JP/17/money
JP/17/money
South Korea's trade surplus in September shrank to US$886 million from $1.8 billion a year earlier due to slowing exports, officials said Monday. September exports slumped 16.6 percent to $12.6 billion said the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. -- AFP
In a bid to cut pollution, the Singapore government said Monday that it will give tax rebates to owners of cars run on natural gas. The rebates will range from 5 percent to 20 percent of the vehicle's market value, plus a 20 percent cut in road tax, the environment ministry said in a statement. - AP
The IMF called on Monday for Thailand to cut interest rates to speed up the resolution of bad debts and help stimulate the economy as export industries suffer from the global economic slowdown. - Reuters
The Indian government has given the country's state-run airlines guarantees to cover war risk insurance for the next 15 days to prevent any disruption in their operations, an official said on Monday. -- Reuters
U.S. export orders for Thai frozen shrimps have ground to a halt since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, putting the industry in deep trouble, Paiboon Pholsuwan, president of Thailand Frozen Food Association, said Monday. Figures from the association show that during the first half of this year, Thailand exported 44,899 tons of frozen shrimp to United States worth about 20 billion baht (US$454 million) - about 55 percent of total frozen shrimp exports. - AP
The semiconductor output of Taiwan's "Silicon Valley" will fall 25 per cent due to a global slump and the terrorist attacks on the United States, a radio report said Monday. - DPA
Japan's new vehicle sales in September fell 4.1 percent from a year earlier to 371,318 autos as demand tumbled amid a prolonged economic slump, an industry association said Monday. "Sales fell due to Japan's weak economy," Susumu Ichinohe, a spokesman for the Japan Automobile Dealers Association, said. -- AFP
Philippine coconut oil exports fell to 101,000 tons in September compared with August's revised estimate of 146,090 tons, preliminary figures showed on Monday. The report of the United Coconut Associations of the Philippines (UCAP) said September's shipments were higher compared with actual exports of 91,344 tonnes in September 2000. --AFP
The Philippines is the world's largest exporter of coconut oil, with Europe and the United States as major buyers. Traders said shipping delays in July had bloated the export data in August. "The over 100,000-tonne export figure in September remains high considering that mills were saying that fresh arrivals of copra (from the farms) last month were slow," said one trader. Traders have said they observed a gradual slowing in production of copra, dried coconut meat from which oil is extracted, since the second quarter of this year. They attributed this to tree stress following very good harvests since last year. "Some traders could also be holding off deliveries in anticipation of better prices," said one trader, adding the market was expecting lower copra output next year compared with this year's projected output of between 2.2 million and 2.4 million tonnes. The Philippines produced 2.2 million tonnes of copra in 2000. EUROPE BOUGHT BULK An official of UCAP told Reuters the country shipped 57,000 tonnes of coconut oil to Europe last month, 37,250 tonnes to the United States, 5,500 tonnes to Malaysia, 750 tonnes to Taiwan and 500 tonnes to Japan. China, which bought big volumes in May and June, did not take any in September, said the official, who requested he not be identified. UCAP said the preliminary September data brought January to September shipments to 1.049 million tonnes, compared with actual exports of 665,452 tonnes a year earlier. UCAP, which represents coconut oil millers, refiners and traders, recently revised its full year 2001 export forecast to 1.281 million tonnes from an earlier forecast of 1.22 million. Actual exports of Philippine coconut oil for the whole of last year reached 1.037 million tonnes.