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Rice prices are falling markedly in wholesale outlets on the back of increased arrivals of new stocks, but reflection on the retail market has been slower than expected, market sources said.
   Rice millers and wholesalers predict further fall in rice prices in the coming weeks with more local stocks coming from the current boro harvest season.
   Wholesale prices of coarse and medium grades of rice declined between Tk 3.5 and Tk 5 per kilogram while that of fine rice for up to Tk 6.
   ‘Prices are falling everyday with increasing supply from local stocks,’ said Hafez Belal Ahmed, a Naogaon-based major rice supplier for Dhaka’s wholesalers.
   Bulk rice traders from Naogaon, a major rice processing hub in the northern region, informed New Age that Monday evening the lowest price of new stock of coarse rice pari was quoted at Tk 1,080 per maund or Tk 29.95 a kg, down from Tk 31.10 of a week ago, and Tk 32.20 a couple of weeks back.
   New stocks of fine jirashail rice was sold for Tk 1,310 per maund or Tk 35.12 per kg, down from Tk 40.21 of a week ago
   In Dhaka’s Babubazar wholesale market, the average prices were higher by Tk 50 per maund than the rates at Naogaon supply points.
   Coarse rice guti was selling at Tk 1,050 per maund or Tk 28.15 per kilogram against its week-ago price of Tk 32.17. This very ordinary grade coarse variety of rice comes mainly from depots in Mymensing and Ashuganj.
   Wholesalers expected further fall in rice prices in the coming weeks and assumed that wholesale price of coarse rice might stand at a level between Tk 28 and Tk 29 in the next couple of months.
   ‘Wholesale price may be stable at Tk 28-29 since the government’s procurement rate is set at Tk 28 per kilogram,’ said Ahmed Ali, general secretary of Naogaon Rice Millers Association.
   Retailers in the city were responding slowly to the falling wholesale prices.
   Coarse varieties guti and pari rice were found selling between Tk 33 and Tk 35 Monday evening, down only by Tk 1 from the week-ago prices.
   Fine variety jirashail or miniket was selling between Tk 38 and Tk 45, lower by Tk 2 than the price of a week back and Tk 3 from a couple of weeks.
   ‘Most retailers have significant quantities of old stocks which they procured at higher prices. That is why they are trying to minimize their loss by reducing prices slowly,’ said Shah Alam, a retailer at Nakhalpara Bazar in the city.

The Oriental Bank started its full operation on Monday as the government moratorium imposed on the lending operation of the bank was lifted.
   The bank started its regular activities and its branches and head office are ready to entertain the demand of borrowers, said a official of the bank.
   The bank is currently busy with upgrading its computer network, and when it becomes functional, the bank would give aggressive marketing drive, he informed.
   The name of the bank would be changed to ICB Islamic Bank Limited by mid-May, he hoped.
   The shareholders of the bank at an extraordinary general meeting on April 30 endorsed the proposal to change the name of the bank.
   Earlier, the Bangladesh Bank had fixed the ‘appointed date’ on May 5, which means the depositors can get maximum Tk 1,00,000 from July to October.
   The depositors can also withdraw Tk 1,00,000 for every six months for the next five years, according to the Oriental Bank Reconstruction Scheme.
   The depositors who have over Tk 10 lakh can withdraw the rest of the amount after five years, the scheme stipulated.
   The bank is also working on allocating shares to depositors in proportionate to their deposits, said the bank officials. ‘We are trying to allocate shares as soon as possible,’ he said.
   Depositors with over Tk 1 crore would get shares of 25 per cent of their deposits, over Tk 50 lakh but less than Tk 1 crore would 20 per cent shares, over Tk 10 lakh but less Tk 50 lakh 10 per cent and less than Tk 10 lakh would also get 10 per cent shares but it is optional.
   The central bank on June 19, 2006 took over the bank bled white by some of the corrupt businessmen who misappropriated hundreds of crores of taka in connivance with the then senior management of the bank.
   The Bangladesh Bank in August 2007 started the process to sell Tk 350 crore sponsor shares of the bank and the Swiss-based ICB Financial Group Holding bought the shares.

The country’s export earnings crossed $10 billion in nine-month of the current fiscal to March, growing 12 per cent over its figure in the corresponding period of the previous year, according to the Export Promotion Bureau monthly report.
   The readymade garment export proceeds that constituted 77 per cent of the country’s total export earnings remained at satisfactory level, making further recoveries from the declined business of the sector during first quarter of the fiscal.
   The EPB’s monthly report released on Monday showed that during the July-March period, Bangladeshi exporters shipped manufactured products and commodities worth $10,160 million, up from $9,036 million of the same period in the previous fiscal.
   Knitwear, woven garment, home textile, frozen foods, finished leather, and footwear, and raw-jute were among the major items those achieved satisfactory growth although most of the exporting items missed their targets set for the period by small margins.
   Knitwear’s earning continued to rise as its earning during the July-March period grew by more than 17 per cent to $3,914 million.
   The report showed that earning from the woven garment exports grew by nearly 8 per cent to $3,770 million during the period.
   The earnings from the frozen foods grew by over 7 per cent to $409 million in the period over the same time in last year.
   Exports of home textile increased by about 10 per cent to $211 million, footwear 21 per cent to $120 million, finished leather 7 per cent to $ 213 million and raw jute by 14 per cent to $128 million in the period.
   Earning from jute goods was declined by 1.4 per cent to $243 million during the period this year over the nine-month figure in the last year.
   The EPB report showed that the overall export in March grew by 21.25 per cent from the March 2007 figure of $1,215 million. The export figure crossed the target set for the period by nearly 3 per cent.
   Average export volumes of both primary and manufacturing products increased by 14 per cent during the period, comparing with the same period in previous fiscal. Price index of the manufactured products declined by 2.32 per cent while that of the primary products increased by 9.26 per cent.

From the rice paddies of Asia to the wheat fields of Australia, the soaring price of food is breaking the budgets of the poor and raising the spectres of hunger and unrest, experts warn.
   A billion people in Asia are seriously affected by the surging costs of daily staples such as rice and bread, the director general of the Asian Development Bank, Rajat Nag, has said.
   ‘This includes roughly about 600 million people who live on just under a dollar a day, which is the definition of poverty, and another 400 million who are just above that borderline,’ he said.
   Globally, the World Bank last month estimated that 33 countries were threatened with political and social unrest because of the skyrocketing costs of food and energy.
   Across Asia, workers made a campaign against high food prices their May Day battle cry last Thursday in marches through cities including the capitals of Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
   While the demonstrations were mainly peaceful, concern is growing over the potential for political instability and unrest if high prices persist.
   ‘Once people get hungry they start also getting quite desperate and take desperate measures,’ Damien Kingsbury of Australia’s Deakin University told AFP.
   India’s top farm scientist and architect of the 1960s ‘Green Revolution,’ Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, has said India needs a second agricultural revolution to boost food supplies or face huge social turmoil.
   Experts blame the high food prices on a confluence of factors, including increased demand from a changing diet in Asia, droughts, the rising use of crops for biofuels, and growing energy and fertiliser costs.
   In Australia, which usually ranks second after the United States as a global wheat exporter, several years of drought cut harvests to just 13 million tonnes last year from an average of 22 million tonnes.
   So while consumers are struggling, Australian farmers are not getting rich on the backs of the poor, said National Farmers Federation chief executive Ben Fargher. Around the rest of the region, the impact varies from traumatic to minimal.
   Millions of Afghans are finding it ‘problematic’ to meet their basic food needs with prices of the staple, wheat, doubling in some areas over recent months, the World Food Programme has said.
   About 400 people demonstrated in eastern Afghanistan last month, blocking a key road linking the eastern town of Jalalabad to the capital Kabul and demanding the government step in to control prices at food markets.
   One of the world’s poorest nations, Bangladesh has been hit by a doubling in the price of the main staple, rice, in the past year and many low paid workers say they have been forced to make do on only one meal a day. Last month about 20,000 garment workers rioted near the capital Dhaka for higher wages to cover food prices.
   Soaring rice prices have forced the World Food Programme to indefinitely suspend a programme supplying free breakfasts to 450,000 poor Cambodian schoolchildren.
   Chinese premier Wen Jiabao told a meeting of the State Council last month that high prices were the biggest problem in the domestic economy.
   A general strike against spiralling food prices paralysed Kolkata on April 21 as thousands of police were deployed across West Bengal state to stop protests turning violent. New Delhi has already slashed food duties and banned exports of lentils and other staples, and will not hesitate to further ‘sacrifice revenues to control prices,’ finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.
   Anger over rising food prices was a focus for some 10,000 Indonesians who took to the streets of the capital Jakarta for Labour Day rallies. High prices for rice, cooking oil and soybeans helped drive Indonesia’s annual inflation rate to 8.17 per cent in March.
   In resource-poor Japan, which relies on imports for 60 per cent of its food, companies have hiked prices on everything from beer to beef, mayonnaise and ‘miso’ paste made from fermented soy beans in recent months.
   Although Asia’s largest economy has been struggling for years to end deflation, rising food and commodity prices have not been welcomed because of the pain they inflict on small businesses and low-income households in particular.
   Nepal last week banned the export of grains as prices soared.
   ‘There is a high possibility of food crisis in a poor country like ours where domestic production is not enough,’ said Hari Dahal, a spokesman at the ministry of agriculture.
   North Korea’s food crisis has already seen some people starve to death in remote rural towns, according to an aid group.
   Prices of staple foods have almost tripled over the past year.
   Analysts say public anger over food shortages, particularly wheat flour for the staple roti bread, was a factor in the defeat of president Pervez Musharraf’s allies in elections in February.
   Rising rice prices abroad have almost no impact on South Korea, which imports less than five per cent of its annual consumption and heavily subsidises its rice farmers.
   Singapore is the wealthiest economy in Southeast Asia but charities say inflation is driving more people to join queues for free meals. Consumer price inflation reached 6.6 per cent in January-February, officials said.
   Taiwan is self-sufficient in rice so international prices have no impact. However, domestic rice prices hit a 26-year high earlier this year due to typhoons affecting the harvest.
   In Thailand, export and domestic rice prices have risen about 50 per cent in a month.
   In a phrase particularly chilling for Asia, the World Food Programme has described rising food prices as a ‘silent tsunami’.

Finance ministers of 13 Asian nations agreed in Madrid on Sunday to set up a foreign exchange pool of at least 80 billion dollars to be used in the event of another regional financial crisis.
   China, Japan and South Korea will provide 80 per cent of the funds, with the rest coming from the 10 members of ASEAN, they said in a joint statement issued after talks on the sidelines of an Asian Development Bank meeting in Madrid.
   The 13 nations agreed after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis to set up a mainly bilateral currency swap scheme known as the Chiang Mai Initiative to protect their currencies from turmoil in the future.
   At the ADB’s last annual meeting in Japan in May 2007, they decided to set aside part of their foreign reserves for a multi-nation system of reserves for use in emergencies, but did not decide on the size of the pool.
   ‘We are committed to further accelerate our work in order to reach consensus on all of the elements which include concrete conditions eligible for borrowing and contents of convenants specified in borrowing arrangements,’ the statement said.
   The foreign exchange pool would be self-managed and be governed by a single contract that will be legally binding, it added.
   Vietnam finance minister Vu Van Ninh, who co-chaired the Madrid meeting, said the 13 nations would now work to develop a way of monitoring the fund.
   ‘We think it is very important to have a rigorous surveillance system, especially in the context that regional economies have made an important and big integration into the world economy,’ he told reporters.
   Japan finance minister Fukushiro Nukaga, the other meeting co-chair, did not give a timeline for the creation of the fund when asked, saying only that it ‘should be achievable in terms of its objectives.’
   The creation of the pool is a big step towards the creation of an Asian equivalent of the Washington-based International Monetary Fund.
   During the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea had to borrow heavily from the IMF to boost their finances as investors sold their currencies.
   The IMF forced the governments of the three nations to make unpopular spending cuts, sell state-owned firms and raise interest rates in exchange for the loans of over 100 billion dollars.
   Asian economies are being challenged by rising energy and commodity prices as well as the vulnerability of financial markets, the finance ministers said in the statement.
   ‘The regional economy has continued its strong growth and is forecast to remain robust although somewhat weaker,’ it said.
   ‘We confirmed the importance of taking appropriate actions to ensure that economic activity continues at a sustained pace by balancing policies to deal with these risks,’ it added.
   The ADB predicts Asia’s developing economies will expand by 7.6 per cent in 2008, its lowest level in five years, after surging ahead 8.7 per cent last year.
   Inflation in the region should hit 5.1 per cent this year, its highest level since the 1997-1998 financial crisis.
   The 13 countries are China, Japan, South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The government has constituted a four-member committee headed by the industries secretary to look into the problems and prospects of the export-oriented leather sector.
   The decision was taken when a delegation of the leather sector called on the commerce adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, at his office on Monday.
   The leather sector leaders demanded that the government should allow imports of raw hides free of duty and value added tax to meet an impending shortfall of the raw hides required for catering to the needs of the local industry.
   They argued that the country’s leather industry was now growing and it would face crisis of raw materials when its capacity would be enhanced after full-fledged operation of the planned Leather Industry Estate at Savar.
   The industry leaders, however, told the adviser that the progress in setting up of the estate was very slow. They also demanded that the Leather Technology College should be brought under the revenue budget to help ensure its smooth running. Many teachers used to leave the college since it has long been placed under development budget.
   The commerce adviser assured them to look into the problems and formed the committee to suggest ways and means to solve the problems.
   President of the Bangladesh Finished Leather and Leather Goods Association Tipu Sultan and principal of the college Fazlul Karim were among the members of the delegation.

AEA Muhaimen has joined the BRAC Bank Limited as managing director and chief executive officer recently.
   Prior to joining BRAC Bank, Muhaimen had worked in senior management roles with The City Bank Ltd, Bangladesh, Standard Chartered Bank in Bangladesh and UAE and ANZ Grindlays Bank, Bangladesh, said a press release.
   With over 20 years of local and international banking exposure in Asia, Australia and Middle East, he has extensive experience in business and support roles.
   He had worked as deputy managing director, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, head of consumer banking and head of human resources. His last job was in Dubai as head of consumer finance for National Bank of Fujairah.
   Muhaimen started his career with ANZ Grindlays Bank in 1986 as a management trainee after completing his MBA from the Institute of Business Administration, Dhaka University.
   He is married and has two children.

The Prime Finance and Investment Limited has declared 40 per cent stock dividend for the shareholders for the year 2007.
   The declaration was made at the 12nd annual general meeting of the company held recently at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in the Dhaka city.
   The financial statements of the company for the year ended on 31 December, 2007 were placed at the meeting and members made a critical review of the performance of the company.
   Md Aminul Haque, chairman of the company, presided over the meeting, said a press release.
   The company’s total business revenue was Tk 72.44 crore in FY 2007 as against Tk 44.52 crore of FY 2006.
   Among others, members of the board KM Khaled, Muslima Shirin, Md Aliuzzaman, MNH Bulu, Mohammad Masudur Rahim, Md Azizur Rahman, Professor Salma Rahman, M Mosharraf Hossain, managing director Md Akter Hossain Sannamat and company secretary Tauhidul Ashraf were also present.

Onion export is likely to increase by about 12 per cent in first month of the current fiscal, helped by lower minimum export price of the edible bulb.
   ‘We are yet to finalise the export data for the last month. Onion export is expected to be 88,000-90,000 tonnes,’ a senior government official said. India exported 80,120 tons in April 2007.
   The estimate is based on no-objection certificate issued by NAFED, which is the nodal agency to carry out onion export, the official said.
   India had exported 9.96 lakh tonnes of onions in 2007-08 fiscal, compared to 11.61 lakh tonnes in the previous year. In value terms, however, exports declined marginally to Rs 1,116 crore from Rs 1,135 crore in the year-on-year period.
   With onion prices remaining stable in the domestic market, co-operative major NAFED has decided to keep the MEP of standard sized onions unchanged for this month.
   However, the MEP of onions grown in the southern states has been raised to 350 dollars per tonne for May, compared to 300 dollars a tonne in April.
   Onions from southern states are exported mainly to Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore, while the Nasik varieties are sent to all export destinations, particularly to the Gulf countries.
   The average MEP of onion for May remains at 180 dollars per tonne, though it is in the range of 165-390 dollars per tonne for most of the destinations. However, for destinations like Ivory Coast, the MEP is 425 dollars a tonne in refrigerated container, he said.
   For the Gulf countries, which are major importers of Indian onions, the MEP is at 180-210 dollars per tonne.

Food price inflation may be one of the most serious problems facing the world, but one that monetary policy has little power to tackle, central bankers said on Monday.
   With the price of food rising by more than 40 per cent a year, the issue is high on the agenda at meetings of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel which began on Sunday.
   ‘Food pressure is a global problem, we have to observe, monitor, but we cannot use monetary policy tools to manage this problem,’ said Polish National Bank president Slawomir Skrzypek.
   ‘Food pressures could be one of the most serious problems that we have to face now.’
   ‘It’s certainly going to be one of the big issues here,’ Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer said on his way into the talks.
   Top central bankers including US Federal Reserve vice-chairman Donald Kohn and new Bank of Japan governor Masaaki Shirakawa are joining other Group of Seven colleagues and policymakers from major developing nations at the meetings.
   European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet, who chairs the global economy session, holds a news briefing later on Monday.
   The May meeting comes as a rapid rise in food costs and prices of other commodities such as oil is fuelling historically high inflation rates from the euro-zone to China, and creating a headache for central bankers also concerned about the economic impact of nine months of financial market turmoil.
   Finnish central bank governor Erkki Liikanen said food prices were a concern not only for inflation, but also for living standards in many developing nations.
   A 43 per cent rise in global food prices in the year to March sparked violent protests in Cameroon and Burkina Faso as well as rallies in Indonesia following reports of deaths from starvation.
   ‘They have an impact on the situation of many poor people around the world,’ Liikanen, who also sits on the ECB’s Governing Council, told reporters.
   ‘It’s a challenging situation in many developing countries in a way which we have not seen for some time.’
   In China, rising food prices helped push inflation to a near 12-year high of 8.0 per cent in the first three months of 2008, although China’s central bank chief said this was partly driven by strong seasonal spending and should ease.
   ‘After the spring festival, including the second quarter ... the inflation rate, the CPI, could decline,’ People’s Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Sunday.
   ‘But it doesn’t mean for the whole year whether there is a continuous trend for higher CPI or not. It’s still uncertain.’
   On Monday, however, Zhou played down any direct short-term link between high Chinese inflation and economic performance, focusing more on the potential impact of the US slowdown.
   ‘The US may import a little bit less from China. We could see this phenomenon but not very significantly. Basically China exports still grow quite strongly,’ he said, citing export growth to Asia and Europe.
   China had the option of raising interest rates to control inflation, but there was a range of instruments available for that purpose, Zhou added without elaborating.
   At the BIS meeting, central bankers are also likely to discuss the success of joint efforts to ease persistent tensions on international money markets.
   The Fed, the ECB and the Swiss National Bank announced a third phase of liquidity injections on Friday, offering extra funds to U.S. banks and promising to offer extra US dollar funds to European banks past the end of the year.
   Still, liquidity is not an issue for all countries: Poland’s Skrzypek said money markets there were over-supplied with funds, which had to be sterilised.

The head of the Asian Development Bank announced on Monday a new fund to combat damage caused by climate change, which he termed a ‘fundamental threat’ to economies and livelihoods in Asia.
   ‘I am pleased to announce that we will ... establish a Climate Change Fund, with an initial contribution from ADB resources of 40 million dollars,’ Haruhiko Kuroda said in an inaugural address to the ADB’s board of governors meeting in Madrid.
   ‘The Fund will allow a more holistic approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation, including forestry and land use, changes in livelihood, health impacts, and increase emergencies and disasters caused by climate change.
   ‘Climate change is a fundamental threat to achieving Asia’s development objectives, and to life and livelihoods,’ the ADB president said.
   The ADB said in a statement that some 1.2 billion people in the Asia-Pacific region could face freshwater shortages by 2020 owing to climate change, while crop yields in Central and South Asia could drop by half between now and 2050.
   Asia’s major coastal cities, including Bangkok, Jakarta, Karachi, Manila, Mumbai and Shanghai are vulnerable to flooding, it said.
   By the end of the century, residents of Tuvalu, the Maldives and coastal Bangladesh may become ‘climate refugees,’ it said.
   ‘Asian developing countries are now the fastest growing source of new greenhouse gas emissions and they will soon be the largest absolute source,’ said WooChong Um, the head of the ADB’s Energy, Transport and Water Division.
   ‘This new fund will help us pool resources from around the world to invest in Asia to help deal with this problem.’
   The ADB said it is appealing for contributions to the Climate Change Fund from countries, development organisations, the private sector and other sources.
   The new fund ‘will address the causes and consequences of global warming,’ said Werner Liepach, the head of the ADB’s Office of Cofinancing Operations.

Global growth is still strong owing to the resilience of emerging markets but inflation risks are significant, European Central Bank chief and G10 spokesman Jean-Claude Trichet said on Monday.
   Not only are higher oil and commodity prices adding inflationary risks, but also food prices, he said.
   While central bankers did not discuss measures to be taken specifically on food price inflation, Trichet pointed out that central bankers constantly call for markets that are ‘as competitive as possible,’ trusting that competitive markets can help to neutralise such inflationary risks.
   ‘At a global level, global growth remains significant despite the slowing down observed in a number of industrialised economies and clearly thanks to the remarkable resilience of a great number of emerging economies,’ Trichet said.
   ‘We see ongoing growth at a significant level even if somewhat lower than in the previous year,’ he added.
   However, he also described inflationary risks as ‘significant’ owing to oil, commodities and food price increases.
   These increases in prices were being seen in ‘all economies without any exception,’ Trichet told reporters at a press conference after meeting with central bankers at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel.
   Inflation in the 15 European nations sharing the euro unexpectedly reached a record 3.6 per cent in March, the European Union’s Eurostat data agency said in April, revising up a first estimate of 3.5 per cent.
   In particular, a sharp rise in food prices has helped to fuel inflation in the eurozone.
   The central bankers meeting here had discussed the increase in food prices, he said.
   ‘It is an additional element adding to the energy prices, to the metal prices and a number of commodity prices and that is really at a global level a very important phenomenon,’ he said.
   Although the central bankers did not discuss measures to be taken specifically on food price inflation, Trichet pointed out that central banks constantly call for markets which were ‘as competitive as possible.’
   Central bankers trust that such competitive markets and open economies can help lower inflation, he said, adding: ‘It is true for food as for other products and services.’
   Rising populations, strong demand from developing countries, increased cultivation of crops for biofuels and increasing floods and droughts have sent food prices soaring across the globe.
   Leaders of international organisations including United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon have urged countries such as Brazil and Egypt to drop export restrictions on certain foods and commodities, saying they had reduced supplies and contributed to price hikes.
   Argentina, Brazil, Vietnam, India and Egypt have all imposed limitations on the export of certain produce in order to ensure food security for their populations.

A Chinese government watchdog has warned major state-owned enterprises to brace for tough times given the likelihood of a worsening global economic slowdown, state media reported Monday.
   Chinese state-owned enterprises must pay more attention to their financial position to avoid a potential capital crunch, the Economic Observer reported, citing Li Rongrong, director of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
   ‘Keep a close watch on your pockets and do not deplete yourselves,’ said Li, who talked at a recent meeting to senior executives from 150 SoEs directly controlled by the central government.
   Li said the SoEs, some of which have already flagged cash flow shortages, should better prepare themselves for tightening monetary policy lasting at least two years, according to the report.
   The meeting was held after figures showed that combined profits of the major SoEs in the first quarter dropped 2.9 per cent from a year earlier to 203.4 billion yuan ($29.1b), it said.
   Earnings at oil companies and power generators were worst hit, because of rising raw material costs and the government’s central pricing system for oil products and electricity tariffs, it said.

Without destructive natural disasters, current grain reserves in China plus this year’s outputs are more than enough to feed its people, said Zeng Liying, deputy director of the State Administration of Grain.
   The country’s grain inventories, including the government’s, enterprises’ and farmers’, are currently at around 250 million tons, accounting for half of national annual grain consumption, and this ratio is much higher than the international warning line of 17 to 18 per cent, said Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, on April 27 at the 6th annual conference of Chinese importers and exporters.
   If there are no natural disasters that affect Chinese agriculture this year, grain output is expected to continue to grow with the same momentum we enjoyed in the last four years’, Zeng said confidently. China’s grain production totaled more than 500 million tonnes last year, 70.85 million tons more than in 2003.
   With the exception of a portion of demand for soybeans, which is supplied from overseas, China is more than self-sufficient in wheat, rice and corn. Currently skyrocketing grain prices are primarily driven by soaring demand for biofuels as well as rising machinery, fertiliser, labor and farming land costs. But China is working to stabilise grain prices.
   This year, the government has appropriated 130.7 billion yuan more in agricultural investment than last year, and the central budget added 25.3 billion yuan in subsidies for farmers and further leveraged minimum grain purchase prices.
   Zeng also introduced that China’s current wheat and rice prices are far below international averages. Regular price fluctuations are related to the balance of domestic demand and supply, and proper price raises could increase farmer’s incomes and keep them working the farmlands.
   Regarding some reports on regional shortage of grain inventories, Zeng explained that grain inventories are a dynamic number, and peaks following large scale seasonal purchasing and gradually falls over the period of a year. The reported shortage in grain reserves is based on a few deserted or idle storage facilities, used during late 1990s when China experienced years of plentiful harvests.
   The State Administration of Grain is now collecting national grain purchase, sales and inventories statistics once every 10 days, and promises to keep an eye on nationwide grain market balances, said Zeng.

SM Mahfuzul Huq, executive director of the HRC Shipping Ltd, has recently been elected vice-chairman of the Shippers Council of Bangladesh for the year 2008-2009.
   He is also the secretary general of the Bangladesh Ocean Going Ship Owners Association. He is the immediate past elected director of the board of the Shippers Council of Bangladesh 2007-2008.
   Serving as member of standing committee on shipping in FBCCI in 2004, co-convener, shipping 2004-2005 and co-convener DITF of DCCI in 2005-2006, Mahfuzul Huq is presently member of the FBCCI, said a press release.
   Son of SM Latiful of Nawab House, Nawab Faizunnesa State Paschimgaon Laksam, Comilla, he was born on February 12, 1948 at Azimpur in Dhaka.
   He obtained Masters in economics and LLB in 1969 and 1973 respectively from Dhaka University.
   On completion of his educational career, he served the Egyptian embassy Dhaka as trade officer from 1973 to 1974 and contributed to commodity contract and barter protocol/agreements.
   He served the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation for over 28 yeas and contributed to the field of shipping management and ownership business. He joined the HRC family of companies as executive director
   He served the public sector for over 28 years. During the course of his acquaintance in the public sector he represented the shipping ministry in various forums and seminars at home and abroad and contributed to policy issues of the shipping ministry.
   He contributed articles on professional shipping in different dailies and weeklies of the country.
   During the course of his carrier, he represented Bangladesh in different capacities and visited the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, Tunisia, Turkey, Syria, Iran, the UAE, Pakistan Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Yemen, Eriteria, Sudan, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives.
   In addition to Bengali, he has command over English, Arabic, Urdu, Persian and French.

Mobile phone operator Citycell recently signed a corporate agreement with the Khawja Group.
   Under the agreement, Khawja Group will enjoy Citycell’s CDMA2000 1X based high-speed wireless internet facility Zoom.
   Khawja Group will also enjoy Citycell’s special corporate rates and exclusive value added services.
   Safiqur Rahman Chowdhury, chairman of Khawja Group, and Michael Seymour, chief executive officer of Citycell, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations, said a press release.
   Other high of both the organisations were present at the deal signing ceremony.

The dollar was lower against the euro and yen on Monday after gains last week made in part due to better-than-expected US jobs data, dealers said.
   In afternoon trade, the dollar changed hands at 105.23 yen from 105.39 yen late Friday.
   Volumes were light with Japan’s financial markets closed Monday and Tuesday for holidays.
   The euro was at 1.5464 dollars, up from 1.5422 on Friday in late US trade.
   Analysts said the dollar’s downward trend was likely temporary because worries over the US subprime mortgage crisis had generally abated after a series of aggressive US interest rate cuts to bolster the American economy.
   ‘The euro is staying well below 1.55 and it really does look like the US dollar is consolidating there,’ said Amy Auster, Melbourne-based head of international economics at Australia’s ANZ bank.
   The dollar dived to an all-time low of 1.6019 to the euro on April 22 but has since recovered on growing hopes that the worst may be over for the US economy.
   ‘We have seen a big move up on the US dollar... the biggest move has been against the euro,’ Auster said.
   The US Labour Department said Friday that employers
   cut 20,000 nonfarm jobs
   in April, far fewer than
   private economists’ forecasts of 75,000.
   The European Central Bank is to meet Thursday in
   Athens and analysts expect
   the ECB to keep its lending rates stable with an eye on inflationary pressure within the 15-nation eurozone
   economy.
   ‘Rates are widely expected to be left unchanged at four percent,’ Singapore’s DBS bank said in a report. ‘We do not expect the ECB to tone down its anti-inflation rhetoric either.’
   Against the other Asian units, the dollar fell to 1.3608 Singapore dollars from 1.3628 on Friday, to 1,009.75 South Korean won from 1,010.05 and to 9,231.50 Indonesian rupiah from 9,236.00.
   It rose to 30.489 Taiwan dollars from 30.464, to 31.72 Thai baht from 31.67 and to 42.335 Philippine pesos from 42.298.

World oil prices were slightly lower in Asian trade on Monday after fresh unrest in Africa’s biggest crude producer, Nigeria.
   New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, was 13 cents lower at 116.19 dollars per barrel.
   The benchmark contract rallied 3.80 dollars to close at 116.32 dollars on Friday at
   the New York Mercantile Exchange.
   Brent North Sea crude for June was 17 cents lower at 114.39. The contract jumped 4.06 dollars to settle at 114.56 on Friday in London.
   ‘There has not been much movement in oil since prices rose strongly on Friday
   night,’ said David Moore, a commodity strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
   ‘In the next couple of days, oil prices will remain relatively firm,’ he said. ‘The recent news flow is likely to be supportive of expectations in the oil markets.’
   Nigerian militants attacked an oil ship off the coast of the west African country and took two people hostage, a military spokesman said Sunday.
   The incident came after militants attacked facilities belonging to Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell in southern Nigeria, leading to a cut in output, company and security sources said.
   Shell, which accounts for around half of Nigeria’s 2.1 million barrels per day output, has been forced to cut production because of an upsurge in militant attacks on its facilities.
   Oil rallied close to a record 120 dollars a barrel last week on supply concerns linked to work-stoppages at a Scottish refinery and in Nigeria.
   With the strikes resolved, crude prices were largely driven by movement in the US dollar, according to analysts.
   News that the US economy shed 20,000 jobs in April,
   far fewer than the 75,000 expected by the market, helped lift sentiment on Friday, they said.
   The unemployment rate unexpectedly slipped a tenth of a percentage point to 5.0 per cent, the US Labour Department said, compared with an expected rise to 5.2 per cent.
   Analysts said the better-than-expected labour report showed the world’s biggest energy consumer was hurting but not in crisis.
   World oil prices also rose Friday after Turkish bombing raids targeted Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, which is home to some of that country’s oil facilities.

ADB chief opposes OPEC-style
rice cartel
The chief of the Asian Development Bank said on Saturday that he opposed the idea of setting up an OPEC-style rice cartel as suggested by Thailand amid surging food prices. ‘Agricultural markets should be market oriented. It would not be good for exporters and it certainly would not be good for importers,’ ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda told reporters on the sidelines of the bank’s annual meeting, which began here Saturday. Thailand has said recently it had contacted Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, four members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, on the proposal to form an OPEC-style rice cartel for a stronger voice on international price-setting. In the past month, rice prices have doubled, whose impacts have been most pronounced in import-dependent countries. During the past year, domestic rice prices doubled in Bangladesh and Cambodia, and rose 70 per cent in Afghanistan, 55 per cent in Sri Lanka and 40 per cent in the Philippines, according to the Manila-based ADB. Kuroda said that to tackle rising food prices in the medium and long term, the most important task is to increase agricultural productivity. In a 15-page report, the ADB urged governments to step up investment, boost rural infrastructures and strengthen institutions to sustain higher farm output. However, Kuroda played down the role of supply shortages behind the current price hikes. ‘According to various statistics, supply of most agricultural products has been increasing steadily,’ Kuroda said.
— Xinhua