RI budget deficit at Rp 4.3t in H1

RI budget deficit at Rp 4.3t in H1

JAKARTA: Indonesia's government recorded a budget deficit of roughly Rp 4.3 trillion (about US$523 million) during the first half of the year, a government official said Thursday.

Anshari Ritonga, director general for state budget at the finance ministry, told reporters the government's expenditures amounted to Rp 139.3 trillion in the January-June period, while revenues reached Rp 135 trillion.

He didn't elaborate.

The government is projecting the state budget deficit to reach Rp 34 trillion this year, or 1.8 percent of gross domestic product. State spending usually accelerates in the last quarter of the year.

Indonesia's fiscal deficit is expected to narrow to 1 percent of GDP next year.

The government finances its deficit with offshore borrowings and proceeds from asset sales. -- Dow Jones

UN ups minimum wage for seafarers

GENEVA: The United Nations labor organization said on Wednesday it had agreed to increase the monthly minimum wage for seafarers to US$500 from $465 with effect from the start of 2005.

The decision, taken at a meeting of the Joint Maritime Commission of the International Labour Organization (ILO), is not mandatory for any particular state unless its government chooses to enshrine it in legislation.

However the wage, which reflects price changes and exchange rates versus the U.S. dollar in 49 maritime countries, is widely used by shipowners and trade unions in setting wage scales.

Around 60 percent of the world's seafarers, including catering and hotel staff on passenger ships, come from a group of just 10 nations, which include the Philippines, Indonesia, China and India. --Reuters

China's exports, production soar

BEIJING: China shrugged off the effects on its economy from the SARS epidemic with strong production and soaring exports in the first half of the year, official statistics showed Thursday.

Exports jumped 34 percent year-on-year and imports skyrocketed by 44.5 percent, the trade ministry reported on its website.

China's industrial output rose a healthy 16.2 percent year-on- year in the first half to 1.83 trillion yuan (US$217 billion), despite slowing in April and May due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the State Statistical Bureau said.

"Exports growth is driving manufacturing," said Andy Xie, Morgan Stanley's chief economist in Hong Kong.

June industrial output rose 16.9 percent year-on-year to 363.3 billion yuan as garment makers to petroleum processors rebounded after the SARS outbreak.

"Production at those industries that were relatively hard-hit by SARS showed clear recovery," the bureau said. -- AFP

BoK cuts call rate to boost growth

SEOUL: South Korea's central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point Thursday to 3.75 percent amid deepening concern over the sluggish economy, with forecasts for growth also reduced substantially.

The Bank of Korea (BoK) had lowered its overnight lending rate by a quarter-point in May to boost corporate investment or consumption but the situation appears to have got worse since then.

BoK governor Park Seung said that concerns about an economic slowdown outweighed the risk of encouraging a bubble in property prices.

"Prices and the current account are not a big concern but the economic slump is deepening, aggravating the job market. It remains uncertain when the recovery will come ... in the third or fourth quarter," Park said. -- AFP

U.S. sets conditions for talks

WASHINGTON: The United States has told Taiwan it will henceforth link high-level trade talks with the island's progress on intellectual property rights (IPRs), the State Department said Wednesday.

"We've conveyed to Taiwan authorities that we will evaluate requests for senior level economic meetings in light of needs for progress on issues of concern," State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.

In May the U.S. Trade Representative placed the island on a special watchlist of countries where IPRs were inadequately protected for a third straight year.

"We have had concerns about Taiwan's poor record on protection of intellectual property rights ," Reeker said. "Those concerns led the U.S. to again place Taiwan on the priority watch list on that subject." -- AFP