■ BANKING
DPJ eyes BoJ candidates
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Secretary-General Yukio Hatoyama said his party could consider Haruhiko Kuroda and Hirofumi Watanabe as candidates for the next head of the Bank of Japan (BoJ). On March 12, the upper house of Japan's parliament controlled by the opposition rejected the government's nomination of BoJ Deputy Governor Toshiro Muto to succeed Toshihiko Fukui as head of the bank. DPJ leaders have asked Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to propose a candidate other than Muto, arguing that his previous career at the Ministry of Finance threatens the bank's independence.
■ AVIATION
HK airport gets busier
Hong Kong International Airport, Asia's third-busiest airfield by passenger numbers, handled 7.3 percent more people last month than the same month last year because of increased Lunar New Year travel. The airport handled 3.9 million people last month, Airport Authority Hong Kong said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Cargo volume increased 5.1 percent 247,000 tonnes, it said. "It was a good start to the year," chief executive officer Stanley Hui (許漢忠) said in the statement. "Hong Kong people took advantage of the buoyant local economy and treated themselves to a Lunar New Year holiday."
■ OIL
PDVSA turns to euro
Venezuelan state oil giant Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) will sign some oil contracts in euros in the face of a plummeting dollar, local media reported, citing officials. "There are some contracts in euros, contracts for crude, products and spot markets in euros. This is a subject which we are working on," Energy Minister and PDVSA chief Rafael Ramirez said in an interview with the journal El Universal published on Friday. It remained unclear which oil sales would require payment in euros. Venezuela, Latin America's leading petroleum producer, has previously backed Iran's proposals for OPEC to abandon the dollar and use the euro for oil pricing.
■ MALAYSIA
Projects on, Abdullah says
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi pledged to push ahead with big-spending development projects amid concerns of possible economic fallout after his ruling coalition's election losses. The stock market fell 7.8 percent last week after the opposition won control of five states and a third of parliament. Abdullah's government remained in power, but with its lowest parliamentary majority in 51 years of rule. Abdullah insisted the economy remained "fundamentally strong" and said plans for US$325 billion in public and private investment to create five economic zones in rural areas would go ahead even though some of the states were in opposition hands.
■ BANKING
China loan growth healthy
Chinese banks' loan growth may top a government target for the first quarter, Wu Xiaoling (吳曉靈), a former vice governor of the People's Bank of China, said yesterday. "We still have one month to watch lending growth for the first quarter and it may still exceed our target," Wu, a deputy head of the Fiscal and Economic Committee, said in an interview in Beijing. She didn't specify the target. The government is trying to prevent excess liquidity from fueling 11-year high inflation and investment leading to industrial overcapacity.
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