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World Business Quick Take

■ Tourism
Thai travel agencies close
At least 10 percent of Thailand's 500 registered travel agencies will be forced from business because the war in Iraq and the outbreak of the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have caused a plunge in tourism, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported. Most Thai travel companies have asked employees to take temporary leave, the newspaper reported, citing Manus Pipathananunth, president of the Thai Travel Agents Association. Travel companies remaining in business are shifting their focus to domestic travel as interest in overseas holidays plunges, the paper said. The number of Thais traveling abroad has fallen by as much as 50 percent since the outbreak started last month, said Wisudhi Srisuphan, director general of Thailand's Fiscal Policy Office.

■ Unemployment
High-tech layoffs halved
After the massive shakeout in the high-tech sector, the number of job cuts in the first quarter of this year fell 45 percent from the same period a year ago, according to a survey released Tuesday. Job cuts announced by high-tech firms in the first quarter plunged to 61,032, compared with 110,247 announced in the same quarter a year ago, according to the survey by the consulting firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. The improvement was due to a significant drop in telecommunications job cuts. Employers in this industry announced just 15,862 job cuts so far this year, down 81 percent from the 82,522 announced in the first quarter of 2002, the survey found. The other segments of the technology sector -- electronics, computers and e-commerce -- all experienced increased job cuts.

■ Outlook
War, SARS causing concern
Japan's central bank warned yesterday that the war in Iraq and the spread of a flu-like virus are clouding the outlook for world economic growth but left its overall assessment of Japan's troubled economy unchanged for the sixth straight month. In its monthly report for April, the Bank of Japan acknowledged that economic activity remained flat. But it was more upbeat about business investment and said private capital spending is starting to recover. Worries are growing that the war in Iraq combined with the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, may worsen prospects for the world economy, it said. The report looks at various economic factors but also gives an overall assessment.

■ Economic growth
Survey revises US forecast
Economists sliced their forecasts for 2003 US economic growth for the third straight month as manufacturing weakened and employers fired more workers, the latest Blue Chip Economic Indicators survey found. The economy will probably expand 2.4 percent this year, down from last month's forecast of a 2.6 percent increase in gross domestic product, according to the average of forecasts by 53 economists in the April Blue Chip survey. That would match growth in 2002. Personal consumption spending is expected to rise 2.3 percent, the slowest growth in a dozen years and less than forecast last month. Companies are waiting until the war with Iraq ends to rebuild inventories and boost hiring, the report said, and "nonexistent" job growth is holding back consumer spending. The US economy lost 108,000 jobs in March, the fourth month in five of declining payrolls.
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