China

The International Monetary Fund said most Asian economies are facing a weak recovery next year from a sharp contraction this year and should boost spending to help offset struggling global export demand, The Associated Press reported. Asia's collective economic growth will likely slow to 1.3 percent this year from 5.1 percent last year, before expanding 4.3 percent in 2010, the IMF said in a report. Excluding China and India, Asian economies will contract 2.9 percent this year and grow 1.6 percent next year, the fund predicted.

Diluting Chinese savings to bail out America’s failing banks and bankrupt households, though highly beneficial to the US national interest in the short term, will destroy the dollar’s global status, the Financial Times reported. America’s policy is pushing China towards developing an alternative financial system. For the past two decades China’s entry into the global economy rested on making cheap labour available to multi-nationals and pegging the renminbi to the dollar.

The holding company for Norwegian-based tape storage company Tandberg Data filed for bankruptcy in its home country court on April 24 after it could not cover a loan payment to New York City-based Cyrus Capital, eWeek reported. Tandberg, a major OEM for both IBM and Hewlett-Packard, becomes the first major storage supplier to file for bankruptcy protection since the recession began last summer. As a result of the legal action, Cyrus Capital will acquire the assets of the company and become majority owner. The new operational HQ for the company will be in Dortmund, Germany.

China’s government is considering additional stimulus measures to boost consumption and bolster growth just as the nation shows more signs of recovering, Bloomberg reported. The government will issue some “guideline” policies and continue to use fiscal and taxation measures to spur an expansion, the official China Securities Journal reported today, citing Gao Huiqing, a researcher at the State Information Center as saying on April 11.

The Russian factory known as Avtovaz is one of the least efficient automobile factories anywhere in the world--each worker produces, on average, eight cars a year, compared with 36 cars a year at General Motors’ assembly line in Bowling Green, Ky., for example. Yet the government is giving Avtovaz billions of dollars in aid, no strings attached, The New York Times reported. “The key issue is too much government protection,” Yegor T. Gaidar, a former prime minister, said.

Chinese restaurant Canton Wok in Joo Chiat has closed and its chef-owner Ang Song Kang, popularly known as Chef Kang, has had to file for bankruptcy after a failed business venture in China, The Straits Times reported. The 44-year-old chef tells Life! he invested in a Guangzhou motor and machine oil plant in 2005 with two Chinese nationals. He had known one of them for about three years. He invested $200,000 of his savings in the business and got a 25 per cent stake in it.

Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. said it will defend itself in court against claims it misled the market in 2004 over agreements with three Chinese government-backed entities, The Wall Street Journal reported. The long-awaited court case, brought against Fortescue by the Australian corporate watchdog, begins next week and is expected to last about five weeks.

China Minmetals Nonferrous Metals Co. is offering US$1.21 billion for most of the assets of OZ Minerals Ltd. in a deal designed to win Australian government approval, prompting the debt-laden miner's lenders to grant it an extension on its outstanding loans, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Delphi Corp. will sell its brakes-and-suspension business to BeijingWest Industries Co. as part of the auto supplier's ongoing turnaround plan, Dow Jones reported. Delphi, which has been in bankruptcy protection since October 2005, is General Motors Corp.'s largest supplier and has been slammed by the recession and the steep drop in demand for new vehicles. Delphi agreed earlier this month to sell its global steering business to GM as a critical move in both companies' restructuring.

Debt-ridden Chinese carrier East Star Airlines, grounded by the government earlier this month, faces liquidation, the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday. Six creditors of East Star Airlines have asked a court in the central city of Wuhan to start liquidation proceedings against the privately-run carrier, Xinhua said, citing unnamed city officials. It did not name the creditors but said the carrier's 16 bank accounts had been frozen by the court.