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World Business Quick Take

■ Consumer prices
Japan's prices to increase
Japan will see its first increase in consumer prices in eight years in the year to March 2007 although economic growth will slow to 1.9 percent from a five-year high of 2.7 percent this fiscal year, the government said yesterday. The government approved an economic report projecting consumer prices in the next fiscal year will rise 0.5 percent, reversing an estimated drop of 0.1 percent in the year to March next year. It projected that GDP will grow 1.9 percent. This will be slower than the 2.7 percent expected this year but this figure was revised up from its previous estimate of 1.6 percent. The economy grew 2.8 percent in 2000.

■ Energy
Solar panels mass-produced
Honda Motor said yesterday that it will begin mass producing next-generation solar panels for household use from 2007, halving the carbon-dioxide emissions of the already eco-friendly technology. The Japanese giant declined to disclose the amount of new investment but the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said that the auto and motorcycle maker would spend some US$86.5 million on its factory in Kumamoto Prefecture in southern Japan. Honda, which was the first major automaker to enter the market, said it will use thin-film solar cells made of a compound of copper, indium, gallium and selenium -- instead of the usual silicon. The production system will require only half the energy to produce a conventional solar cell and lower carbon-dioxide emissions by 50 percent, Honda said. The new production system will initially have an annual capacity to produce about 27.5 megawatts worth of solar cells, enough for 8,000 households a year.

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