By Le-Min Lim Spending by companies on equipment and plants will outpace private consumption as the main growth driver this year, he said in an interview in Hong Kong. The jobless rate, at 9.7 percent last month, will fall below 9 percent by the end of 2010, he said. That may force the

March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore’s economy may grow faster this year than economists initially predicted, boosted by manufacturing, construction and private consumption, a central bank survey showed. The government raised its growth forecast for the $182 billion economy last mont

Gross domestic product contracted an unexpected 5.8 percent in the quarter from a year earlier, the central bank said today in an e-mailed statement, after shrinking 4.6 percent in the third quarter. The contraction surpassed eight of nine analyst forecasts in a Bloomberg survey whose median

Key Overnight Developments • New Zealand Posts Smallest Trade Deficit in Seven Years as Imports Drop • Japanese Industrial Production, CPI, Retail Sales Fail to Move Markets • Australian Credit Growth Remains Lackluster, Muting Rate Hike Outlook Cr

The Australian economy continued its expansion in the December quarter as government related stimulus, retail spending and an increase in investment expectations supported economic growth, economists say. The median forecast for annual expansion in GDP is 2.35 per cent. In the

Hong Kong's economy expanded faster than economists estimated in the fourth quarter as exports and retail sales climbed and unemployment fell. Gross domestic product rose a seasonally adjusted 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, Financial Secretary John Tsang

Comments from Fed Bullard , who downplays the latest discount rate hike and suggests that the Fed may hold off moving on its key policy rate until 2011, have helped to inspire some USD profit taking . In Japan, the trade surplus came out better than expected, while corporate services

Gross domestic product rose 2.6 percent from a year earlier, Financial Secretary John Tsang said in his budget speech in the city today. That was more than the 1.5 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 11 economists. In the third quarter, the economy shrank 2.4 percent. A

“Despite its great sensitivity to international trade and the difficulties experienced by the big banks, the Belgian economy proved more resilient than that of the euro area as a whole,” Guy Quaden , head of the Belgian central bank, said in a report distributed at a press conferenc