Chinese central bank researcher says second quarter economic growth might top 7.5 percent

October 14th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that economic activity in the US has picked up over the last few months and will continue improving through next year. But the recovery will not be strong enough to lower unemployment, which currently sits at a 28-year high of 9.8 percent, according to minutes of the central bank's last board meeting in September.

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - India registered a 6.1 percent economic growth during the first quarter of this fiscal (April-June), even as the manufacturing sector's output expanded by a relatively lower rate of 3.4 percent, official statistics said Monday. The farm sector registered a 2.4 percent growth during the period under review, while services industries logged the maximum expansion of over 8 percent, showed the data on national income released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO).

July 28th, 2009 China says inflation might revive in second halfBEIJING — Inflation in China might pick up in the second half of the year after a five-month decline in prices, the central bank said Tuesday. Economists have warned that Beijing's massive stimulus spending might ignite a rise in politically sensitive consumer inflation.

July 23rd, 2009 Canada's central banks says recession overOTTAWA — Canada's central bank is declaring the recession essentially over, saying Canada's economy will begin growing this summer after nine months of stagnation and lead most of the industrialized world next year. Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said Thursday the economy will grow this quarter.

July 15th, 2009 China's foreign reserves rise to $2.13 trillionBEIJING — China's foreign reserves rose to $2.13 trillion at the end of June despite a trade slump, data showed Wednesday, and analysts said that suggested the flow of foreign money into stocks and real estate was rising. The reserves, already the world's largest, expanded by 17.8 percent or $186 billion over the first half of the year, the central bank said.

July 8th, 2009 China says June bank lending doubles from MayBEIJING — China's bank lending in June more than doubled from the previous month as Beijing's stimulus drove a surge in credit that has prompted concern about the possible impact of such a rapid increase. Chinese banks lent 1.5 trillion yuan ($220 billion) in June, the central bank reported on its Web site Wednesday.

June 19th, 2009 LONDON - The Chinese economy, hit very severely by the global economic crisis, could dip one more time if the government does not roll out structural reforms that would seek to curb 20 years of excessive dependence on exports, a leading Chinese economist has warned. Delivering a speech at the London School of Economics Thursday, Yu Yongding, director general of the Institute of World Economy and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, also warned that two decades of investment-driven growth strategy had led to serious problems with over-capacity.

June 18th, 2009 World Bank raises 2009 China growth forecastBEIJING — The World Bank is raising its 2009 growth forecast for China due to the country's stimulus-driven investment boom. But it also cautions that it is still too soon to say a sustained recovery is on the way.

May 12th, 2009 Bank of Korea keeps key interest rate at 2 percentSEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's central bank left its key interest rate unchanged Tuesday at a record low for a third straight month amid signs the country's slumping economy is improving. The Bank of Korea kept the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate at 2 percent at a regular monthly policy meeting.

April 27th, 2009 Chinese bank ICBC says 1Q profit up 6 percentBEIJING — Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the country's biggest commercial lender by assets, said Monday its quarterly profit rose 6 percent from a year earlier despite a double-digit fall in interest income. Profit for the three months ending March 31 was 35.1 billion yuan ($5.1 billion), or 0.11 yuan per share, the Beijing-based lender said.

March 7th, 2009 MUMBAI - Two days after the country's central bank lowered key rates, private lender ICICI Bank Friday cut interest rates in new home loans by 25-50 basis points. For home loans less than Rs.2 million, the lending rate would come down to 9.75 percent from 10 percent, a bank spokesperson said.

March 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - With the economic growth rate for the third quarter falling to 5.3 percent - the lowest since 2003 - the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Wednesday evening announced monetary stimulus in the form of reductions in the repo rate and the reverse repo rate by 50 basis points each. The repo rate (rate at which banks borrow money from RBI), which was last revised Jan 2, will now come down to 5 percent, while the reverse repo rate (rate at which RBI borrows from the banks) has come down to 3.5 percent.

March 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Putting at rest speculations over cut in key rates, Reserve Bank of India Governor D. Subbarao Saturday said his meeting with top officials of the government was to discuss India's position on the upcoming Group-20 (G-20) global finance ministers' meeting.

February 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The fears of a sharp slowdown in India were confirmed Friday, with official data showing economic growth at just 5.3 percent for the third quarter of the current fiscal - the slowest since 2003 - against 8.9 percent in the like period the previous year. The growth in gross domestic product (GDP) has dipped from 7.6 percent for the second quarter and 7.9 percent for the first quarter, showed statistics released by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO).

January 22nd, 2009 BANGALORE - State-run Canara Bank posted net profit of Rs.7.02 billion (Rs.702 crore/$142.6 million) for the third quarter this fiscal, registering a whopping 53 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth. Net profit in the corresponding period in 2007-08 was Rs.4.59 billion, the bank said in a statement Friday.