Business News In Brief

Business News In Brief

Rubber futures prices mixed

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore's rubber futures prices ended mixed
during fair trading, dealers said yesterday.

Dealers said that the holiday period in Japan dampened market
sentiment.

"Prices of TSR 20 were down slightly since cheaper SIR was
coming out of Indonesia today," a dealer said.

Dealers said prices of RSS 1 and RSS 3 sheets, however, firmed
slightly.

Manufacturers successfully bid for 60 tons of July TSR 20 at
154.00 Singapore cents and 360 tons of August TSR 20 at 152.50
Singapore cents, dealers said.

Dealers said that 1,625 tons of June RSS 1 was traded at
153.75 Singapore cents while 1,300 tons of July RSS 1 was traded
at 154.00 Singapore cents.

June RSS 3 was traded at 96.75 U.S. cents for 425 tons while
700 tons of July RSS 3 was traded at 95.50 U.S. cents, dealers
said.

At around 0930 GMT Basis June RSS 1 was quoted at 153.00
Singapore cents, RSS 3 at 96.75 U.S. cents and TSR 20 at 161.50
Singapore cents.

Bundesbank cuts repo rate

FRANKFURT (AFP): The Bundesbank withdrew a net 2.2 billion
marks from the banking circuit yesterday by means of securities
repurchase arrangements, and again shaved the marginal repo rate,
now at 5.41 percent.

The central bank accorded commercial banks 77 billion marks
under a 14-day arrangement at the marginal rate of 5.41 percent,
six hundredths of a percentage point less than the previous
week's.

A previous repurchase arrangement for 79.2 billion marks
meanwhile fell due Wednesday.

This Wednesday's repurchase was accorded at prevailing rates
of 5.41-5.43 percent, against 5.50-5.51 percent a week
previously, in a continuation of the Bundesbank's policy of very
gradually bringing down its interest rates.

The central bank met 83 percent of tenders at the rate of 5.41
percent, the lowest rate accepted. The commercial banks had
requested a total liquidity of 110.2 billion marks. The
arrangement falls due May 18.

Asian airlines to meet

COLOMBO (AFP): Sri Lanka is to host a conference next month to
address problems faced by airlines in the Asian region, a
spokesman for the organizing committee said yesterday.

The conference on "Air Transport in Asia" from June 20 to June
24 will discuss regulatory and legal aspects and the radical
transformation of air transport trends and patterns in the
region, the spokesman said.

The meeting was being organized at a time Asian economies were
expanding at a tremendous pace, he said.

"It is estimated that East Asia's economic level would equal
that of Europe by the year 2000," he said.

"It is appropriate that the many issues faced by airlines in
this region in general, and particularly airlines of developing
countries in the Asian region, be discussed with a view to
identifying common problems," the spokesman said.

The conference will be attended by about 100 participants,
mostly from airlines and regulatory bodies in the region.

Vietnam's oil output up

HANOI (AFP): Vietsovpetro, the only company producing crude
oil from Vietnam's off-shore fields, said yesterday it expects
record production from its fields this year as new wells come on
stream.

The joint venture with Russia -- it was set up with the former
Soviet Union in 1986 -- is aiming to produce 6.9 million tons of
crude this year, up 600,000 tons from last year, the Vietnam News
Agency said.

It said output for the three months to March had already
exceeded first quarter targets by one percent, but did not give
figures.

Preparation was underway to start production this year on the
Dragon oil field, adjacent to Vietsovpetro's White Tiger field,
the only oil producing area in Vietnam.

Two rigs have been set up and five wells drilled in
preparation for the start of production later this year, the
official news agency said.

Vietsovpetro has already pumped 14 million tons of oil from
the White Tiger field, off the southern coast, and expects the
area to produce 50 million tons by 2000.

Turkish inflation soars

ISTANBUL (Reuter): Turkish inflation, fueled by state sector
price rises and a tumbling lira, roared into three digits for the
first time in more than a decade, the State Institute of
Statistics announced yesterday.

The annual inflation figure has not exceeded 100 percent in
Turkey since 1980 when the military staged a coup aimed at
stopping political violence and economic chaos.

Consumer price inflation jumped 24.7 percent in April, against
5.2 percent in March. That pushed the 12-month rate to 107.4
percent from 74.3 percent the previous month.

Wholesale prices soared 32.8 percent, sending the year-on-year
wholesale inflation rate to 125.3 percent.

The surge in inflation followed sharp increases in the prices
of fuel and other public sector goods announced on April 5 as
part of Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's austerity package.

Ciller, struggling with an economic crisis that erupted in
mid-January when the lira was devalued 12 percent, had held back
price rises until after nationwide local elections on March 27.

Wages in Asian tigers

TOKYO (AFP): Wages in Asia's newly industrialized economies
(NIEs), such as Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan,
were less than half the wages in the United States in 1991, an
official report released yesterday showed.

Manufacturing sector wages in Taiwan, the highest among the
NIEs, stood at 40 percent in nominal terms three years ago of
manufacturing wages in the United States.

Manufacturing job pay in Singapore, the lowest of the NIEs,
was only 37 percent of the U.S. pay, the Japanese Labor Ministry
report said.

But overall wages in Germany were 122 percent of those in the
United States in nominal terms.

Canadian pay was 109 percent of U.S. pay, and Japanese wages
were 108 percent of the U.S. standard, the report said. On the
same scale, French wages were 79 percent.