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The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has approved a Power Division proposal to allow two errant companies till October 31 for the installation of three costly rental power plants, which were scheduled to start operation by May 23.
   The division in August forwarded the proposal for deadline extension for the Energy Prima Consortium for commercial operation dates of the 50MW Fenchuganj and 20MW Bogra plants and for the GBB-Kaltimax consortium in connection with the 30MW Bhola plant from May 15–23 to October 31 by imposing additional penalty.
   ‘The division received the chief adviser’s approval today. The Power Development Board will now be asked to contact the companies to submit additional performance guarantee to get their deadlines extended,’ a high official of the division told New Age on Thursday.
   Both the companies missed several deadlines, set by them, of starting power plant operation although the government initially planned to buy such costly power from the short-term rental power plants to mitigate power crisis on an emergency basis.
   As the companies are supposed to pay a penalty of $500 a megawatt for the delay by a day after the deadlines for the commissioning of the three plants which expired in May15-23, their performance guarantees expired by August as the total penalty of the companies exceeded the $6 million performance guarantee they had deposited.
   The Power Development Board in the second week of August recommended that the government should either scrap the agreements with the Energy Prima Consortium, led by the Hosaf Group, for its failure to put the Fenchuganj and Bogra plants in operation in time or extend the commercial operation date by imposing penalty.
   The board made similar recommendations for the Bhola plant, to be set up by GBB-Kaltimax consortium.
   The division, however, recommended that the chief adviser should extend the commercial operation date as the scrapping of deal would result in further delay in power generation.
   ‘The companies will need to deposit new performance guarantee worth $4-5 million with the PDB for extension till October 31. If they agree, the power board will sign an agreement,’ said the division official. ‘In addition to the existing penalties, the companies will need to pay $500 a megawatt for the delay by a day until they put the plants in operation.’
   The Energy Prima, meanwhile, failed to commission the 50MW Shahjibazar rental power plant by August 25.
   The division did not include the power plant into the list for the chief adviser’s approval for time extension hoping that the consortium could put the plant in operation by August 25.
   ‘Now for Shahjibazar, the division will make a similar decision. The company will need to submit performance guarantee to have the deadline for commercial operation extended,’ said the official.

First Global Economic Symposium opened in Ploen Castle, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany on Wednesday, aiming to formulate concrete solutions to tackle global economic problems.
   GES tries to provide a new collaborative setting for building communities to tackle global economic problems and it is ‘action-oriented’ which aims to formulate concrete solutions, said Dennis Snower, president of Kiel Institute for the World Economy, one of the organizer of GES.
   The GES will last till Friday and it has attracted about 300 experts or leaders in the circles of politics, business and academics, including four Nobel laureates and former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.
   During the symposium, the experts and leaders will discuss the problems such as climate change, energy securing, effects of globalization, global financial risk, and aging syndrome.
   In order to encourage openness in exchanging ideas and information, most of the discussions are covered by the Chatham House Rule, which means ‘Participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speakers, nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.’

Dhaka stocks closed mixed Thursday as the losers outnumbered the gainers. The general index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange gained 5.65 points or 0.20 per cent to close at 2802.97, while its blue chips index, DSE20, lost 9.75 points or 0.40 per cent to finish at 2409.01.
   A DSE stock broker said the market witnessed selling pressure in last three days after a nine-day bull run. Investors are offloading their holdings to make as much as capital gains after the recent rises in share prices, he said.
   The market started to rebound from August 20 after a nine-week slump that pushed down the DSE general index to as low as 2571.62 points on August 19 from 2,801 points on July 30 last.
   Of the total 225 issues traded at the DSE on Thursday, 82 advanced, 129 declined and 14 remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the DSE decreased to Tk 236.60 crore from the Wednesday’s Tk 269.98 crore.
   Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company topped the turnover leaders with a total transaction of Tk 43.46 crore.
   Beximco, ACI, Beximco Pharmaceuticals, ICB Islamic Bank, Grameen Two Mutual Fund, LankaBangla Finance, Uttara Bank, ICB 2nd NRB Mutual Fund and Islami Bank were the other turnover leaders.
   Chittagong Stock Exchange’s selective categories index gained 3.01 points or 0.05 per cent to close at 5649.97, while its blue chips index, CSE30, lost 39.57 points or 0.51 per cent to finish at 7748.89.
   Of the total 124 issues traded at the CSE, 36 posted gain, 85 dropped and three remained unchanged.
   Turnover at the CSE dropped to Tk 29.35 crore from the Wednesday’s Tk 36.68 crore.

Chairman of National Board of Revenue Mohammad Abdul Mazid stressed the need for creating mass awareness among tobacco addicts, including smokers, in a bid to reduce government’s expense on health.
   He said the government has increased taxes on tobacco products to encourage smokers and addicts quitting smoking and uses of other tobacco products.
   The NBR chairman was addressing as the chief guest a roundtable on ‘Taxing Tobacco in Budget 2008-09: What Really
   Happened?’ at the CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.
   Unnayan Sumannaya organised the roundtable with its chairman Atiur Rahman in the chair.
   General secretary of the Consumer Association of Bangladesh Quazi Faruque addressed the function as the special guest.
   NBR member Mohammad Alam, Abu Taher, Abdul Awal, and Iqbal Hossain also spoke.
   Research Fellow of Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies SM Zulfiqar Ali made a presentation at the function.
   Mazid said the habit of smoking could hardly be checked unless the smokers voluntarily give it up. He said a social movement is essential to motivate smokers.
   Expressing concerns over the damage caused to soil under tobacco cultivation, Quazi Faruque said the affect of tobacco on land fertility should be examined side by side assessing its health impacts.
   He urged NGOs to come forward in creating awareness against tobacco and sought cooperation from media to stop smoking.
   Abu Taher urged the authorities concerned to enforce tobacco related laws strictly in public places. Otherwise, the number of tobacco users would increase, he said.

US shares tumbled in opening trade Thursday as a sober economic outlook kept the mood cautious despite a better-than-expected report on US labour productivity.
   The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 112.36 points or 0.97 per cent to 11,420.52 and the Nasdaq composite shed 21.34 points or 0.91 per cent to 2,312.39 in the first exchanges.
   The Standard & Poor’s 500 broad-market index retreated 9.53 points or 0.75 per cent to 1,265.45.
   The market appeared to shrug off news that US labor productivity was revised up to a 4.3 per cent gain from 2.2 per cent in the second quarter, a positive sign for a sputtering economy.
   ‘This is a great report for inflation since high productivity and low unit labor costs help firms to absorb and deflect the cost of expensive energy and commodities,’ said Robert Brusca at FAO Economics.
   Many analysts say the weak economic outlook was highlighted by the Federal Reserve Beige Book report Wednesday, which cited weak housing, difficult credit and ‘retrenchment’ in consumer spending, and high inflation pressures.

India’s automobile industry is facing ‘unprecedented challenges,’ hit by hefty interest rates and rising costs, said the head of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers on Thursday.
   The sector is reeling from a triple whammy of interest rates at seven-year highs, costly fuel and climbing steel and other raw material costs, said Ravi Kant, president of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
   India is aiming for 145 billion dollars in sales for the automotive sector by 2016, accounting for 10 per cent of its economy, from 34 billion in 2006, according to the government’s 10-year Automotive Mission Plan. It is also aiming for 25 million indirect and direct auto sector jobs, up from 13 million, but Kant warned that the achievement of the plan was at risk.
   ‘The Indian automotive industry is facing unprecedented challenges,’ he told SIAM’s annual meeting in New Delhi.
   ‘Demand is shrinking because of the lack of availability of consumer finance, high interest rates and the high cost of fuel,’ he said, adding input materials have ‘witnessed massive increases.’
   More than half the vehicles sold in India are financed through credit. In the past two years, steel prices have increased by nearly 40 per cent, copper prices are up by 45 per cent and natural rubber has risen by 40 per cent, Kant noted in a speech.
   ‘These factors are having a catastrophic effect on the bottom line of the Indian automotive industry,’ he said.

The Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka will host a weeklong exhibition of products of women entrepreneurs of six countries at Gulshan Shooting Club from Sunday.
   Commerce attaché of the Pak high commission, Zulfikar Yunas, at a press conference on Thursday said the women entrepreneurs from India, China, Sri Lanka and Thailand would join the fair apart from the businesswomen from Bangladesh and Pakistan.
   Advisers of Women and Children Affairs Rasheda K Chowdhury will open the exhibition having 76 stalls.

Warid Telecom on Thursday announced a special tariff rate of 25 paisa per minute for its subscribers from 12:00 midnight to 8:00am during the month of Ramadan, said a press release.
   The subscribers will be charged only 25 paisa minute for making calls to any Warid number from 12:00 midnight to 8:00am. The offer will remain valid for all Zem, Zahi and corporate customers (excluding Shomriddhi) until a further notice is given.
   Under the special tariff rate, Warid subscribers can also call other operators’ number at only 99 paisa per minute.
   Warid Telecom, a subsidiary of UAE-based Abu Dhabi Group, launched commercial operation in Bangladesh on May 10, 2007 as the sixth mobile phone operator. Within one year, the company became the fourth largest operator by acquiring over 3.5 million subscribers through spreading its network to all 64 districts in the country.

United Airways Bangladesh Limited, the third private airlines, will spread wings beyond the country’s boundary on September 24.
   Captain Tasbirul Ahmed Choudhury, chairman and managing director of the United Airways, announced the airlines’ international flights operation at a press conference at Hotel Sonargaon on Thursday
   ‘We are set to launch flight to Kolkata on September 24 and planning to operate flights between Chittagong and Kolkata, and Dhaka and Kathmandu, within short time’ said Tasbirul
   United Airways is currently operating flights to Chittagong, Jessore, Syihet and Cox’s Bazar from Dhaka. ‘We will operate flights from Dhaka to Barisal and Syedpur very shortly,’ he disclosed.
   Tasbirul said two brand-new Canadian DASH-8-100 aircrafts are in United Airways’ fleet and they have plan to acquire two more DASH 8-300 and big-size jets for international operations within next five years.
   United Airways will fly to Kolkata seven days a week and including taxes, one-way fare for Dhaka- Kolkata has been fixed at Tk 7009 while return fare at Tk 13,314. As part of its inaugural offer, the airlines is providing a free ticket to the passengers who buy two tickets to travel to Kolkata from Dhaka.
   In next phases, United Airways has plans to fly to more Indian destinations including, Mumbai, Chennai and Guwahati, and by July next year, it will expand operations to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Bahrain and Dubai.
   Among others, Jilanee FR Chowdhury, director, sales and marketing, and Ferdous Imam, director, administration, of United Airways attended the press conference.

South Korea should focus on job creation and boosting its growth potential as it grapples with high inflation and
   declining domestic demand,
   the finance ministry said Thursday.
   ‘Top priority should be placed on stabilising the livelihoods of ordinary people who suffer from rising prices. At the same time, efforts should be made to create jobs and boost the growth potential,’ it said in a monthly report.
   Local financial markets have been spooked by concerns of a big capital flight this month, when bonds worth 6.71 billion dollars held by foreigners mature.
   Government officials and the International Monetary Fund have dismissed fears of a repeat of the 1997 fiscal crisis, saying foreign exchange reserves of some 243.2 billion dollars are enough to meet liabilities.
   The Korean won has fallen 17 per cent against the dollar this year, partly because of speculation about capital flight. The weaker currency has in turn fuelled inflation.
   But it recovered sharply Thursday to 1,129 to the dollar, up 19.5 won from Wednesday’s close. Dealers said they suspected dollar-selling by the authorities but investors in any case seemed to believe the recent fall was excessive.
   Thanks to eased currency concerns, stocks closed only 0.46 points lower at 1,426.43.
   With exports facing the prospect of a global economic slowdown, the government is eager to boost domestic demand. The finance ministry this week announced plans for tax cuts to stimulate private consumption and corporate investment.
   The ministry report said private-sector consumption declined 0.1 per cent in the second quarter from three months earlier, marking the first drop in four years.
   Corporate investment also remained weak. In the second quarter, corporate spending on facilities grew a mere 0.8 per cent year-on-year compared with a 1.4 per cent gain during the first quarter.
   The Bank of Korea, in a report to parliament, said domestic consumption and corporate investment will remain weak due to high inflation, but exports are likely to post modest growth on solid demand from emerging markets.
   ‘Exports are posting solid growth but private spending and corporate investment remain in a slump,’ the central bank said. ‘Employment is weak due to slumping domestic consumption.’

Japan’s sales of new imported vehicles dived 35.5 per cent year-on-year to 11,676 units in August, the sharpest drop since 1998 when the figure read 39.8 per cent, said the Japan Automobile Importers Association Thursday.
   The sales, including those of Japanese brands manufactured abroad, also saw a fourth consecutive monthly fall, which the trade body attributed to consumers’ concerns over soaring fuel prices and the gloomy economic outlook.
   Vehicles of foreign brands sold in Japan plunged 28.4 per cent to 10,316 units while sales of Japanese cars assembled abroad nosedived 63.1 per cent to 1,360 units.

The US economy is sputtering amid weak housing, difficult credit and ‘retrenchment’ in consumer spending, while inflation pressures are high, the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book report Wednesday.
   The report, to be used by its policymakers for their September 16 meeting on interest rates, indicated little improvement from the sluggish pace of activity since July.
   Data from the 12 regional Fed banks ‘indicate that the pace of economic activity has been slow in most districts,’ the Beige Book said.
   ‘Many described business conditions as ‘weak,’ ‘soft,’ or ‘subdued,’’ the report said.
   Some regions showed ‘weakening,’ with others seeing modest improvement and others ‘stabilization,’ the report said.
   The report highlighted troubles facing US consumers, affecting spending that accounts for some two-thirds of economic activity.
   ‘Consumer spending was reported to be slow in most districts, with purchasing concentrated on necessary items and retrenchment in discretionary spending,’ the report said.
   Auto sales were ‘falling or steady at low levels’ while tourism activity was ‘mixed,’ with some support from international travelers in a few areas.
   On the inflation front, ‘almost all districts continued to report price pressures from elevated costs of energy, food and other commodities, although some noted that there have been declines or slower increases for several industrial commodities or energy products,’ the Beige Book said.
   Some businesses have been able to increase prices to respond to higher input prices while wage pressures were ‘moderate’ in most areas.
   The manufacturing sector was ‘weak or declining’ in most regions with some help from the export sector, according to the report.
   In banking, loan demand was ‘steady or slowing’ with softer demand for mortgages. All the districts reported ‘tightening’ loan standards, which can crimp borrowing and economic activity.
   The latest official data showed the US economy expanded at a healthy 3.3 per cent annual pace in the second quarter, although many analysts say the figure was skewed by a jump in exports and one-time tax rebates from an economic stimulus plan.
   Some forecasters say the world’s biggest economy remains on the brink of recession and could see more turmoil ahead if the housing market fails to stabilize.
   The Fed has held its base lending rate at a low 2.0 per cent since April, which should help stimulate flagging growth. But Fed officials have acknowledged that consumers and business may still face tight credit or high borrowing costs because of problems in the banking sector.

Singapore and China have successfully concluded negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement, the city-state said in a statement Thursday.
   It said the bilateral deal builds on a free trade agreement already reached between China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to which Singapore belongs.
   The agreement with Singapore ‘is the first comprehensive bilateral Free Trade Agreement concluded by China with an Asian country,’ the statement said.
   It said the deal covers trade in goods, rules of origin, trade remedies, trade in services, movement of persons, investment, customs procedures, technical barriers to trade, sanitary measures and economic cooperation.
   ASEAN as a whole already has free trade agreements covering trade and services with China. The two sides aim to finalise an investment agreement by December.
   Singapore and China hope to sign their pact in October.
   Singapore’s trade with China rose to a record high of 91.6 billion Singapore dollars ($63.7b) in 2007.
   China is Singapore’s third-largest trading partner, and Singapore is China’s eighth-largest trading partner, the Singapore statement said.

Business failures in Japan have been increasing.
   According to the private research institute Teikoku Databank, there were 6,022 bankruptcy cases in the first half of the year, up 11.6 per cent over the same period last year.
   Liabilities rose by 17.4 per cent to 3.02 trillion yen ($28b) in the first half. The pace of business failures has been accelerating since the start of the second half.
   The number of bankruptcies in July stood at 1,131, the largest monthly figure since April 2005, when bankruptcy data began to be compiled using the current formula. On Aug. 13, Urban Corp., a real estate and condominium developer listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, applied for court protection from creditors under the Civil Rehabilitation Law, which is similar to Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code.
   Urban’s liabilities of about 255.8 billion yen ($2.3b) were the biggest debt incurred by a failed firm this year.
   Sohken Homes, a house builder and seller, and Nissan Rinkai Construction Co filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 26 and Friday, respectively.
   The situation will worsen further this month, a bankruptcy expert predicted, saying, ‘Among real estate developers alone, more than 20 firms are bankruptcy candidates, and it won’t be surprising if half of them file for bankruptcy this month.’
   There are three factors behind the rush of corporate failures.
   The first is that financial institutions, affected by the US subprime loan fiasco, have been considerably cutting back on loans to real estate and construction firms.
   Urban Corp., which had grown rapidly by promoting real estate securitisation, found it difficult to take out new loans and refinance short-term loans due to the acute cooling off of the real estate market.
   Some real estate firms were forced to file for bankruptcy protection because they failed to obtain short-term loans despite their financial positions being in the black.
   The second factor is that the Financial Services Agency has been asking banks to scrupulously comply with lending rules. When the banks were inspected by the agency, they reportedly were strictly instructed to not extend loans to businesses engaging in suspected antisocial practices such as connections with underground organisations.
   As a result, financing to such firms has been restricted.
   Third, soaring prices for resources such as oil and metals have hit mainly small and midsize companies. Their profitability plunged sharply because they could not pass the rising costs on to their customers.
   The liquidation of industrial firms affected by the subprime loan crisis is expected to accelerate this year because many have expanded business on the crest of a real estate mini-bubble and thus lack asset and fund holdings.

China has tightened controls on how foreign companies spend the foreign currency that they bring into the country, in the latest effort to curb speculative inflows, state media said Thursday.
   New rules charge the State Administration of Foreign Exchange with carrying out checks on the use of foreign currency by firms, the Shanghai Securities News reported, citing unnamed sources.
   Foreign companies bringing in foreign currency has comprised one channel for speculative — or ‘hot’ — money to come into China, betting on the appreciation of the yuan, the newspaper said, citing analysts.
   The regulator urged banks to scrutinise the documents submitted by foreign firms to ensure their authenticity and legality, according to the rules, put on the website of a branch of the foreign exchange agency.
   The rules also stress foreign firms are not allowed to exchange foreign currency into yuan in order to buy real estate for speculative purposes, or to invest in equity.
   The inflow of hot money poses a difficult challenge for China as it seeks to implement its monetary policy.
   Under China’s controlled exchange rate regime, the authorities must buy the incoming foreign exchange for local currency, meaning already-ample liquidity is automatically increased.
   China does not publish data on hot money, but according to a frequently used estimate — the increase in forex reserves minus the trade surplus and foreign direct investment — it totalled 130 billion dollars in the first half of 2008.

The ICB Islamic Bank Limited held its 3rd branch managers’ conference held at the bank’s head office on Wednesday.
   Rajuendran Marrapan, acting managing director of the bank, presided over the conference, said a press release.
   Md Habibullah Monju, chief financial officer, presented the business plan of the bank for the 2009.
   Branch managers and divisional and head office departmental heads attended the conference.

The European Central Bank and Bank of England left their key interest rates steady on Thursday with most analysts forecasting no change for the rest of the year despite recession fears.
   The ECB left its main interest rate at 4.25 per cent, as widely expected, with the bank cutting its growth forecasts and raising its inflation projections both for 2008 and 2009.
   In Britain, the Bank of England kept its main lending rate steady at 5.0 per cent, opting against a cut despite a looming recession in Britain in order to keep up the fight against soaring inflation.
   Many, if not most, eurozone countries would like lower interest rates but that would undermine the ECB’s primary goal of maintaining price stability — as restated by ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet on Thursday.
   ‘The information that has become available since the last meeting has confirmed that annual inflation rates are likely to remain well above levels consistent with price stability for a protracted period of time,’ Trichet told a news conference in Frankfurt.
   The latest data confirm a weakening in economic growth, due partly to a technical correction after a strong first quarter and partly from weaker conditions, but the ECB’s ‘primary objective’ is to maintain price stability, Trichet said.
   ‘It remains imperative to avoid broad-based second-round effects in price and wage-setting,’ he said, adding that the bank was ‘resolute in our determination to keep medium and long-term inflation expectations firmly anchored in line with price stability.’
   The last reading for inflation in the eurozone was 3.8 per cent, well above the ECB’s target of just below 2.0 per cent, and the bank on Thursday tweaked upwards its inflation projections for this year and next.

The public was reminded of the sore memories of lost domestic brands when Coca-Cola announced its offer to take over China Huiyuan Juice Group Limited, a Hong Kong-listed company that owns the Huiyuan juice business throughout China.
   While Coca-Cola and Huiyuan both seem satisfied with the deal, many ordinary Chinese think otherwise.
   In an online poll posted by major portal Sina.com, more than 80 per cent of the over 76,000 interviewees voted against the acquisition of the leading domestic juice maker. A similar proportion held the opinion that the acquisition, if successful, would verge on a foreign capital’s attempt to wipe out domestic pillar brands.
   Established in 1992 in east China’s Shandong Province, Huiyuan spent years developing its nationwide network and had raised its annual output capacity to 2.2 million tonnes.
   Having just been listed among the top 25 domestic brands last year by China Brand Union Association, Huiyuan had the largest share in the Chinese juice market and was the pride of many Chinese as an example of a domestic brand that competes successfully among its international rivals.
   ‘Huiyuan would become a brand under Coca-Cola, which has achieved a major strategic triumph. It will get not only the top brand in China, but also the market. It would take Coca-Cola back to the top of the Chinese beverage market,’ said brand marketing expert Li Guangdou.
   ‘But it would mean a heavy loss to Chinese domestic brands, which are under severe crisis now,’ said Li.
   Though the global beverage maker said it would keep the Huiyuan brand after the acquisition, analysts doubted whether it would give support equivalent to its original juice brand Minute Maid.
   Their worries are not without reason — seven years after being sold to multi-national giant Procter and Gamble, the annual production of formerly major domestic brand Panda washing powder was reduced from 60,000 tonnes to 4,000 tonnes, as its new owner set the brand aside and showed more interest in promoting its own labels.
   Three major shareholders of Huiyuan are said to have accepted the offer. They held approximately 66 per cent of the Huiyuan shares. But the 2.4 billion-US dollar deal still waits government approval. The application has been sent to the Ministry of Commerce for approval, but the detailed timetable or result has not been disclosed.
   According to DLA Piper UK LLP lawyer Liu Cheng, whether the deal would get approval is closely related to its influence in the industry after the acquisition, and whether the Chinese anti-trust law would include the juice market under its regulation.
   If the market share of Huiyuan and Minute Maid together exceeds50 per cent, it might pose difficulty in winning approval, said Liu.

Nissan Motor Corp launched Thursday its first clean-running diesel vehicle in Japan in a bid to open up a new market by rebranding the fuel as eco-friendly.
   The X-Trail 20 GT sports-utility vehicle with an M9R engine offers powerful acceleration while complying with some of the world’s strictest emissions standards that will come into effect across Japan in October 2009.
   The car increases fuel economy by 30 per cent over a 2.5-litre gasoline engine and cuts carbon-dioxide emissions by 20 per cent, Japan’s third largest automaker said.
   It is the first diesel car in Japan in years for Nissan, which has been less enthusiastic than its domestic rivals in developing eco-friendly hybrid cars.
   Japanese consumers have long snubbed diesel-powered vehicles due to the perception that they are smelly, noisy and sooty.
   While diesel accounts for approximately 60 per cent of vehicle sales in Europe, the figure is in the single digits in the United States and Japan.
   ‘From now on we will build the image of diesel in Japan and aim to expand our sales by communicating the diesel engine’s appeal one by one to customers,’ Nissan’s chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga said at a news conference.
   ‘We need to transform each customer’s perception and idea into something positive,’ he said.
   The launch is a test-case for the company, which targets annual sales of 1,200 units ‘to see what the market response will be, and whether it will catch on,’ said another Nissan official on the sidelines of the event.
   With a price tag of nearly three million yen ($27,700) including consumption tax, it costs nearly 20 per cent more than a comparable vehicle with a traditional engine, the company said.
   But the price gap can be offset in fuel savings by driving an average of 10,000 kilometres annually for three years.

The euro struck a record high against sterling and pulled away from eight-month lows versus the dollar on Thursday as the European Central Bank and the Bank of England prepared decisions on interest rates.
   The euro rose to 0.8187 pounds in Asian trade, the highest level since creation of the European single currency in 1999.
   It later stood at 0.8158 pounds in European deals, compared with 0.8154 in New York late on Wednesday. Sterling also hit a fresh 2.5-year low against the dollar, which was winning support ahead of US jobs data on Thursday.
   The euro meanwhile rose to 1.4518 dollars from 1.4492 dollars late Wednesday.
   ‘The euro has extended its gains against the pound in the Tokyo trading session, reaching a new record high,’ said Lee Hardman, currency economist at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in London.
   ‘The euro has increased against the pound for six consecutive days, indicating that investors remain relatively optimistic over the scale of the slowdown in eurozone growth compared to in the UK.
   ‘The market now eagerly awaits the upcoming Bank of England and ECB monetary policy decisions,’ Hardman added.
   Both the European Central Bank and BoE are widely expected to keep their key lending rates unchanged at 4.25 per cent and 5.00 per cent respectively.
   The Swedish central bank on Thursday raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a per centage point to 4.75 per cent to counter inflationary pressures.
   The increase was the third this year and the bank had previously hinted a fourth rate hike might be in store before 2009.
   ‘Inflation has continued to rise in Sweden and the rate increase is necessary to prevent the high inflation from becoming entrenched,’ the Riksbank said, adding that it wanted to ‘prevent the increase in energy and food prices from spreading to other areas.’
   Elsewhere, the dollar was supported by reports of foreign interest in troubled US investment bank Lehman Brothers, which has been badly hit by the credit squeeze, traders said.
   The Seoul-based Chosun Ilbo had said on Wednesday that the state-run Korea Development Bank had offered to buy a 25 per cent stake in Lehman Brothers.
   Britain’s Times newspaper said Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group was considering a bid for a ‘substantial’ part of Lehman Brothers, although the Japanese banking giant denied the report.
   In London trading on Thursday, the euro changed hands at 1.4518 dollars against 1.4492 late on Wednesday, at 157.52 yen (156.92), 0.8158 pounds (0.8154) and 1.6026 Swiss francs (1.6032).
   The dollar stood at 108.38 yen (108.27) and 1.1026 Swiss francs (1.1061).
   The pound was at 1.7819 dollars (1.7767).
   On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold rose to 812.15 dollars per ounce from 803.50 dollars late on Wednesday.

World oil prices held steady in Asian trade Thursday ahead of a weekly US energy stockpiles report expected to give clues about the state of American demand for crude, dealers said.
   Prices were little changed even though most US crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico remained off-line, with refinery outages after Hurricane Gustav made landfall Monday.
   In afternoon trade, New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for October delivery, dropped eight cents to 109.27 dollars a barrel while Brent North Sea crude, also for delivery next month, fell by seven cents to 107.99 dollars.
   Compared with the trail of destruction left by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf in 2005, Gustav’s limited damage provided a huge relief, said dealers.
   ‘Oil prices retained a soft leaning... It appears that Hurricane Gustav did little long-term damage to oil industry infrastructure,’ said David Moore, a Sydney-based commodity strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
   Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged or destroyed about 165 of around 4,000 oil platforms in the Gulf.
   The tally of post-Gustav damage to oil and natural gas installations was still underway but the first oil production trickled back on-line.
   The US Department of the Interior said nearly 5.0 per cent of oil production in the Gulf of Mexico had restarted Wednesday.
   The department said 95.8 per cent of oil production and 91.6 per cent of natural gas production remained cut.
   Normal production in the region is 1.3 million barrels of crude a day and 210 million cubic meters of natural gas, according to the department.
   ‘Obviously, demand concerns are outweighing almost every other consideration,’ said John Kilduff, an analyst at MF Global.
   Crude prices have plunged from record highs of more than 147 dollars in early July because of worries about weakening demand, especially in the United States, the world’s biggest energy consumer.
   Traders were awaiting the release of the US government’s weekly energy inventory report which provides further clues on the state of US demand.

Global cotton production may fall by 6pc: ICAC
World cotton production is likely to fall by 6 per cent at 24.7 million tonnes in 2008-09 due to a decline in area following increased competition from alternative crops, an international cotton body has said. ‘The projected decrease in world production in 2008-09 is driven by an expected fall of 1.2 million tonnes in the United States,’ the International Cotton Advisory Committee said in a statement. The total world production for 2007-08 stood at 26.24 million tons. ICAC said cotton consumption is also expected to dip marginally by 1 per cent to 26.2 million tonnes due to slower global economic growth and higher prices of cotton compared to polyester. The total global cotton consumption for 2007-08 stood at 26.55 million tonnes. Cotton mill use may fall in the United States, China, Russia, the European Union, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico, Thailand and the Republic of Korea, it said.
— PTI