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World Business Quick Take

■ SOUTH KOREA

Economic growth at 5%

The economy expanded a revised 5 percent last year from a year earlier, the central bank said yesterday, increasing its earlier 4.9 percent estimate. GDP grew 1.6 percent in the fourth quarter from three months earlier, more than an initial estimate of 1.5 percent, a preliminary report by the Bank of Korea said. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is targeting 6 percent growth this year. Moody's Economy.com forecasts a growth rate of around 4 percent this year and the central bank's forecast for this year was 4.7 percent.



■ INTERNET

EBay cuts 125 jobs

Internet auctioneer eBay Inc said on Thursday it was cutting 125 jobs in Europe and North America, including 70 positions at the online auctioneer's headquarters in San Jose, California. Company spokesman Jose Mallabo said the work force reduction was part of a reorganization to streamline operations -- not cut costs. The cuts amount to less than 1 percent of the company's global head count of 15,500 people. Mallabo says the cuts in Belgium, Spain and Austria are the result of a centralization of corporate functions. He wouldn't talk about what jobs were affected at headquarters.



■ AVIATION

Aloha files for bankruptcy

Aloha Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, a little more than two years after emerging from bankruptcy. Aloha said it would continue to fly as long as a bankruptcy court accepts the airline's financial plan to keep operating. The airline said in its filing that it was unable to generate sufficient revenue because of "predatory pricing" by Mesa Air Group Inc's go! airline. In January, go! reported a US$20 million operating loss in its first 16 months of operations. Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines reported combined losses of nearly US$65 million since go! began operating.



■ INSURANCE

Allianz expects write-downs

Insurer Allianz SE said it expected to make further write-downs in the first quarter of this year amid ongoing turbulence on international financial markets. Allianz head Michael Diekmann said in the company's annual report, released on Thursday, that because he could not rule out further write-downs, it had become "clearly more difficult" to reach the company's goal of 10 percent growth by next year. Last month, the company said that Dresdner's write-downs in its asset-backed securities trading book amounted to US$2 billion last year, of which US$1.4 billion was in the fourth quarter.



■ INVESTMENT

Fed offer attracts firms

Big Wall Street investment companies are taking advantage of the US Federal Reserve's unprecedented offer to secure emergency loans, the central bank reported on Thursday. Those large firms averaged US$13.4 billion in daily borrowing over the past week from the new lending facility. The report does not identify the borrowers. The Fed, in a bold move last Sunday, agreed for the first time to let big investment houses get emergency loans directly from the central bank. This mechanism, similar to one available for commercial banks for years, got under way on Monday and will continue for at least six months. It was the broadest use of the Fed's lending authority since the 1930s.
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