Just Economic Info

Indonesia is one of the big three projector market in Asia Pacific after China and India, a senior sales manager of PT NEC Indonesia said.

"This indicates the big chance for businesses to tap projector market in Indonesia," Ferry Faried Badjeber, senior sales manager and business development division of PT NEC Indonesia, said in a NEC Media Gathering event here on Thursday.

He said that the growth of projector market in Indonesia was quite promising. "In 2010 Indonesia`s market has absorbed 130,000 projectors with an average growth of 25 percent compared to that last year," he said.

He said that the increase in the projector market share in Indonesia was boosted by the increase in the education budget which in the end also generated increase in the demand for projectors.

Badjeber said that the development was promising so that his firm was targeting two market segment, namely the education and corporation sectors.

He said that his company was focusing on producing and releasing to the market power-efficient and environment-friendly projectors.

"This two types are high on demand in the Indonesian market," he said.

State-owned PT Aneka Tambang`s revenue grew above 10 percent until September this year from Rp6.26 trillion recorded in September 2009.

"The revenue growth is driven by mining commodity price hikes in the market," the company`s president director Alwinsyah Loebis said here on Thursday.

He said the net profit was still being audited. "It is all still being audited. What is clear is our income has risen double-digit or above 10 percent from September last year," he said.

Based upon the revenue in September 2009 the company`s revenue in the third quarter this year would be around Rp7 trillion.

The company`s ferronickel production meanwhile reached 14,045 tons or 76 percent of this year`s target. Nickel ore production meanwhile reached 4.96 million metric tons or around 81 percent of the target.

Gold production reached 1,884 kilograms or around 60 percent of the target, silver 14,058 kilograms (60 percent of the target), bauxit 162,307 metric tons (27 percent of the target).

Alwinsyah said in 2010 the company allocated Rp2.35 trillion for capital expenditures.
Of the total, Rp435.53 billion would be for new investments, Rp1.7 trillion for development and Rp208.3 billion for postponed investments.

He said the company would also allocate US$30 million for financing the acquisition of gold and coal mines.

"We are still calculating the capital expenditures that have been absorbed until September 2010," he said.

Regarding capital expenditures for 2011 he said they would be bigger than for 2010, without giving numbers.(*)

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Spain's economy emerged from recession after growing by 0.1% in the first three months of 2010, the country's central bank has said.

The growth ended six successive quarters of contraction.

Earlier this week, official figures showed Spain's jobless rate had hit 20% for the first time in nearly 13 years.

Earlier this week, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Spanish government debt over fears for the country's economic outlook.

The Spanish economy shrank by 3.6% in 2009.

Global stock markets have fallen sharply, amid investor fears that Greece's debt crisis could halt the global economic recovery.

In the US, the Dow Jones index fell 0.7%, while France's Cac 40 closed down 4.6%, the UK's FTSE 100 shed 2.6% and Germany's Dax lost 3.3%.

Japan's Nikkei index shed 3.1%, having fallen by 4.1% in morning trading.

Sterling also fell sharply against the dollar and the euro as results poured in from the UK general election.

The pound fell more than 3 cents, or 2.1%, against the dollar, to $1.4633.

Against the euro, it fell by 2.6 cents, or 2.2%, to 1.1478 euros.

The UK election resulted in a hung parliament, which raised concerns among investors that a weak government might not be able to implement policies quickly to reduce the UK's high budget deficit.

However, sterling later bounced back against both the dollar and the euro as talks were due to begin between leaders in an attempt to form a government.

Contagion fear

The continued global turmoil on the stock markets comes a day after Greek MPs approved drastic spending cuts in exchange for an international financial rescue plan, amid violent protests in Athens.

European leaders are meeting in Brussels to finalise details of a 110bn-euro ($139bn; £86bn) loan package to Greece, while the G7 finance ministers have also discussed the Greek debt crisis and its implications for the global economy.

"The reason for today's fall is what everybody knows - Greece," said Hideaki Higashi at SMBC Friend Securities.

"The market is factoring in the possibility that this Greek problem will spread to Spain and Portugal."

Both Spain and Portugal also have high budget deficits and were downgraded by Standard & Poor's credit rating agency last week. There are fears they could be engulfed by the Greek debt crisis.

Cash injection

Among the stock markets in Asia, South Korea's Kospi dropped by 2.2%, while China's Shanghai index fell 1.9%. Shares in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore also fell.

Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said he was "very concerned" by the losses.

The country's central bank said it would inject more than $20bn (£13bn) in short-term loans to commercial banks to boost liquidity.

"The Bank of Japan aims to increase a sense of security in the markets by providing ample funds," said Bank of Japan official Yuichi Adachi.

The BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo says the crisis in Europe hurts Japan because its economy has relied on exports for growth.

And as investors flee the euro for currencies perceived to be safer, such as the yen, Japan's currency strengthens, making the products of its companies more expensive abroad, our correspondent adds.

In New York, the Dow Jones share index plummeted 9% at one point before bouncing back to end Thursday down 3.2%.

The BBC's Caroline Hepker in New York says there are rumours that the drop may have been caused by an erroneous "fat finger" trade at a Wall Street bank.

The New York Stock Exchange said it had found no error, but the Securities and Exchange Commission and Procter & Gamble, which saw its shares hit, are reviewing the matter.

The central bank said the weakening rupiah level against the US dollar was "not worrying" because the reported figures were not the currency's fundamental rate, and it would continue to guard the rupiah.

"Bank Indonesia (BI) is always in the market. We have scrutinized this [trend] over the last two days and we guard [the rupiah] tightly so [volatility] does not become too extreme," acting BI Governor Darmin Nasution said Friday, citing Euro debt problems as one reason for the drop.

The rupiah has fallen by 3 percent against the dollar this week, among the currencies worst hit in Asia. The rupiah rate fell to Rp 9,265 – Rp 9,275 against the dollar on Friday as compared to Rp 9,080 – Rp 9,090 a day earlier.

"This is not too worrying because it's not the fundamental [rate]. The rupiah should strengthen against the dollar. This is temporary," he added.

Darmin dismissed concerns the Euro debt problem could cause another economic crisis.

He said in times of panic investors choose to buy dollars, deemed the safest financial instrument.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has resisted pressure from President Obama to raise the value of the Chinese yuan.

He told Mr Obama that it would "neither balance Sino-US trade nor solve the [US] unemployment problem", Chinese official news agency Xinhua reported.

However, Mr Hu indicated that the Chinese were preparing to change their policy on the yuan in their own time.

The Chinese and US presidents were meeting at the sidelines of a 47-nation nuclear summit in Washington DC.

According to Xinhua, Mr Hu said that detailed measures for reform should be considered in the context of the world's economic situation, as well as China's.

China News Service reported that Hu said China "is firmly committed to the direction of reforming the... exchange rate regime. This is based on the needs of China's own economic development."

However, he added that "outside pressures will not advance [reform]".

For his part, Mr Obama called on his counterpart to switch to a more "market oriented" exchange rate, according to senior White House official Jeff Bader.

China has pegged its currency to the dollar since 2008 in response to market volatility during and after the financial crisis.

Market reaction to the comments was fairly muted, but seemed to interpret Mr Hu's comments as reducing the immediate prospects of any rise in the yuan's value.

Other Asian currencies such as the Malaysian ringgit and Korean won, lost between 0.5% to 1% against the dollar in early trading, ending strong rallies recorded during the past two months.

Markets had previously been speculating that if the yuan were allowed to appreciate, this would lead to similar rises in the currencies of other Asian countries that compete with China for exports to the US and Europe.

Trade sanctions

The meeting follows widespread speculation over the possibility of a trade war this year between the two nations.

Many economists, including Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman, have criticised the Chinese for pegging their currency to the dollar.

They say this gives the Chinese an unfair advantage, by making Chinese exports artificially cheap, and this acts as a drag on the rest of the world economy.

The meeting between the two presidents follows a hasty visit to China by US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on 8 April, and a decision on 3 April to postpone an important Treasury report.

That report, which was due to be delivered this month to Congress, would have stated whether the Treasury Department deemed China to be a "currency manipulator".

This would have opened the way for Congress to impose trade sanctions on China, a move advocated by many congressmen as well as Mr Krugman.

Meanwhile, the Chinese commerce ministry has introduced a duty of up to 64.8% on imports of US electrical steel, and 24% on those from Russia, accusing the two countries of selling the steel at abnormally low prices.

The move follows a decision by the US government to impose an import tax on Chinese pipes.

source : BBC

China has reported a rare monthly trade deficit for the first time since May 2004.

The country's foreign trade was up nearly 43 per cent in March to over $231bn, out of which exports accounted for about $112.1bn and imports about $119.4bn.

In the same month, China's trade surplus was down 4 per cent with the US and over 13 per cent with the EU, compared to March 2009.

Chinese officials have blamed the $7.2bn monthly deficit on the rising volumes and prices of raw materials across the world, such as coal, iron ore, crude oil and copper, that the country has to import to sustain its blistering economic growth.

Even as Chinese imports have surged, exports still remain weak, especially to the Western markets. It may be up to three years before the country's exports reach the levels they were before the global economic crisis, according to some Chinese politicians.

China's monthly trade deficits are likely to continue in the remaining months of the first half of 2010 and will possibly improve in the second half, China's People's Daily said, quoting Yao Jian, spokesman of China's Ministry of Commerce.

In recent months, the Chinese government has come under increasing pressure from the US government for keeping the yuan artificially depressed to help boost its exports.

China's ministry of commerce has cited the latest trade deficit figures to argue that no change is needed in the country's currency regime.

source :newstatesman

Most Asian stock markets edged up in early trading Friday, led by overnight gains on Wall Street as strong U.S. retail sales data boosted confidence in recovery in the world's biggest economy.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average rose 17.25 points, or 0.2 percent, to 11,185.45. Australia's benchmark was up 0.3 percent at 4,973.70.

But South Korea's Kospi index slipped 0.9 percent to 1,718.04.

In New York overnight, the Dow Jones industria average gained 29.55, or 0.3 percent, to 10,927.07 as investors took heart from strong U.S. retail sales data in March.

Discounter Target Corp., department store Macy's Inc., clothier Gap Inc. and Victoria's Secret parent Limited Brands Inc. posted double-digit increases in March sales that beat Wall Stret analysts' expectations.

Overall, sales in stores open at least a year rose 9 percent in March, based on an index of 31 retailers compiled by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

In currencies, the dollar rose to 93.60 yen from 93.11 yen in New York late Thursday. The euro stood at $1.3357,little moved from $1.3356.

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