Latest Economy of Asia Stories

By Keith Bradsher and Heather Timmons Throngs of depositors lined up Wednesday outside the headquarters and branches of Bank of East Asia here to withdraw their money, underlining widespread public nervousness in Asia that Wall Street's recent difficulties might spread across the Pacific. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the bank denied that there was any basis to rumors that the bank was in financial distress. Bank of East Asia, with $51 billion in assets, said "malicious rumors"...

By Steve Dube WEWERE always taught that the price of bread fuelled the French revolution - particularly when Queen Marie Antoinette, told that people could no longer afford it, replied: "Let them eat cake." Now we are told that the era of cheap food is over - and the era of cheap money for those who already have vast amounts of it also seems to be at an end. But we may be talking too soon. The money-go-round manipulators are not done yet. And it looks as though we are...

Hyundai Motor has announced that it will invest about $600 million to build a new 100,000 unitsayear plant in Piracicaba City of the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. The new plant will be Hyundai's seventh overseas production base. The company said that the new plant in Brazil will enable it to respond quickly to competition from Toyota and Honda, which are also seeking to build production facilities in Brazil. Hyundai's new plant, which aims to begin production in 2011, may directly and...

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/668390/united_arab_emirat) has announced the addition of the "United Arab Emirates Food and Drink Report Q3 2008" report to their offering. The United Arab Emirates Food and Drink Report provides independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on United Arab Emirates' food and drink industry. How to deal with rising food prices is once again the main concern for the UAE's government and food and drink industry, as...

By Lindsay McIntosh Farmers and consumers will be counting the cost of this summer's bad weather, writes Lindsay McIntosh THE overnight flood devastated the farm at Belford on Bowmont, churning up surrounding roads, ripping through fences and propelling terrified animals through mangled fields. In the sodden aftermath, farmer Richard Mather began to put back together the land and infrastructure which his father had built up in the Scottish Borders. In total, he estimated the damage to run...

Text of article in English by Muhsen Nazari entitled "Further food price hikes expected" published by independent Afghan newspaper Kabul Weekly on 10 September The cost of food and fuel in Afghanistan shot up this year with some items even doubling in price from last year. Now importers are warning the government of a further 30 per cent rise by the end of the year. Last December the government of Pakistan stopped the private sector from exporting wheat to Afghanistan after the increase in...

Text of report by economic desk entitled "Trade Minister's request to reporters: Do not provoke the market by speaking about high prices" published in Iranian newspaper Aftab-e Yazd on 8 September 2008 Instability in prices [of commodities] has upset the market even as some officials are vehemently denying rise in prices and attempts are made to downplay the harmful effects [of price rises] on people in real life. While the Central Bank has officially stated that the price of many goods...

By LUCY WEST FOOD prices will remain high over the long-term in Britain and around the world, the Prime Minister's chief scientific adviser warned. Professor John Beddington said that, while there may be a slight reduction in prices over the next few years, he predicted it would not be enough to bring supermarket bills down to the levels of a few years ago. His warning comes as experts say the era of falling food prices is over and households will have to get used to spending more of...

A typical trolley of food has risen in price by 8.3 per cent since the beginning of the year, new figures show.The price of meat and fish was up 22.9 per cent since January, while the cost of fresh fruit and vegetables was up 14.7 per cent, a study for the BBC by retail analysts Verdict Research found.Seven individual items were up in price by more than 40 per cent. A pack of four croissants was up 47.4 per cent, bolognese pasta was up 46.2 per cent, 125g of ham was up 45.4 per cent, and...

Text of report in English by South Korean news agency Yonhap Seoul, 2 September: South Korea's state-run oil company is reviewing a joint venture proposal to develop the west Kamchatka oil field with a Russian counterpart, government and industry sources said Tuesday. Sources at the Ministry for Knowledge Economy and the oil industry said the proposal by Rosneft, Russia's state-run oil company, comes after Kamchatneftegaz (KNG) - the South Korean- Russian consortium - lost its operating...