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Business Briefs:

India Apr-June annual growth seen slowing

NEW DELHI: India’s sizzling economic growth probably slowed slightly in the past quarter to an annual pace of 8.9 percent as tighter monetary policy helped rein in consumer spending, a Reuters poll showed on Tuesday. Asia’s third-largest economy expanded an annual 9.1 percent in the January-March quarter and 9.4 percent in the whole fiscal year that ended in March, marking its fastest growth in 18 years. But analysts say a series of interest rate increases and other tightening steps by the central bank aimed at preventing the economy from overheating are beginning to bear fruit and growth should moderate in the coming months. reuters

Indonesia put off import duty on hot-rolled steel

JAKARTA: Indonesia has suspended a 5 percent import duty on hot-rolled steel coil to secure domestic supplies, an industry ministry official said on Tuesday. The government suspended the import duty in early August and would maintain the move at least until December, said Ansari Bukhari, Director General of Metal, Machinery and Textiles at the Industry Ministry. The action only applied to imports of hot-rolled steel coil measuring below 2 millimeters, he said. “The government will evaluate whether to extend the policy or reintroduce the 5 percent import duty,” he added. reuters

Japan July chip equipment orders fall 12.3 percent

TOKYO: Orders for Japanese chip-making equipment fell in July as computer memory makers reined in spending plans amid an inventory glut, an industry group said on Tuesday. Orders fell 12.3 percent in July from the same month last year to 129.974 billion yen ($1.12 billion), down for the fifth straight month, the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan said. Orders from makers of dynamic random-access memory have fallen amid weaker-than-expected demand in the back-to-school PC selling season. reuters

S.Africa’s GDP growth slows but above forecasts

PRETORIA: South Africa’s economic growth slowed to 4.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted and annualised basis in the second quarter of 2007, weighed down mostly by slimmer manufacturing sector growth, official data showed on Tuesday. A Reuters poll of economists last week forecast the economy would have grown by 4.2 percent, compared with 4.7 percent in the first quarter. On an unadjusted basis, South Africa’s economy grew by 5.0 percent over the second quarter of 2006, Statistics South Africa said. reuters

Saudi airline moves towards privatisation

RIYADH: state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines took a step towards privatisation on Monday, the official SPA news agency reported. The oil-rich kingdom’s cabinet agreed at its weekly meeting to allow the airline to convert some of its “strategic units” into companies owned and licensed to the flagship carrier before they are sold to private investors, SPA said without elaborating. A royal decree ended the airline’s decades-long monopoly on domestic flights in 2003. afp

Vietnam Jan-Aug industrial output to rise 17%

HANOI: Vietnam’s January-to-August industrial output is expected to rise 17.1 percent from a year earlier to 377.07 trillion dong ($23.3 billion), but crude oil production has slowed, the government said on Tuesday. The industrial sector, which is making up a third of Vietnam’s economy, helped lift gross domestic product by 7.87 percent in the first half of the year from the same period a year earlier. But crude oil production during the first eight months is expected to fall 8 percent from the same period last year to 10.38 million tonnes. reuters

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