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Business Quick Take

■ TRADE
Exports set to soar: bureau
Taiwan's export volume is expected to post double-digit growth this year despite the slowdown in growth momentum in the first half of the year, Bureau of Foreign Trade officials said yesterday. The officials said the second half of each year is usually the brisk season for Taiwanese exports, especially consumer electronic products. Ministry of Finance tallies show the nation's exports rose 7.6 percent year-on-year to US$135.12 billion for the first seven months of this year, while imports increased 7 percent year-on-year to US$1124.13 billion. This translates into a trade surplus of US$10.99 billion, up 14.9 percent compared with the same period last year, the tallies show.

■ MACROECONOMICS
IMF reassures on turmoil
The IMF said on Friday that global financial market turmoil sparked by the troubled US mortgage sector and a related credit crunch should be "manageable." The multilateral lender said global economic growth should not be derailed by the mortgage and credit jitters. "While the situation is still evolving, we continue to believe that the systemic consequences of the reassessment of credit risk that is taking place will be manageable," IMF spokesman Masood Ahmed said. "The fundamentals supporting strong global growth remain in place, and the re-establishment of credit discipline that is occurring is a healthy development," the spokesman said.

■ INTERNET
Hackers raid Norwegian data
Hackers have stolen confidential data on 60,000 Norwegians, including the head of the agency for safeguarding them, the agency itself revealed on Friday. It said they had used a weakness on the Web site of the telephone operators Tele2 to procure the personal identity numbers and addresses of subscribers, amounting to 1.3 percent of the country's population. The information would enable the hackers to change the addresses of the people concerned so as to intercept their mail, or order goods on their account. Tele2, which had been warned several times to make its Web site more secure, has promised to do so, while police are investigating.

■ PETROLEUM
Caracas wants to keep cuts
Venezuela will urge OPEC to maintain existing oil production cuts and keep output levels unchanged, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Friday. "We believe that the oil cuts must be left in place, and we have carried them out," Ramirez told reporters at a summit of Caribbean leaders participating in a Venezuelan oil-supply pact called Petrocaribe in Caracas. Ramirez said Venezuela would make its proposal when the OPEC meets in late September.

■ ELECTRONICS
Sanyo denies sale rumor
Sanyo Electric Co, undergoing a restructuring plan led by creditors including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, denied a media report that it is in talks to sell its mobile-phone business as soon as this year. Japanese state-run broadcaster NHK said yesterday that Osaka-based Sanyo Electric was negotiating the sale with other Japanese cellphone manufacturers, citing people with knowledge of the talks. The report didn't specify the potential buyers or the price. "We are currently considering measures to enhance our cellphone business and at this moment we haven't made any decision regarding such a sale," Ahikiko Oiwa, Sanyo Electric's spokesman, said yesterday by telephone.


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