Economic recovery

TOKYO: Japan’s economic recovery is expected to stay on track with consumer prices now rising after years of deflation. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) chief told an annual convention of an association of trust banks that the economy is continuing to rebound steadily, helped by rising exports, corporate profits and household spending. Speculation is that BoJ will scrap near-zero borrowing costs after last month abandoning its five-year anti-deflation monetary policy of flooding the banking system with cash. — AFP

Singapore exports up

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s main exports in March rose by 16.8 per cent from a year earlier led by pharmaceuticals and electronics, underpinning the city-state’s robust economic growth projections this year. While the NODX figure was below market expecations, economists said it was strong enough to support the official 9.1 per cent preliminary estimate for first-quarter growth as well as forecasts for the entire year. — AFP

Industrial output dips

TOKYO: Japan’s February industrial output fell a revised 1.2 per cent from January, less than previously thought. Industrial production was up by 3.9 per cent from a year earlier. In an initial estimate released last month, it had reported a 1.7 per cent drop in output in February and a year-on-ye-ar gain of 3.7 per cent. Revision was the result of changes to calculation methods. Shipments in February declined by two per cent from January. Inventories rose by 0.2 per cent. — AFP

TGD nearly complete

YICHANG: Thirteen years after construction began on the controversial Three Gorges Dam (TDG) on China’s biggest river, work on the project often compared to the Great Wall in its scale is nearly complete. The first pickaxe fell in 1993, when access roads were built to the site on the 6,360-km-long Yangtze River that runs from the Himalayan plateau in Tibet to the East China Sea near Sha-nghai. Besides generating massive hydroelectricity, the dam has been designed to control the flooding. — AFP

Refinery operational

CARACAS: Venezuela’s Cardon oil refinery was partially back online on Sunday, two days after a power outage idled the 300,000-barrel-a-day facility. The refinery was producing 200,000-barrel-a-day with five of seven crude-processing units back in service, Petroleos de Venezuela SA said. Cardon’s alkylation unit, which makes components necessary for high-octane petrol exports, was running at 75 per cent capacity. — AP

Learning production

TOYOTA: At a centre for teaching Toyota production methods, workers from around the world learn bolt-tightening by moving dance-like to a metronome and practice paint jobs by studying videos of their performance. “It comes from experience. The body knows how to learn,” says Kazuo Hyodo, a 30-year veteran on the assembly line. — AP

Airlines ink accord

HANOI: Vietnam Airlines and American Airlines began their code-sharing agreement. A Vietnam Airlines said implementation of the code-sharing agreement allows the Vietnamese carrier to boost its image in the global transportation markets. — AP

No food scarcity: NFC

KATHMANDU: The Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) has assured that there would be no shortage in supply of rice despite the ongoing protest programmes in Kathmandu. According to Prabhat Chandra Pandey, deputy general manager, there is a stock of at least 100 quintals of rice in the capital at the moment. — RSS

China, Myanmar pact

BEIJING: China’s planning ministry has approved an oil pipeline linking Myanmar’s deep-water port of Sittwe to Kunming in the landlocked southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan. The National Development and Reform Commission gave the green light to the project at the beginning of April. The long-expected pipeline would provide an alternative route for China’s crude imports from the Middle East and Africa. — AFP

Union row continues

FRANKFURT: Union and industry leaders showed no signs of compromising in their competing demands Monday as a dispute over pay for German manufacturing workers headed into what could be a decisive week. The IG Metall union is seeking a five per cent raise for about 3.4 million workers across Germany — and has threatened to go on strike if its demand is not met. — AP

Turkey’s debt falls

ANKARA: Turkey’s net public debt fell to 55.8 per cent of GDP in 2005 in another indication of the country’s economic recovery. The net public debt stood at 63.5 per cent of GNP in 2004, 70.4 per cent in 2003 and 78.5 per cent in 2002, a year after a severe financial crisis hit the country. — AFP

Portuguese CPI up

LISBON: Portuguese consumer prices index (CPI) edged up by 0.5 per cent in March from February and by 3.1 per cent compared to last Ma-rch. The index of consumer prices, which allows for a comparison among eurozone members, showed a hike of 0.5 per cent in March. — AFP