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World Business Quick Take

■ WORKPLACE
Business stress on the rise
Eight out of 10 business leaders in China have reported an increase in stress in the past year, a far greater jump than European counterparts who work the fewest number of hours per week worldwide, a study disclosed on Wednesday. The accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton found that 84 percent of Chinese executives responding to a survey reported an increase in stress levels compared to a year ago. Business leaders in three other powerhouses also suffered increases in stress -- Taiwan, where 82 percent of those questioned said stress had risen, India, 79 percent and Russia, 76 percent.

■ COMPUTERS
YouTube on Apple TV
Apple Inc said on Wednesday it will soon introduce the ability for Apple TV users to access the popular YouTube service on their living room TVs through its video-streaming set-top-box. Beginning this month, users of the Apple TV device will be able to wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube. The slim, book-sized device streams movies and songs stored in the user's iTunes personal library but cannot directly access Internet-based videos. Earlier that day Apple started selling songs without copy protection software on its iTunes Store -- a move analysts say will be a model for future online music sales.

■ ECONOMY
Indian economy booming
India's economy grew faster than expected at a record 9.4 percent in the year to March, beating a government forecast of 9.2 percent yesterday and raising hopes of more foreign investment. The record-breaking performance was driven by upward revisions to manufacturing and services output in previous quarters and a jump in overseas investment, the central statistical organization said. In the previous fiscal year, India's economy grew 9 percent. The government said the economy grew 9.1 percent in the three months to March and that the previous three quarters of the fiscal year had been revised upwards.

■ ECONOMY
US growth slows
The US economy slowed to a 0.6 percent growth pace in the first quarter, the government said yesterday in a revision for the January-March period. GDP was revised down from last month's estimate of 1.3 percent and was the slowest pace in more than four years, the Commerce Department report showed. The department said the latest revision came as a result of a bigger-than-expected trade deficit, which meant more goods consumed in the US were produced abroad. Real estate remained the main drag on economic growth, as spending on residential investment fell 15.4 percent, it said.

■ OIL
Vast oil field discovered
A South Korean consortium has confirmed the existence of a huge oil field off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, the Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) said yesterday. A KNOC-led consortium and Russia's state-owned Rosneft now estimate that the oilfield off Russia's Far East holds up to 10 billion barrels of oil, far larger than previously estimated, KNOC said. The South Korean consortium has a 40 percent stake in the project, with Rosneft holding the rest. "We plan to carry out further analyses with a view to drilling test holes late next year," he said, adding that commercially recoverable reserves are usually about 40 percent of geographical reserves.


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