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World business quick take

PHOTO: AFP

■Currency
China wants stable yuan
China will maintain the value of the yuan, the central bank said, brushing aside renewed calls from Japanese officials for the currency to appreciate. China "will continue to support the current exchange-rate system and keep a stable yuan," People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) said in a statement on the bank's Web site. Zhou's comments come after Japanese Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said last week that China should consider abandoning the yuan's peg to the US dollar. Japanese officials have said the yuan is undervalued, undercutting Japan's exports and encouraging companies to relocate in China.

■ Oil
War to impact prices
A short war in Iraq may lower crude oil prices and boost economic growth in the US, Agence France-Presse said, citing a study published by a London-based business leaders' group, Institute of Directors. A brief war in Iraq, led by the US, may cause oil prices to fall by as much as US$10 a barrel, the agency said, citing the study. Lower crude oil prices may provide the US Federal Reserve the opportunity to cut interest rates and help US President George W. Bush push through his US$670 billion economic plan, the report said. The overall positive impact may boost US economic growth to 2.9 percent this year.

■ Piracy
Music retailers form venture
Six music retailers in the US formed a company offering songs for download from the Internet as they try to counter a slump in compact disc sales, the Wall Street Journal said, citing the companies. Best Buy Co, Hastings Entertainment Inc, MTS Inc.'s Tower Records, Trans World Entertainment Corp, Virgin Entertainment Group Inc and Wherehouse Music Inc founded Echo Inc, a venture that will allow each of the companies to distribute music online using their respective brand names, the Journal said. Echo will seek to negotiate music licenses from record labels, said Dan Hart, its chief executive.

■ Money supply
Minister seeks increase
Setting an inflation target is just one way the Bank of Japan could increase the money supply to help the world's No. 2 economy, Minister of Economic and Fiscal Policy Heizo Takenaka told parliament. "The important thing is to increase the money supply, and it is inappropriate to make an inflation target a goal in itself," he told parliament. "Setting an inflation target could be an important tool to achieve the goal of raising money supply." Takenaka's remarks were a sign that the government is easing pressure on the central bank to set a target for inflation to halt four years of sliding prices. "Political pressure to adopt an inflation target is fading," said Shigeru Endo, who helps oversee Japanese Yen 200 billion (US$1.7 billion) in yen-fixed income assets at Fuji Investment Manage-ment Co.

Agencies
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