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World Business Quick Take

■ BANKING
Woori Bank to tap into China
Woori Bank said yesterday it had been authorized to open a local subsidiary in China, the first South Korean lender to win such approval from Beijing. Woori Bank China will be launched next month. "The unit, the first South Korean-owned lender to be localized in China, will pave the way for Woori Bank to actively tap the Chinese yuan-based retail banking market," a spokesman said. The bank already has five branch offices in China -- two in Shanghai and one each in Beijing, Shenzhen and Suzhou -- but they can only offer restricted services.

■ INFLATION
Business travel costs up
Business travel costs around the world are expected to see a big surge next year with air fares pushed up by rising fuel prices and hotel rates squeezed by growing demand, a survey showed on Tuesday. The American Express Global Business Travel Forecast said hotel rates are especially under pressure in major cities because new construction has failed to keep pace with demand. Some regions are facing unusually high demand including cities in India where hotel rates are likely to rise as much as 40 percent; next year's Beijing Olympics is expected to be a factor in pushing up lodging costs in China, the report added.

■ Pharmaceuticals
Merck's profits decline
German pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck KGaA said yesterday that its third-quarter profit fell 75 percent because of costs related to its purchase of Swiss biotech firm Serono. The Darmstadt-based maker of cancer drug Erbitux earned 36.2 million euros (US$51.6 million) in the period from July to last month, compared with 144.3 million euros a year earlier. Despite the drop, the result was better than the 11 million euros that analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted. The company's sales rose 5 percent to 1.67 billion euros from 1.08 billion euros last year.

■ FINANCE
Seoul's plans on track
South Korea is well placed to achieve its goal of becoming a regional financial hub but must develop its foreign exchange market, a senior adviser said yesterday. William Ryback, who took office this week as the first foreign adviser to the Financial Supervisory Service, said the nation has "some natural advantages" compared with other Asian countries. However, Ryback said South Korea needs to develop its foreign exchange market so that all transactions in major convertible currencies can be settled in real time.

■ INFLATION
China's CPI to exceed target
China's consumer price index (CPI) will likely rise around 4.5 percent this year, surpassing the country's upper target of 3 percent, a senior Chinese central banker said yesterday. Consumer prices have surged in China in recent months, led by a spike in pork and egg prices. Last month the CPI rose 6.2 percent from a year earlier, slightly slower than the 6.5 percent increase in August. "There are inflationary pressures, but we're confident we can control inflation to a suitable degree in the coming years,'' People's Bank of China Assistant Governor Yi Gang (易綱) told a Hong Kong seminar.

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