Mexico's trade deficit for October was a higher-than-expected US$989 million, according to preliminary data released by the Finance Ministry on Friday. Preliminary estimates for exports in October were $14.455 billion, while imports were $15.444 billion, the ministry said.--REuters

Inflation in Germany, the biggest economy in the 12-country euro zone, slowed significantly in November, falling below the key level of 2.0 percent, preliminary data published by the Federal Statistics Office on Friday showed. The pan-German consumer price index (CPI) rose by 1.7 percent in November on a 12-month basis, comfortably below the 2.0-percent level recorded in October and viewed by the European Central Bank as the maximum tolerable level of inflation.--AFP

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh plans to ask the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for financial support to his country's economic reform program, a Yemeni official said on Friday. --Reuters

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Saturday it will give US$750,000 dollars in technical assistance to Papua New Guinea state institutions to improve management of a gas pipeline project. The ADB grant is designed, in part, to help identify feasible mechanisms to increase transparency and monitorability of revenue flows from the project and the public expenditure uses to which these revenues are allocated.--DPA

Some 2,000 people are falling into poverty every day in Argentina amid the country's ongoing financial crisis, according to a study by the private firm Equis. "Argentina makes 2,000 new poor people every day because of a three-year economic crisis that has hit the middle class especially hard," said sociologist Artemio Lopez, the firm's director upon presenting the study.--AFP