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World business quick take

■US trade
Afghanistan gets deal
President George W. Bush has added Afghanistan to a list of developing countries that get preferential treatment on goods exported to the US. The Generalized System of Preferences gives the president the authority to give the duty treatment. Bush signed an order Friday designating Afghanistan a beneficiary of the program, and the White House announced the step on Monday. Bush named Afghanistan a ``least-developed beneficiary,'' a move that will allow the country to export about 5,700 products to the US without tariffs, the White House said. "This GSP designation marks an important step in Afghanistan's return to the world trading system," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

■ Shipping
Container trade rises
Intra-Asian containerized trade is forecast to grow more rapidly than the global average over the next decade, according to a UN study published yesterday. The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific report said Asia's share of containerized exports will rise to 51 percent and its imports to 44 percent by 2011, from the 1999 figures of 46 percent and 40 per cent respectively. Containerized trade within Asia is expected to grow by 7.6 per cent per annum over the next decade, Escap said, while the global average slows slightly from the current 6.5 percent. Among the three key Asia routes, the study published in the Shipping Times cited the trans-Pacific as having the weakest growth.

■ US economy
CEO confidence rises
Businesses leaders were more confident about the state of the US economy in the closing months of last year, although they didn't expect a notable pickup in growth in the new year, a report released Monday said. The Conference Board said its business confidence index for the fourth quarter rose to 58 from 54 in the third quarter. That was below the 61 mark seen in the second quarter and the 66 reported for the first.
Any number above 50 indicates more positive than negative responses to survey questions, the Conference Board said. "Chief executives are more optimistic now than they were in the third quarter," Conference Board economist Lynn Franco said.

■ French economy
Inflation creeps upward
French inflation rose by 0.2 percent in December from the figure for the previous month, and by 2.3 percent since December 2001, figures released yesterday by the national statistics institute INSEE showed. Price of manufactured products, services, transports and communications had led the increase in December. Core inflation, which strips out volatile items such as fresh foods and energy products, increased by 0.1 percent from November and by 1.9 percent on a 12-month basis, compared with an annual figure of 2 percent in November, INSEE said. A harmonised index which permits comparison with other European countries put inflation at 0.2 percent on the month and 2.2 percent on the year. France is a member of the euro zone for which the European Central Bank has set up upper medium-term target for inflation of 2 percent, although it has hinted that it might adjust this. In December 2001 the French harmonised 12-month figure was 1.4 percent.

Agencies
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