World Business Quick Take

■ Banking
Hundreds punished
China 1,697 employees at financial institutions for bank frauds and other crimes in the first half, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said. Among them, 570 managers and heads of branches were fired or sent to prison, the regulator said in a statement on its Web site, citing a speech by Liu Mingkang (劉明康), the watchdog's chairman, at an internal meeting. "Credit risk is still the biggest risk with financial institutions, and most of such cases involve a large number of people and a huge value, causing very bad social influences," Liu was quoted as saying. China is stepping up efforts to crack down on bank frauds and corruption at a time when Bank of China (中國銀行) and China Construction Bank (中國建設銀行) are preparing for overseas share sales that could raise a combined US$10 billion.

■ Oil
Seoul answers IEA's call
South Korea will tap its strategic oil reserves to help the world cope with supply disruptions in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the US, officials said yesterday. Seoul will release 2.88 million barrels, 3.8 percent of its total 74.65-million-barrel strategic oil reserves, before Sept. 18, they said. The measure follows a call from the International Energy Agency (IEA) for all 26 member states to pour 60 million barrels of oil into the global market in a month to deal with the supply shock. South Korea last tapped its strategic oil reserves during the Gulf War in the early 1990s, according to the commerce, industry and energy ministry. "Talks with oil refiners will take place on Monday and Tuesday and a detailed plan is to be made ready by the end of the week," said Oh Young-ho, chief of the ministry's Energy Resources Policy Office. The planned release will likely affect Seoul's plan to increase its total reserves by 6 million barrels this year, he said.

■ Economy
Fuel plan sparks protest
Hundreds bus drivers, vendors and workers staged a noisy rally in Jakarta yesterday to protest against the Indonesian government's plan to increase fuel prices. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unveiled a plan on Wednesday to raise fuel prices in order to support the weakening rupiah which plunged to a four-year low last week as oil prices surged. "We don't agree with the rising fuel prices because that would raise operational costs on the ground which would cut our income," said Yardin, who heads a bus drivers' union. Some 500 protesters chanted patriotic songs and waved posters carrying anti-government slogans.

■ Real estate
Crackdown may hurt GDP
South Korea's crackdown on real-estate speculation may reduce the country's economic growth until the end of next year, the central bank said. GDP growth may fall by 0.04 percentage point in the second half and by 0.18 percentage point next year if the crackdown reduces the average house prices by 6 percent by the end of next year, the Bank of Korea said on Sunday. "The fall in house prices could lower economic growth by discouraging consumer spending and construction investment, but it won't turn off the economic recovery ... In the long-run, the property crackdown would strengthen the economy's growth potential," the bank said. The frowth rate will reach between 4 percent and 5 percent in the second half of this year and 5 percent next year, Finance Minister Han Duck Soo said on Aug.16.