lersus

BANGKOK, June 17 (Xinhua) — Thailand\’s revenue collection during the first eight months for fiscal year 2010 stood at 957.33 billion baht (29.528 billion U.S. dollars), Satit Rangkasiri, Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) Director, said on Thursday.

The figure was 26.1 percent year on year higher in light of improved consumption-base taxes and imported goods, the Thai News Agency (TNA) quoted Satit as saying.

Also, the revenue collection was largely bolstered after 49.016 billion baht (1.511 billion U.S. dollars) worth of seized assets of ousted former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was transferred to the government, Satit explained.

On Feb. 26, the Supreme Court handed down a verdict ruling that the seized assets of Thaksin would be confiscated since they were gained through malpractice during Thaksin\’s premiership.

Thaksin was ousted by the military coup in September 2006 in accusation of corruption and kept in exile since then. Thaksin returned to Thailand in February 2008 to face corruption charges, but he later fled into exile again and was convicted in absentia.

BRASILIA, May 31 (Xinhua) — The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on Monday forecast that the region\’s economic growth this year would remain below levels of the past five years.

The instability of the international market was still significant and, even with the recovery in China, the region\’s main economic partner, the imbalance of the U.S. and European Union economies should affect Latin American countries, said ECLAC Deputy Executive Secretary Antonio Prado at the organization\’s 33rd session here.

\”It is necessary to consider that there would be no further improvement of the major economies of the world, nor all the consequences have appeared already. Certainly the market volatility of the U.S. and European countries affect the economies of Latin American and Caribbean countries. The extent is not clear, but it will affect (us),\” he said.

Prado said that, in the six years before the global financial crisis, Latin America and the Caribbean countries managed to grow at unprecedented levels, with a fall in poverty from 44 percent to 33 percent of the population.

However, about nine million people who had escaped poverty returned to it as a result of the crisis.

ECLAC presented the document \”Time for Equality. Closing Gaps, Opening Trails,\” which recommends greater involvement of governments in the economy and public policies for income distribution and promotion of equality.

The text states that tax treaties, established between public and private sectors, should be aimed at income redistribution as well as overcoming the enormous structural diversity, giving the government greater ability to redistribute resources.\”

By Vienna Ma

CANBERRA, June 10 (Xinhua) — Australia\’s latest job figures showing a drop in the unemployment rate to 5.2 percent was evidence of a strengthening economy that successfully avoided a recession, Australian federal Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Thursday.

The unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent in May, returning to a level seen last in January, as 36,400 workers gained full-time employment, new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted fall in unemployment compared to a rate of 5.4 percent in both March and April.

The number of people employed in May rose by a seasonally adjusted 26,900, reflecting a jump in full-time employment that was partly offset by a fall in part-time workers.

\”These are great figures for Australia,\” Swan told Fairfax Radio Network in Perth, adding he had told a recent G20 meeting in South Korea that Australia\’s unemployment rate was further evidence of a strong economy and the success last year of avoiding the global recession.

\”As we go forward and continue to grow we do need to continue to reform our economy so we can create jobs and grow sustainably by infrastructure investment,\” Swan said.

However, such buoyancy in the labor market raised the risk of a further interest rate rise, although economists expect the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to wait until at least August before moving again.

The interest rate decision would follow the release of the June quarter consumer price index in late July.

\”Tightening labor market conditions will be a growing concern for the RBA,\” JP Morgan economist Helen Kevans said.

The fall in the jobless rate was led by a sharp drop to 5.2 percent in state New South Wales from 5.7 percent in April.

Western Australia also saw a fall to 4.1 percent from 4.6 percent, while in South Australia it declined to 5.3 percent from 5.6 percent.

Falls were also recorded in Queensland to 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent, the Northern Territory to 2.9 percent from 3.0 percent and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) to 3.3 percent from 3.4 percent.

Against the trend, the unemployment rate rose in Victoria to 5. 4 percent from 5.3 percent and in Tasmania it was 6.0 percent, up from 5.9 percent.

Victoria has been the only mainland Australian state to record a rise.

Victorian Treasurer John Lenders said of the 27,000 new jobs created across the nation in May, 12,900 were in Victoria.

\”Victoria remains the engine room of the nation in job generation,\” Lenders told the parliament.

\”This state\’s economic growth has been stronger, stronger than the rest of this country, through actions of this government taken through a global financial crisis.\”

Lenders said of the 113,900 jobs created in Victoria in the past year, 70 percent were full-time positions.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the latest data means that Australia is outperforming every other advanced economy in the world.

LONDON, June 16 (Xinhua) — The unemployment rate in Britain for the three months to April has declined by 0.1 percentage point to 7.9 percent comparing with the three months to March, the Office for National Statistics reported Wednesday.

The office said the number of unemployed people in the country had increased by 23,000 in the three month to April over the previous quarter to 2.47 million, but was down slightly compared with the 2.51 million jobless in the three months to March.

The jobless number for more than 12 months also increased by 85,000 in the three months to April over the previous quarter and reached 772,000, the highest since the three months to April in 1997.

However, the number of jobless unemployed for up to six months fell by 42,000 to 1.17 million in the three months to April compared with the previous quarter, the office added.

HANOI, June 14 (Xinhua) — Vietnamese Minister of Finance Vu Van Ninh issued a document to ask authorities across the country to implement four major financial and fiscal tasks this year.

According to a report from the Ministry of Finance on Monday, the first task is aimed at tightening state control over prices of coal and electricity and keeping them stable till the end of the year and closely monitoring prices of petroleum products and other input materials.

The second task is that taxation and customs authorities must ensure state budget revenues to increase by five percent of the year\’s target.

Thirdly, state budget spending must be effective and efficient.

As for the last one, Ninh requested ministries, sectors and authorities across Vietnam to coordinate with the finance ministry to keep close watch on the local financial, stock and insurance markets to ensure macroeconomic stability.

Tight supervision over securities, investment funds, and insurance companies will be a must, the report said.

TOKYO, June 16 (Xinhua) — The Bank of Japan (BOJ) on Wednesday said that the nation\’s economy is showing further signs of recovery on the back of a continued upturn in exports and production as overseas demand increases.

The central bank said in its monthly report on financial and economic developments that as economic circumstances continued to improve overseas, domestic production and export levels have increased commensurately to meet the demand.

According to the report production and exports in Japan will likely continue, however the pace of the increase may moderate gradually.

\”The uptrend in exports and production is expected to continue, reflecting continued improvement in overseas economic conditions, although the pace of increase is likely to moderate gradually,\” the BOJ said maintaining its assessment that Japan\’s economy is likely to recover \”at a moderate pace.\”

Japan\’s employment and income situation, the BOJ noted, remained \”severe,\” but according to the report, \”the degree of severity has eased somewhat.\”

The central bank expects public investment to continue to decline, but domestic demand to continue to improve but at a moderate pace due to firms\’ excessive capital stock and employment situations.

Improved corporate profits have been partially helped by the bank maintaining its super-low overnight call rate at 0.1 percent, although the bank said that the stimulative effects from low interest rates are still partly constrained.

Businesses view financial institutions\’ lending attitudes as harsh, the report said, however firms as a whole regard the situation as improving.

The BOJ announced Tuesday it intends to introduce a new funding initiative at the end of August aimed at encouraging banks to increase lending to industries with growth potential, such as the eco-tech, health and elderly care sectors.

The bank unveiled its plans to offer a total of 3 trillion yen (32.84 billion U.S. dollars) in loans to private banks to provide fiscal support for such economic growth areas, for a period of one year at a razor-thin interest rate of 0.1 percent a year.

As regards small businesses, many small firms still view their financial situations as weak, but the BOJ maintained that overall the actual financial positions of firms, including small ones, have continued to show signs of easing.

Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

CANBERRA, June 10 (Xinhua) — Europe\’s debt crisis has thrown a spanner in the works of a global economic recovery, but an independent forecaster on Thursday predicted Australia should still strengthen this year.

Access Economics said Australia sells more to emerging economies than to the \”rich world\”, so 2010 should see the broader economy rebound further.

This included the retail sector which, while having been restrained by rising interest rates, should be supported by very strong jobs growth.

Releasing its quarterly Access Retail Forecasts on Thursday, director David Rumbens said rising house prices and retail spending normally go hand-in-hand because of the increased wealth effect.

However, an inverse relationship has developed between the two in recent months as rising home loan costs have left less room in the household budget for shopping.

\”Retail sales growth over the nine months to March 2010 was just 0.3 percent, a less than satisfactory result,\” Rumbens said in his statement.

While rising interest rates has been hurting retailing, it should also take the \”zing\” out of house price growth, Rumbens said.

The strength of house prices has been a key reason for the rapid rise in rates, which have been lifted six times since last October.

In leaving the cash rate unchanged last week, the Reserve Bank of Australia said lending rates were now around \’normal\’, suggesting there may now be a pause in hiking rates.

\”Escalating fears over Europe\’s debt levels will cement that in, \” Rumbens said.

\”That may allow underlying income gains from jobs growth to play a stronger role in supporting a lift in retail sales through the course of 2010 and 2011.\”

He said jobs growth had been impressive with more than 250,000 positions created between August 2009 and April 2010, an annualized growth rate of 3.5 percent.

More than 70 percent of these jobs were full-time positions.

MANILA, June 10 (Xinhua) — Filipinos\’ consumer confidence in the next 12 months improved significantly as the country proclaimed its new president Wednesday, a survey conducted by the local central bank showed on Thursday.

Filipinos have favorable expectations over the fresh mandate which will be exercised by newly-elected national and local government officials, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

President-elect Benigno Aquino III will be sworn in on June 30 for a tenure of six years.

BSP said consumer confidence in the 12 months improved to 10 percent from 5.1 percent a quarter ago and -7.6 percent a year ago. The rebound in consumer confidence is similar with that of United States, China, Mexico, Hungary, Slovenia and Czech Republic.

From April to June, consumer sentiment however slightly weakened to -28.7 percent from the previous quarter\’s -27.6 amid concerns over the impact of the El Nino dry spell on the Philippine agriculture sector and the near-term uncertainties in the job market.

Notable about BSP\’s survey is that the improvement in consumer confidence over the next 12 months is reflected across all three income groups — low, middle, high — who believe that the economic condition of the country and their family\’s financial situation will be better.

This is a stark contrast to their current perception of the country\’s economic state which the high-income group had become less optimistic of, while both the low and middle income group view that their family financial situation has weakened, BSP\’s survey showed.

With the favorable outlook, the survey showed that Filipinos are seen to continue spending for big-ticket items, such as houses, consumer durables and motor vehicles.

\”The percentage of respondents that considered the current quarter as a favorable time to buy big-ticket items remained steady compared with the previous quarter. The broadly steady outlook of consumers on buying conditions for the second quarter ( will be) carried over to the next 12 months,\” BSP said.

Fewer households also expect their expenses on basic goods and services to go up in the third quarter, an outlook mostly consistent with the government\’s expectations of a lower inflation for this year, BSP said.

AMMAN, June 9 (Xinhua) — Jordan\’s budget deficit during the first four months of 2010 amounted to about 30.4 million Jordanian dinars (about 43 million U.S. dollars) compared to 325.8 million dinars the same period last year, official figures showed Wednesday.

The kingdom\’s budget deficit without foreign assistance reached 134 million dinars during the January-April period compared to 370. 1 million dinars of the same period last year, according to the figures released by Jordan\’s Finance Ministry obtained by Xinhua.

Domestic revenues in the first four months of 2010 amounted to about 1.559 billion dinars compared to 1.512 billion dinars in the same period of 2009, according to the figures.

Foreign aid during the January-April period amounted to 103.6 million dinars, while it reached 44.3 million dinars in the same period of 2009, according to the ministry\’s figures.

Total expenditure during the first four months reached 1.693 billion dinars compared to 1.882 billion dinars during the same period of 2009, the figures indicated.

The figures also indicated that Jordan\’s overall public debt stood at about 9.725 billion dinars during the January-April period of this year compared to 9.660 billion dinars during the same period of last year.

Of the total public debt in the January-April period, about 5. 903 billion dinars is internal debt. (1 U.S. dollar = 0.709 Jordanian dinar)

BANGKOK, June 9 (Xinhua) — The Bank of Thailand\’s (BOT) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) may revise up its gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection for 2010 during a meeting on June 14, committee member Praipol Khumsap said on Tuesday.

It is possible the GDP rate could be lifted from the current 4. 3-5.8 percent to as much as six percent if there is no more political turmoil and the problems of public debt in Europe and Hungary have no impact on the global economy, the Bangkok Post\’s website quoted Praipol as saying.

Even if the GDP growth rate contracted in the second quarter ( April-June) due to the recent political unrest, it would substantially expand during quarter 3-4, he said.

Therefore, it is possible the Thai economy would grow by six percent for the whole 2010.

Also, the MPC\’s benchmark repurchase rate (RP) is likely to be raised during the MPC meeting if there is no additional risk factor, he said.

\”If the economic situation in Europe improves and domestic political crisis is over, the MPC could consider raising the policy rate and adjusting its GDP growth projection,\” Paibul Kittisrikangwan, BOT assistant governor for monetary policy echoed Praipol\’s remark.

The MPC\’s benchmark repurchase rate (RP) currently stands at 1. 25 percent.