IN BRIEF

China inflation goal tough but reachable

BEIJING: China's 2010 inflation goal of three percent is tough but achievable, with good grain supplies and excess capacity helping keep prices down, while growth should hit eight or nine per cent, senior government advisers told a conference on Saturday. The chief economist of the National Bureau of Statistics, Yao Jingyuan, told the China High Level Development Forum that the government was battling a range of forces pushing up consumer prices this year a key concern in Beijing. Consumer prices rose 2.7 per cent in the year to February, up from 1.5 per cent in January and flirting with the government's three per cent target for 2010.

China predicts monthly trade deficit

BEIJING: China yesterday warned its export-dependent economy is likely to experience a trade deficit in March the first for a single month in six years. The announcement followed predictions by analysts of a slump in shipments by the world's biggest exporter compared with February, when factories cranked up production for April's Easter holiday. Commerce minister Chen Deming's remarks to the closed-door China Development Forum in Beijing were published by the state Xinhua news agency and People's Daily newspaper amid growing international pressure for the yuan to appreciate.

Google scored for China political agenda

BEIJING: China's state media yesterday accused Google Inc of pushing a political agenda by "groundlessly accusing the Chinese government" of supporting hacker attacks and by trying to export its own culture, values and ideas. In a commentary signed by three Xinhua writers, the state news agency also sought to defend the government's Internet censorship, which Google has cited as one reason the world's largest search engine may quit China. "Regrettably, Google's recent behaviours show that the company not just aims at expanding business in China, but is playing an active role in exporting culture, value and ideas.

India faces more interest rate hikes

MUMBAI: India's central bank looks set to tighten monetary policy further after raising interest rates for the first time in nearly two years as it bids to check spiralling inflation, economists say. In a move that surprised experts, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) hiked short-term rates from record lows late Friday to battle near double-digit annual inflation amid fast-strengthening industrial output. Expectations had been for a rate hike at the bank's scheduled policy review on April 20 but the RBI said in a statement that inflation had "been a source of growing concern".

Bangladesh too cheap for some brands

DHAKA: The process of outsourcing production by Western companies is all about finding cheap labour to cut costs. But in Bangladesh, some retail groups are finding the wages too low for comfort. As Chinese labour prices increase, Western giants such as Wal-Mart and H&M are increasingly shifting production to factories in Bangladesh where some have found themselves on the same side as the unions in an unusual alliance. "It's absolutely unacceptable that minimum wages are just US$25," the Dhaka-based head of a top Western store, speaking on condition of anonymity, said. In January, buyers including Wal-Mart, H&M, French giant Carrefour and Levi Strauss wrote to the prime minister saying that "below the poverty line wages... contributed to unrest" among workers and should be addressed. Current minimum wages "do not meet the basic needs of the workers and their families," the letter said.Agencies