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World Business Quick Take

■ Banking
EU blesses new ECB head
EU leaders gave their formal blessing Thursday to Jean-Claude Trichet as the new European Central Bank chief, with officials declaring that Europe's single currency would be in safe hands. The former governor of the French central bank is due to replace Dutchman Wim Duisenberg for an eight-year term from Nov. 1 following the green light from leaders of the 12 euro-zone nations at an EU summit here. "I'm really confident the euro is in good hands at the top of the bank and also at the different levels of the bank," European Commission President Romano Prodi told reporters. Trichet himself pledged to continue Duisenberg's legacy to preserve and strengthen the European monetary system when he takes over at the top of Frankfurt's Eurotower.

■ Internet
EBay's profits skyrocket
US online auctioneer EBay on Thursday said its third-quarter earnings skyrocketed 69 percent, mainly because its online payment service attracted more customers and the value of goods sold increased. Net income rose to US$103.3 million, or US$0.16 a share, up 69 percent from the year-earlier period. Value of goods sold increased 58 percent to US$5.8 billion and the company had 85.5 million registered clients, 37.4 million of whom were "active," at the end of the third quarter, EBay announced. EBay's revenues were at US$1.5 billion for the first nine months of the year, up from US$800.1 million last year. EBay forecast revenues of up to US$590 million for the fourth quarter and US$2.1 billion for the year. It also forecast revenues of US$2.9 billion next year.

■ Currencies
Donohue supports yaun peg
US companies that manufacture in China and export to the US would be hurt if China bowed to pressure from US President George W. Bush for an immediate loosening of the yuan's peg to the dollar, the head of the US Chamber of Commerce said. "The currency ought to be driven by market forces," Chamber president Thomas Donohue said in an interview after a speech in Hong Kong "I believe that ought to be done on an evolutionary basis, not a revolutionary basis. The risks of going to immediate free trading or deregulation are severe to Americans. The suitable time is when we can be sure that the China banks are stable, when we're comfortable that the many American companies operating in China and selling goods to the US are not going to be injured," said Donohue, whose chamber represents 3 million businesses in the US.

■ Telecoms
Broadband usage soars
Japanese broadband use soared as companies met demand for music, movies and games, the Wall Street Journal said, citing official data. In August 2001 Japan had 1.6 million broadband subscribers out of a total population of 127 million; by August this year that figure soared to 11.8 million users, a penetration rate of 10 percent which equals that of the US, the newspaper said. Japanese users, who can download a music album in about 16 seconds compared with about five minutes in the US, pay as little as US$0.09 a month per 100 kilobits of data per second in speed offered, compared with US$3.53 in the US, the WSJ said, citing data from the International Telecoms Union. The Japanese government estimates broadband-linked goods and services could be worth ¥10 trillion (US$91 billion) by the year 2007, the Journal said.

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