SBI rate down to 16.61 percent
SBI rate down to 16.61 percent JP/16/Money
JAKARTA: The weighted average interest rate on one-month SBI promissory notes fell, the central bank said Wednesday.
The one-month SBI notes stood at 16.61 percent at the weekly auction Wednesday, compared with 16.64 percent at last week's auction, Bank Indonesia said.
Bank Indonesia also said it accepted Rp 24.00 trillion (US$2.5 billion) in bids at the auction, or 73.1 percent of total bids.
Indonesia has been cutting rates to help reduce the cost on the government of funding its budget deficit.
But lowering rates much more isn't an option for Indonesia while Indonesian inflation remains high. Inflation in March grew 14.08 percent on year. -- Dow Jones
EU expects 2.9% growth in 2003
BRUSSELS: The European Commission, in its spring economic forecasts, said Wednesday it expected the 12-nation euro zone to grow by an average of 1.4 percent this year, and 2.9 percent in 2003.
It also looked forward to 1.8 million new jobs being created in the euro zone over the next two years, while inflation would remain close to 2.0 percent both this year and next.
"A gradual recovery is shaping up as confidence returns, depleted inventories are rebuilt and international trade picks up," the commission said in a statement.
The recovery will build momentum in the first half of this year, thanks to private consumption, and accelerate further in the second half, it said.
"An average growth of close to 3.0 percent is forecast for next year," it added. An accompanying table put the growth rate more precisely at 1.4 percent for this year, and 2.9 percent for 2003. -- AFP
Korea sees Japan free trade talks soon
NEW YORK: Japan and South Korea could begin governmental talks in a little over a year for the most ambitious bilateral free trade agreement in Asia, a top South Korean financial diplomat said on Tuesday
Taking their first step toward a free trade agreement, Japan and South Korea signed an accord on March 22 to boost mutual direct investment for the two countries whose economies comprise make up about two-thirds of Asia's economy.
Under the agreement, they will form a bilateral panel comprising officials, business leaders and academics to study the idea of the free trade agreement.
"The dialogue will take more than a year. On the basis of the result ... we may take the appropriate government initiative for launching the negotiations for a free trade agreement," Kim Yong- duk, South Korea's Finance Ministry's deputy minister for international affairs, said at an Asian development conference in New York. -- Reuters
China to open up US$1.5t trade market
REUTERS: China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) would open up trade opportunities worth at least US$1.5 trillion in the next five years, Vice President Hu Jintao said Wednesday.
Hu, who arrived here Tuesday for the first leg of a three- nation tour that will also take him to the United States, allayed concerns that China's rising economic might was a threat to Asia.
"Now that China is in the WTO, it will surely provide a much broader market and many more abundant business opportunities to the rest of Asia," he said in a special address at a public forum here.
"In the next five years, a more open China will provide its trading partners with opportunities of at least $1.5 trillion worth of goods."
China's service industry would also be opened gradually to foreign investors, he said. -- Reuters