attributed the rise to one-off gains from sales of stakes in companies like the country’s largest credit card issuer LG Card, which was saved by a huge rescue package from creditors in 2006.
   Excluding one-off profits made in 2007 and 2006, the banks’ combined net profit fell 3.2 per cent to 11.7 trillion won, it said. Their interest income rose 5.8 per cent to 31.2 trillion won last year.

Inflation in the Philippines rose to its highest level in 15 months in January at 4.9 per cent, figures showed Tuesday, as prices climbed across all commodity groups.
   It was well above the Philippine central bank’s forecast of 3.7 and 4.4 per cent and the range of 4.0 to 4.3 per cent projected by several economists. Inflation in December stood at 3.9 per cent and averaged 2.8 per cent for 2007.
   Core inflation in January, which excludes selected food and energy items, rose to 3.4 per cent from 2.6 per cent in December, the National Statistics Office said in a statement.
   ‘As expected, January inflation rose as both food and non-food items showed higher price increments. In general, we are seeing the impact of the onset of the lean months in agricultural production and hikes in power and water rates,’ central bank governor Amando Tetangco told reporters.

US lawmakers are setting the stage for legislation slapping China with punitive sanctions over currency and other trade issues after another year of record trade deficit with the Asian giant.
   With the United States on the brink of recession and as the campaign heats up for November presidential elections, lobbyists in Congress see greater prospects for such legislation to land on president George W Bush’s table for signature.
   ‘Now is the time to move legislation forward,’ a group of eight newly elected Democratic senators wrote last week to Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, complaining about ‘a host of difficult trade issues with China that require strong action.’
   The issues range from currency ‘manipulation’ and ‘unfair’ subsidies by China, to trade law and counterfeit enforcement problems, to imported food and product safety, they said.
   ‘The problems facing workers and manufacturers due to unfair trading practices in China and other countries are growing more severe each day,’ the legislators said in their letter, a copy of which as made available to AFP.
   The freshmen lawmakers were elected to the Senate in 2006, when Democrats seized control of Congress on the back of strong criticism of the Bush administration’s trade policy with China, and Beijing’s human rights record.
   With the economy playing an increasingly important role in the presidential campaign, Democrats have new incentive to show how they hold a different view of the threat posed by China than the Republican Bush’s administration, according to The Hill, a Congressional daily.
   ‘Lobbyists worry the raised stakes of an election year increases the likelihood that a China trade bill will finally reach the president’s desk after several years of falling short,’ the daily said in a recent report.
   US lawmakers, from both sides of the political aisle, have proposed several bills in the House of Representatives and Senate threatening China with sanctions for what they mostly see as an undervalued yuan currency, which they say makes US-bound exports cheaper and fuels the trade deficit.
   The deficit hit a whopping 237.5 billion dollars through November 2007, already eclipsing 2006’s record at 232.6 billion dollars.
   Both Democratic presidential candidates, senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, had last year signed on as co-sponsors of a bill that would allow higher anti-dumping duties on imports from China or any other country found to have a misaligned currency.
   Their endorsement reinforces opinion that the Democrats would pursue a more aggressive policy towards China on trade issues if they took control of the White House.
   But the Bush administration warned that many of the pending bills were designed not to solve problems in China but simply to reduce US imports from that country.
   It calls for ‘economic engagement’ to address most of the trade problems through intensive dialogue as well as using the World Trade Organisation dispute settlement mechanism and existing US trade remedy laws.
   ‘The blunt instrument of punitive legislation won’t work,’ said Christopher Padilla, the under secretary of commerce for international trade.
   ‘Such measures run the risk of inflating consumer prices at a time of economic uncertainty, bringing about trade retaliation that would stifle our exports, and setting back efforts to promote reform in China — while doing nothing to reduce the bilateral trade deficit,’ he said.
   Experts warn that any legislation punishing the Chinese for a weak currency could lay the foundation for similar sanctions on the United States by its trading partners, including Europe.
   With the US dollar having plunged more than 14 per cent against the euro over the past year, the Europeans can use ‘this same reasoning used by the US against the Chinese’ to press for tariffs on US goods, said Wing Thye Woo, an economist with Washington-based Brookings Institution.
   ‘It would set an example for other trading partners to do to the US what it does to China,’ he warned.
   The clamour for a yuan appreciation also looks similar to Washington’s demands in the late 1980’s and 1990’s for the strengthening of the yen to address a US-Japan deficit problem, Wing said.
   The Japanese buckled and allowed a sharp appreciation of their currency but it left no impact on the American deficit, he pointed out.

A service sector slump in January plunged business activity in the nations sharing the euro to the lowest level in over three years, a widely watched survey showed Wednesday.
   An NTC Research survey of business leaders fell to 51.8 points in January from 53.3 points in December for the lowest reading since November 2004.
   The result fell short an initial estimate of 52.7 points but was still above the 50-point level that indicates expansion.
   However, the index of service sector activity fell even more sharply, catching economists off guard and raising fears that growing headwinds facing the 15-nation eurozone economy were taking their toll. The service sector index fell to a four and a half years low of 50.6 points in January, down from a first estimate of 52.0 points and a reading of 53.1 points in December.
   ‘The substantial downward revision in the January eurozone service sector business activity index is an absolute shocker,’ economist Howard Archer said at consultants Global Insight.
   He said it ‘highlights the increasing pressure that the eurozone economy is coming under from the credit crunch and financial market turbulence, the strong euro, elevated oil and commodity prices, higher interest rates and softer growth in key export markets.’
   Economist Ben May at consultants Capital Economics said the overall data pointed to growth of only 0.2 per cent in the first quarter, low enough to force the European Central Bank to contemplate easing interest rates.
   ‘In all then, the further weakening in eurozone activity supports our view that the ECB will begin to loosen interest rates as early as June,’ he said.

India’s top vehicle maker Tata Motors says it hopes to clinch a deal to buy the luxury Jaguar and Land Rover car brands from ailing US carmaker Ford ‘in the forthcoming weeks.’
   Ford named Tata Motors, which last month unveiled the world’s cheapest car, as the preferred buyer for the Jaguar and Land Rover marques early last month.
   ‘Tata Motors is pleased by the progress in the discussions with Ford to date and hopes both the parties can reach an agreement in the forthcoming weeks,’ company spokesman Debasis Ray said in a statement late Monday.
   The company, part of India’s sprawling tea-to-steel conglomerate Tata Group, denied British media reports that it had held talks about Italian automaker Fiat’s participation in the deal.
   The reports had suggested that Fiat, Tata Motor’s Indian partner, hoped to gain access to Jaguar and Land Rover’s technology for its own products.
   The Indian firm said there had been ‘no discussions with Fiat on deployment of technologies developed by Jaguar and Land Rover.’
   Tata Motors has a production and marketing tie-up with Fiat to sell the latter’s products in India. The two firms agreed a joint venture in October last year covering passenger cars, engines and transmissions.
   Earlier reports have said offers for the two brands ranged from 1.5 to 2.0 billion dollars in total. There has been no comment from Ford or Tata about the price.
   Ford bought Jaguar for 2.5 billion dollars in 1989 and Land Rover for 2.7 billion dollars in 2000.
   Tata Motors could make a huge technological leap, gaining expertise for its own sports utility vehicles, and save years of development by acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover, analysts say.
   The purchase would also be the latest in an aggressive foreign expansion drive by the group, which last week said it was buying US-based soda-ash producer General Chemical Industrial Products for over one billion dollars.
   Tata unveiled the Nano, a 2,500-dollar-car billed as the world’s cheapest, to high acclaim and environmental concerns last month. Experts say the car could revolutionise how millions travel but others worry about pollution.

Shanghai economy grew 13.3 per cent in 2007, the 16th straight year China’s financial hub to record double-digit growth, state press reported Tuesday.
   The fast-paced local economy in the city of 17 million hit 1.2 trillion yuan ($166.8b), boosted by strong growth in the finance, telecoms and logistics sectors, the Shanghai Daily reported. Last year the port city’s economy surged 12 per cent, passing the one trillion yuan mark for the first time.
   While those sectors contributed 622.3 billion yuan to the total worth of the economy, growth of 11.5 per cent in manufacturing made up a robust 567 billion yuan.
   Fixed asset investments, a main measure of spending on roads, factories and other large investment projects, were also a major contributor, making up 445 billion yuan.
   Inflation of 3.2 per cent remained well under the national average of 4.8 per cent, despite leaping prices in food items, as in much of the country.
   The bureau’s consumer inflation calculations do not include real estate, which has been roaring ahead for years at double digits, although many are now predicting a slump in sales amid tighter credit conditions.

Australia’s central bank Tuesday lifted its key interest rates 25 basis points to 7.00 per cent -— its highest level since 1996 — as it struggles to fight inflationary pressures.
   Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens said there was evidence of ‘significant inflation pressures’ amid strong demand and reports of labour shortages and high capacity usage.
   Stevens said inflation was higher than expected a few months ago, with the Consumer Price Index inflation on a year-ended basis picking up to 3.0 per cent in the December quarter and underlying measures at about 3.5 per cent.
   ‘In the short term, inflation is likely to remain relatively high and will probably rise further in year-ended terms, though the Bank expects it to moderate somewhat next year,’ he said in a statement.
   ‘In future meetings, the board will continue to evaluate whether the stance of policy will be sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to the 2.0-3.0 per cent target.’
   The central bank’s decision will frustrate home-owners already struggling to meet mortgage repayments after six rate increases over the past three years amid rising food and fuel costs.
   Labour prime minister Kevin Rudd, who came to power in November and has pledged to make curbing inflation his top priority, said the interest rate rise would hurt families.
   ‘The reality of modern life in Australia is there that is no such thing as a small interest rate rise and after 10 interest rate rises in a row, this one will really hurt,’ he told reporters in Canberra.
   Rudd said the inflationary pressures had been building for some time and blamed the previous conservative government for not addressing the skilled labour shortage and infrastructure bottlenecks holding back exports.
   He said his government would press ahead with tax sweeteners worth 31 billion dollars (US28b) promised before the election but would also deliver a budget surplus of 1.5 per cent of GDP, slash costs and try to boost savings.
   Economists said the rate rise was unlikely to be the last for 2008.
   ‘Today’s move, which was widely expected, is almost certainly not going to be the last in the current tightening cycle,’ ANZ senior economist Mark Rodrigues said.
   ICAP senior economist Matthew Johnson said the central bank’s statement left open the possibility of raising rates again as soon as next month.
   ‘Even though they cite slower growth they also say it’s not really going to affect us because we’re going to have another leg up in our terms of trade,’ he said. ‘It’s a very hawkish statement and I think they’re a 50 per cent chance to raise rates again in March.’
   But NAB Capital Markets chief economist Rob Henderson said there was no ‘loaded gun for March’.
   ‘They say that they will be evaluating further policy action over coming meetings, implying they are in no rush to tighten again,’ he said.
   ‘They do not see themselves as behind the curve.’
   CommSec equities economist Craig James said a rate hike was more likely than a cut given that inflation was outside the RBA’s comfort zone of 2.0-3.0 per cent.
   ‘Much will depend on how the economy responds to higher rates, global moves in food and oil prices and the performance of both the Chinese and US economies,’ he said.
   The RBA next meets on March 4. Tuesday was the first time that the bank had announced its decision immediately after the meeting. Previously, the decision was announced the following day.

Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp said Tuesday it will close down its unprofitable factory in Australia, laying off 930 workers, as it struggles to compete against lower cost plants in other countries.
   The company blamed a waning appetite for large cars like the ‘380’ sedan produced by the factory in the southern city of Adelaide. The plant makes only about 10,000 cars per year despite having a capacity for 30,000.
   The factory employs 1,164 people and a total of 930 will lose their jobs, the company said.
   Mitsubishi Motors promised ‘very favourable separation packages’ to employees who are laid-off and to work with the Australian government to provide retraining and other support.
   ‘It is an inescapable fact that there is now a deepening trend away from large cars,’ Mitsubishi Motors Australia chief executive Rob McEniry said in a statement.
   ‘We see no path for a return to viable production levels of the 380 sedan or a commercial case for developing any replacement production,’ he said.
   McEniry broke the news of the closure to workers at a meeting in the plant, which Mitsubishi started in 1980 after buying it from Chrysler.
   ‘Rob McEniry spoke to the workers; it was very emotional,’ Australian Manufacturing Workers Union state secretary John Camillo told reporters.
   Three carmakers now produce vehicles in Australia following Mitsubishi’s decision: Holden, a subsidiary of General Motors, Toyota Motor Corp. and the Ford Motor Co.
   Mitsubishi’s Adelaide operations have become increasingly unprofitable in part due to the sharp rise in the Australian dollar, which makes it cheaper for Australians to buy imports.

The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation’s property arm and ING Real Estate said Tuesday they have entered a joint venture for the purchase of an Italian shopping centre.
   The deal is worth about 400 million euros ($593m), a joint statement by the two firms said, describing it as the ‘largest single asset transaction in the Italian retail market to date.’
   GIC Real Estate will enter the joint venture through an affiliate, the statement said.
   The partners will acquire one of Italy’s largest shopping centres, the new Roma Est Shopping Centre in the Municipality of Rome, from Italian food retailer Gruppo PAM, the statement said.
   ‘Prime retail assets are rare to come by in Italy,’ said Seek Ngee Huat, presidentof GIC Real Estate.
   GIC is one of two investment vehicles of the Singapore government and manages the country’s foreign reserves of more than 100 billion dollars through various investments.
   Its property arm has been expanding its portfolio in the world’s major cities including Tokyo, Munich, Sydney and Seoul.
   GIC announced last month it would invest 6.88 billion dollars in US banking giant Citigroup.

The dollar rose against the euro and yen on Tuesday, with the European single currency hurt by weak economic data, traders said.
   They said the market meanwhile was keeping an eye on the ‘Super Tuesday’ votes in 24 US states to nominate the candidates for the US presidential elections later this year.
   In European trade, the euro fell to 1.4714 dollars from 1.4831 dollars in New York late on Monday.
   The dollar climbed to 107.24 yen from 106.64 yen. In Europe, traders were digesting key data out of the eurozone.
   A service sector slump in January plunged business activity in the 15 nations sharing the euro to the lowest level in more than three years, a widely watched survey showed Tuesday.
   An NTC Research survey of business leaders fell to 51.8 points in January from 53.3 points in December for the lowest reading since November 2004.
   The result fell short an initial estimate of 52.7 points but was still above the 50-point level that indicates expansion.
   However, the index of service sector activity fell even more sharply, catching economists off guard and raising fears that growing headwinds facing the eurozone economy were taking their toll.
   ‘The substantial downward revision in the January eurozone service sector business activity index is an absolute shocker,’ said Global Insight economist Howard Archer in London.
   He said it ‘highlights the increasing pressure that the eurozone economy is coming under from the credit crunch and financial market turbulence, the strong euro, elevated oil and commodity prices, higher interest rates and softer growth in key export markets.’
   Dealers were also awaiting US economic indicators due Tuesday, including the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing activity index.
   A meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank chiefs in Tokyo this weekend is also drawing attention, even if analysts doubt the G7 powers will take any coordinated action to try to boost the global economy.
   In Europe on Tuesday, the euro changed hands at 1.4714 dollars against 1.4831 late Monday, at 157.83 yen, 0.7472 pounds and 1.6180 Swiss francs.
   The dollar stood at 107.24 yen and 1.0995 Swiss francs. The pound was at 1.9697 dollars.

Oil prices moved lower on Tuesday as supply fears faded over the recent closure of a shipping channel serving a Texas port, analysts said.
   New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, fell 86 cents to 89.16 dollars per barrel. Brent North Sea crude for March delivery shed 84 cents to 89.63 dollars.
   ‘Crude futures were lower (on Tuesday) ... under pressure from news that some vessels had managed to sail through the Houston Shipping Channel, which was covered by dense fog on Sunday and Monday,’ said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov in London.
   Prices had spiked by more than a dollar on Monday following the closure of the key shipping route.
   Kryuchenkov said that prices had been ‘underpinned by news of heavy fog that covered the Houston Shipping Channel, causing a slow down in US crude imports along one of the busiest petrochemical shipping lines.’

Registered offices shifted
   Keya Cosmetics, Keya Detergent
   The companies have informed that the registered offices as well as the share offices of the companies have been shifted to the corporate office of Khaleque Group of Industries at Jarrun at Konabari in Gazipur from Mosque Road at Old DOHS at Banani in Dhaka with effect from February 1. However, share dealings shall be maintained (on temporary basis) at liaison office at Priyo Prangon Tower at Kemal Ataturk Avenue at Banani in Dhaka-1213.
   
   Purchase
   Bank Asia
   The bank has informed that it has purchased the ground floor measuring 1,530 square feet and the fourth and top floor measuring 1,710 sft of a five storied building along with corresponding land measuring 221.78 out of land measuring 347.00 at 89 at Shahid Syed Nazrul Islam Sharani on North South Road in Dhaka-1100 at a total price of Tk 2.10 crore. The deed of sale will be concluded on February 6.
   Samorita Hospital
   The company has informed that it has purchased a land measuring 7.36 kathas adjoining to their hospital premises at a total
   cost of Tk 2.20 crore under following schedule: Mouza- Rajabazar, PS-Tejgaon, Dist-Dhaka. The deed of sale was executed on February 3.
   
   Share sale position
   Jamuna Oil
   As reported by the selling agent ICB, total 92,83,200 shares of Jamuna Oil were sold up to 17th trading day on February 4 out of 1,35,00,000 shares.
   
   Response to DSE query
   Delta Life
   The company has informed that there is no undisclosed price sensitive information of the company for recent unusual price hike.
   Source: DSE, CSE

Japan Airlines to raise int’l fares
Japan Airlines, Asia’s largest carrier, said Tuesday it would raise its regular international air fares by up to 17 per cent mainly due to higher fuel costs. The move was based on decisions by the International Air Transport Association to allow member airlines to raise fares for the second straight year in the face of soaring fuel prices. The new fares will become effective on April 1, pending approval by the governments concerned, JAL said in a statement. Fares will be raised by 13 per cent on routes to and from Japan with North America and Hawaii, and by 10 per cent on Asian and Oceanian routes, the statement said. It said fares on European routes will be raised by six to 17 per cent.
— AFP

Dun and Bradstreet holds workshops
The Dun and Bradstreet conducted a series of workshops on credit reports which were attended by more than 500 bankers from various government, private commercial and foreign banks in Dhaka, said a press release. SAikat Poddar, regional sales director of Dun and Bradstreet South Asia Middle East, from Dubai, conducted the workshops. Dun and Bradstreet has been addressing the banking fraternity in Bangladesh for almost a decade now. Established in 1841, and headquartered in the US, D&B will be setting up a Rating Agency for SMEs in Bangladesh this year in partnership with BRAC and other leading SME focused banks and financial institutions in Bangladesh.
— New Age

Taiwan consumer prices up 2.96pc
Taiwan’s consumer price index in January was up 2.96 per cent year-on-year but down a seasonally adjusted 0.27 per cent month-on-month, the government Tuesday. The January 2008 CPI growth figures compare with a revised 3.33 per cent year-on-year increase and a seasonally adjusted 0.24 per cent month-on-month rise in December 2007, said Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics. The January core price index, which excludes prices of fresh vegetables and fruits, fishery products and energy, was up 2.71 per cent from a year earlier and up 0.06 per cent from December.
— AFP