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World business quick take

■Crude oil
Venezuela restarts exports
Venezuela has restarted its oil exports, shipping out two million barrels, but is importing gasoline because refineries remain affected by a general strike, President Hugo Chavez said Sunday. "In the past three days four vessels left with a total of 2 million barrels of petroleum," Chavez said in his "Hello President" radio program. The fifth largest oil exporter, Venezuela ususually ships out most of its 2.5 million barrel a day production, but a 14-day-old strike had all but halted its exports. Chavez said that while oil exports were restarting, several refineries were still affected, making it necessary for state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) to import gasoline.

■ Thai economy
Q3 beats expectations
Thailand's economy grew at the fastest pace in Southeast Asia in the third quarter as consumers borrowed to spend more and exports surged. Gross domestic product grew 1 percent from the second quarter, seasonally adjusted, the government said. That was faster than the 0.6 percent median growth forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of seven economists. The economy expanded 5.8 percent from the year-earlier quarter, compared to 5.6 percent in Malaysia and just under 4 percent in Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia.

■ Labor
South Koreans dislike US
South Korean labor and business groups clashed Monday over how to handle widespread anti-Americanism prompted by the killing of two schoolgirls by a US military vehicle. Five major economic organizations led by the Federation of Korean Industries, representing the country's powerful business groups, issued a joint statement urging South Koreans to curb escalating anti-American sentiment. "The [South] Korean business community is concerned this unfortunate incident is now leading to disproportionate and unjustified anti-US sentiment among our populace," they said.

■ Banking
Japanese wrestle debts
The Japanese government's plan to halve banks' massive bad debts by March 2005 is "impossible," the head of the nation's biggest business lobby said in a report Monday. "The government said it is going to dispose of all of the problem companies or halve the amount of non-performing loans by the end of March 2005, but it is impossible," Hiroshi Okuda, head of the Japan Business Federation, said in an interview with the Shukan Diamond economic weekly. In an effort to reform the troubled economy, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has set a deadline for disposal of half of bad loans held by the nation's ailing banks by the year to March 2005.

■ Auto industry
Sales in China skyrocket
Annual auto sales in China have topped the 1 million mark, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said yesterday. China, the world's fastest growing vehicle market, registered a 55.4 percent increase in sales to 1.02 million cars in the first 11 months of this year, an association official said. The surge in car ownership comes as an increasingly well heeled urban population in cities like Shanghai find themselves able to splash out on a new model. Although sales will not keep pace with this year, growth is still expected to be strong.

Agencies
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