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World Business Quick Take

■ Oil
IEA forecasts rising demand
Global demand for oil will grow by 1.8 percent in 2007 and increase by an average of 2 percent annually during the five years to the end of 2011, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast yesterday. The IEA said that the current high prices of crude oil were constraining demand, but that economic expansion in Asia and rising consumption in the Middle East would outweigh this effect during the period to 2011. In a sign of the shifting of power in the world economy, the IEA forecast that oil demand from Asia would exceed that of North America by 2011.

■ Beverages
Recipe three indicted
Three people were indicted on Tuesday for conspiring to steal the secret ingredients of a new Coca-Cola drink and sell them to rival Pepsi, the US Justice Department said. Ibrahim Dimson, 30, of New York, and Edmund Duhaney, 43, and Joya Williams, 41, both of Georgia, were indicted in Atlanta, Georgia by a federal grand jury for conspiring to steal and to sell soft drink giant The Coca-Cola Company's trade secrets. The three were each accused of one count of conspiracy to steal trade secrets, a charge which brings up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to US$250,000.

■ Banking
Phishing hits Singapore
Two Singapore banks have been hit by scammers trying to con customers into revealing their Internet and telephone banking passwords, the banks said yesterday. An unidentified con artist pretending to be from OCBC Bank's security department sent out thousands of e-mail messages on Tuesday asking customers to log onto the bank's Web site to update personal information. Citibank Singapore was hit on Monday by an almost identically worded e-mail that directed users to at least two different fake Web sites. So far, none of the customers' accounts at either bank have been compromised.

■ Economy
Interest hike recommended
China's efforts to rein its runaway economy have had little effect and a further interest rate hike is the only choice available to the central bank, a leading state-run newspaper said yesterday. The China Securities Journal argued in a front-page story that a rate hike was "a practical choice" for officials facing the challenge of carrying out effective macro-economic controls. "Excess liquidity has an impact on the real economy, bringing about the risk of inflation and asset bubbles," the newspaper said. "Going forward, an interest rate hike is the only choice available to the central bank."

■ Markets
Indices unaffected by blasts
India's benchmark stock index rose yesterday, after opening slightly lower, mitigating fears that the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai would dampen investor confidence, reports said. The 30-issue Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) index was up 0.84 percent at 10,702.99. Share prices remained firm as IT major Infosys Technologies Ltd announced forecast-beating earnings, with a 50 percent rise in quarterly net profit, placing the benchmark index Sensex considerably higher by 170.46 points. Other technology scripts registered upward jumps in prices, which helped stabilize the stock index, said reports.

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