China’s trade surplus

BEIJING: China will work harder to cut the nation’s fast-expanding trade surplus, a day after data showed the balance hit an all-time high in June. “We will continue to take measures to reduce the trade surplus and expand imports so as to realise more balanced trade,”

ministry spokesman said. — AFP

Consumer sentiment

SYDNEY: Australian consumer sentiment slipped slightly in July but remains near all-time highs. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index fell by 0.6 per cent to 120.8 points, its second monthly drop since a record high of 123.9 points in May. Westpac chief economist said there was good reason for consumer sentiment to remain high in July. — AFP

Inflation less sensitive

WASHINGTON: US inflation has become less sensitive to energy price spikes than decades ago because the public has a better sense that prices are ‘anchored,’ Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said. Speaking in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bernanke said the idea of an inflationary spiral sparked by an energy price spike is less likely because of a public realisation that these swings are temporary. — AFP

• BIZ BRIEFS

More states use euro

BRUSSELS: EU finance ministers have decided that Cyprus and Malta can adopt the euro as of January 1, 2008. Following the decision taken Tuesday, 15 of the 27 EU member states will have the common European currency, euro, from January. The ministers also fixed the rates at which the Cypriot pound and the Maltese lira will be converted into the euro. The Cyprus pound will be replaced at the rate of 0.585274 to the euro, and the Maltese lira will be replaced at 0.429300 to the euro. — HNS

Revenue declining

JANAKPUR: The internal revenue of the Dhanusa district development committee has been decreasing regularly each year. Internal revenue was around Rs 8.75 million in the fiscal year 2060-61 BS but dropped to Rs 6.65 million in the fiscal year 2061-62 BS and Rs 4.33 million in 2062-63 BS. Similarly the revenue collected from woolen products, herbs, wastages, stone, sand and the materials produced from dead animals (except restricted animal and birds) like bone, horn, feather, skin has also been decreasing regularly. — RSS