WORLD

Foreign investment to scale $ 1.1 trillion : UN

More than $ 1.1 trillion is expected to be invested abroad in 2000 a fivefold increase over 1990 the United Nations said.

More than for fifths of the money is invested in developed countries, and most of it is due to cross border mergers and acquisitions, said the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Last year's total was $ 720 billion. Western Europe Continues to be the largest host region to foreign direct investment, receiving an estimated $597 billion," UNCTAD said in a statement. It added that a significant part of this was due to the $ 180 billion takeover of Germany's Mannesmann by Britain's Vodafone Air Touch.

The United States remains the single largest target country for cross border mergers and acquisitions, with sales of US firms to for eign concerns expected to top $ 300 billion this year.

Despite the dramatic overall rise, investment in developing countries will be the same as last year, at about $ 190 billion, UNCTAD said.

That means those countries' share of the world total will fall to 17 percent, with China and Brazil taking the lion's share.

Increases in investment are expected in Egypt, Tunisia, Mexico, Venezuela, Malaysia and Taiwan, the agency said. The largest slump is in Argentina, where UNCTAD predicts investment will be down by $ 15 billion.

In central and eastern Europe, investment is expected to reach $ 30 billion this year, up from $ 21 billion last year, with the biggest increases coming in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Russia.

UNCTAD said this was due to "a combination of political stability, lower country risks and relatively high skills.

Australia's growth rate slowing but no worries

Prime Minister John Howard recently conceded that economic growth in Australia was slowing from its previous rapid pace as fresh data showed a substantial deline in new employment.

The ANZ Bank Group's monthly survey of job advertisements showed an 8.0 percent drop for Noer, which it said was the sharpest in any single month since June 1990, apart from an 18 percent drop in September as the entire country took a collective pause for the Olympic Games.

It followed a sharp decline in job advertising over the past six months which ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake said combined with the latest figures to provide "a clear and unambiguous signal that employment growth was set to slow over the months ahead"

The survey came amid signs that the embattled Australian dollar may have begun to recover, climbing back over 54 US cents for the first time in two months after a 20 percent slide dragged it as low as 50.75 US a fortnight ago.

Britain gives up debt for poor

Britain is to give up its rights to interest on the debts of 21 very poor countries, in a scheme aimed at ensuring the benefits really go to the needy, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said recently.

The project, describe in press reports as a "cashback" scheme, would relieve interest payments on some one billion pounds (1.4 billion dollars, 1.64 billion euros) of debt owed by countries embroiled in various types of civil conflict.

It came as a four year campaign for debt forgiveness for the world's poorest nations was due to culminate in a rally in central London.

The aim of the new government scheme was "to build a virtuous circle of debt relief, poverty reduction and sustainable economic development", Brown said.

"We are going to do more over the next year to reach our targets that every child should be in primary education and to reduce infant mortality and meet the international target to cut poverty by half by 2015"

The announcement took to 41 the number of very poor countries granted debt interest relief by Britain in the past year.

The total debt involved is 1.6 billion pounds.

US Fed to focus on sluggish economy

The Federal Reserve, in the face of slowing economic growth, is prepared to shift its main focus away from fighting inflation to guarding against a sluggish economy.

The Fed, worried that the red-hot economy was growing too fast and could spark an upward spiral in prices, boosted short term interest rates six times between June 1999 and May of this year.

Economists said the rate increases have worked to slow the economy, which grew at an annual rate of 2.4 percent in the third quarter; the weakest pace in four years. The slowdown is helping to keep inflation under control.

Consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the first 11 months of the year, compared with a 2.7 percent increase for all of 1999. But the pickup comes from surging energy prices, which most economists believe will ease in coming months.

Russia faces painful economic reforms

Russia has won investors' admiration after this year's unexpectedly bright economic performance, but the government must turn its attention to painful economic reforms to cement growth analysts say.

President Vladimir Putin, who replaced Boris Yeltsin at the Kremlin nearly a year ago, has been blessed with an amazing bonanza, in part because of high world prices for Russian oil and natural gas exports.

Russia in the Year 2000 silenced critics who after the disastrous financial crisis of August 1998 said the country would take year to rebuild its shattered economy.

It has posted a near seven percent growth of gross domestic product this year almost 10 percent jump in industrial production, 17 percent rise in investment and a record trade surplus of 60 billion dollars.

The most successful year since Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it has far outshone what analysts and international organisations were forecasting early 2000.

The economy is showing signs of better health: salary arrears have fallen, the use of barter trade in commerce has plugged for 43 percent at the start of the year to 20 percent, and Russian firms are investing once again.

Nigeria 13th poorest but 6 are among world's richest

Nigeria is the world's 13th poorest country but six individual Nigerians rank among the world's 100 richest people, press reports said recently.

The reports, based on findings of a survey aired by the BBC recently, were splashed across the front pages of most newspapers.

With a population of over 120 million people, Nigeria's per capita income is just 310 dollars with most of the wealth produced by the country's major oil industry remaining in the hands of a privileged few.

"Six Nigerians ranked among the world's richest," said the newspaper.