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World Business Quick Take

■ TRADE

Kimchi spat over

South Korea and China have resumed normal kimchi trade, state media said yesterday, two years after Seoul kicked up a stink about the quality of the Chinese version. South Korea launched an investigation into Chinese-made kimchi after the discovery of parasite eggs in October 2005. In response, China banned several imports of Korean food and started an investigation into Korean cosmetics. South Korea agreed to cut down random sampling of Chinese kimchi from 100 percent to 20 percent in August and this week cut the sampling to the regular 10 percent, Xinhua news agency said.



■ BANKING

Blair gets part-time job

Former British prime minister Tony Blair is to join Wall Street bank JP Morgan as a part-time adviser, the Financial Times reported yesterday. Blair, who became international envoy to the Middle East after standing down following a decade as prime minster in June, will advise the financial services giant on political and strategic issues. He told the paper he now expected to take on "a small handful" of similar appointments, adding: "Nowadays, the intersection between politics and the economy in different parts of the world, including the emerging markets, is very strong." JP Morgan's chief executive Jamie Dimon said that Blair would be "enormously valuable" to the firm.



■ BANKING

Credit Suisse eyes China

Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse confirmed yesterday it planned to form a strategic alliance with China's Founder Group (方正集團) to focus on securities underwriting and wealth management. It also said that it intended to apply soon to form a joint venture with Founder Group's Founder Securities, adding that it hoped to hold the regulatory maximum of 33.3 percent in the firm. "I am confident that Credit Suisse's world leading franchise and Founder's local capabilities can combine to create an unrivaled alliance," Credit Suisse Investment Bank chief executive officer Paul Calello said.



■ AUTOMOBILES

Toyota global sales up

Toyota said yesterday that its global group sales rose 6 percent last year to 9.37 million vehicles, making for a tight race against General Motors, the world's biggest automaker. Toyota Motor Corp's group companies sold 7.1 million vehicles overseas last year, a 10 percent jump from the previous year, offsetting a 4 percent decline in sales in Japan at 2.26 million vehicles, the automaker said in a statement. GM has not yet given its annual sales tally but earlier estimated last year sales would come to 9.3 million vehicles.



■ JAPAN

Economic growth slower

The pace of Japan's economic growth is slowing because of a big drop in housing investment and the slowdown is likely to persist for some time, a senior central bank official said in a speech yesterday. "The nation's economic cycle is weakening now but the cycle itself remains intact," said Toshiro Muto, one of the Bank of Japan's (BOJ) two deputy governors. "However, looking ahead, the economy will keep expanding," he told business leaders in Sapporo. Muto's remarks echoed the bearish economic assessment made by BOJ Governor Toshihiko Fukui last month after the bank's policy body voted unanimously to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.5 percent.
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