BMW said today that it expects further growth in sales in the fourth quarter.

It also repeated its call for 2012 earningsper share growth of at least 13 percent, or $3.24 per share,excluding special items.

Last year, the company posted net income of $1.32 billion, or $2.74 per share, on revenue of $12.63 billion.

Nov 29 (Reuters) – Yum Brands Inc said on Thursdaythat it expects a decline in fourth quarter sales at establishedrestaurants in China, where a cooling economy is making itdifficult to exceed the 21 percent gain it had there a yearearlier.

The top end of the forecast range represents year on year sales (BIDU) growth of 42 percent, the slowest pace since thefourth quarter of 2009.

For all of 2012, Yum expects same store sales growth in China to be 6 percent.

Yum’s same store sales growth in China slowed to 6 percent in the third quarter.

China’s e commerce industry saw growth of 45 percentyear on year in the second quarter to reach 278.8 billion yuan($44.8 billion).

During the same period a year earlier, sales at restaurants open at least a year had risen 19 percent.

The concern over Yum’s continued slow growth in China was noticed by investors.

Andrew Robinson covers these beats: Restaurants, retail, attorneys, human resources, technology, K 12 education, automotive (dealers, services), media/marketing/printing, young professionals, West End, East End and Oldham County.

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BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s economy strode further along the road of recovery from its slowest growth in three years, data for October showed on Friday, as infrastructure investment accelerated and output from the country’s factories ran at its fastest in five months.

China’s economy expanded at 7.6 percent in the second quarter, its weakest quarterly growth in more than three years, as exports slowed and domestic demand struggled to take up the slack.

The uptick in key economic activity indicators last month, after signs of a rebound emerged in September data, cemented the view of many analysts and investors that China’s rebound was now gathering momentum thanks to a raft of pro growth policies rolled out by the government in recent months.

China’s factory output and retailsales exceeded forecasts and inflation unexpectedly cooled tothe slowest pace in 33 months, signaling the government isboosting growth without driving a rebound in prices.

“It’s pretty clear that there is no hard landing risk, that the economy will improve in the fourth quarter and we’re going to see 9 percent year on year growth in the first half of next year,” Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist and strategist for non Japan Asia, Credit Agricole CIB, told Reuters.

That’s a bold call on growth after seven successive quarters of slowing activity dragged the annual rate of economic expansion down to 7.4 percent in Q3 – its lowest since early 2009 – leaving the world’s second biggest economy on track to mark its most sluggish year since 1999.

Each percentage growth of Indian economy has benefitted negligible proportion of poor people as compared to China or South Korea,” said Gopinath at the World Economic Forum on India conference here.. To embark on a new growth path, India needs to create a consensus on reforms, revitalize the manufacturing industry that will create better jobs in the organized sector, and remove rigid labour laws.. “India needs a strong manufacturing base which today accounts for just 16 percent of the GDP.

The benchmark Reuters poll taken in October after Q3 GDP data forecasts first half growth in 2013 of 7.8 percent, but Kowalczyk is not alone in being above consensus – and being further convinced that October’s numbers are a turning point.

“The key question for investors is whether China’s economic growth has truly bottomed out,” Ting Lu, chief China economist at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong, wrote in a note to clients.

From rapid urbanization and economic growth to social and political development, China has marked many milestones and firsts in the past decade – highlighting its significance on the global stage.

“Based on October data, especially the 9.6 percent industrial production growth reading, the answer is firmly ‘yes’,” said Lu, who expects China’s GDP growth to run at an 8.3 percent pace in the first half of 2013, picking up from a 7.8 percent rate in Q4.

Risk assets were somewhat less emphatic in their response to numbers that showed upside surprises in industrial output, fixed asset investment – up 20.7 in the first 10 months of the year – and retail sales, up 14.5 percent in October on the year.

Fixed asset investment excluding rural areas increased 20.7percent in the first 10 months of 2012 from a year earlier,compared with the 20.6 percent median analyst estimate and a20.5 percent pace in the January September period.

While Asian currencies were broadly steady to firmer and Brent crude and base metals nudged higher, equities were subdued by worries about the risks from the so called “fiscal cliff” in the United States and fresh concerns about sovereign debt problems in Europe.

“Equities in China are highly correlated with the economic cycle in and we strongly believe that the economic cycle in China justifies higher valuations going forward,” Kowalczyk said.

BASE EFFECTS FLATTERLu meanwhile cautioned that there is risk of a strong base effect flattering the H1 numbers next year, but points out that infrastructure investment has accelerated solidly since the government began fast tracking major projects a few months ago, underpinning domestic economic activity.

Lu says total planned investment in newly started projects, a leading indicator of FAI, accelerated to 35.2 percent year on year in October from 31.3 percent in September.

Despite signs of strength, analysts broadly say that further gains depend largely on the government maintaining its commitment to pro growth monetary and fiscal policies, even though few economists expect additional action in the near term.

“we don’t expect any easing in monetary policy until the end of this year because it would be unnecessary as the economy is recovering,” Yao Wei, China economist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong, told Reuters.

Beijing has been fine tuning economic policy for a year to support growth, and analysts expect that program to broadly remain in place after a new leadership of the ruling Communist Party is unveiled at a congress that began on Thursday.

Outgoing party chief, President Hu Jintao – almost certain to be succeeded by Vice President Xi Jinping – said in a speech to the congress that China would stick to policies fostering sustainable, long term economic development with the aim of doubling GDP over the 10 years to 2020.

Hu Jintao, China’s president, delivers his speech at the opening of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, on Thursday, Nov.

China has cut benchmark interest rates twice this year, lowered bank reserve ratios three times since late 2011 and made repeated, large scale liquidity injections into the financial system to underpin slowing growth in the short term.

NAGGING DOWNSIDE RISKSFriday’s data, key barometers of both domestic activity and output from China’s export oriented factory sector, offered further evidence that policy loosening had worked and had left the authorities with room to do more if necessary.

Consumer inflation eased to its slowest pace in nearly three years in October, with the 1.7 percent rise from a year ago slower than the 1.9 percent posted in September.

Factory gate prices in October fell 2.8 percent from a year earlier, a touch faster than the forecast fall of 2.7 percent but easing from September’s 3.6 percent annual drop, which bodes well for a corporate sector struggling to cope with falling profits due to producer price deflation.

The nagging downside for company earnings of falling producer prices and industrial production still firmly below its double digit trend, despite the latest uptick, are reasons why Alistair Thornton, an economist with IHS Global Insight in Beijing, believes it is too early to declare that growth has definitively stabilized.

“Over the next couple of months, the economy will most likely continue to bounce off the bottom, although the balance of economic forces is shifting more to the upside than the downside.”.

(Additional reporting by Beijing Economics Team; Editing by Alex Richardson).

The odds of political cooperation in Washington are as hard to gauge as the economic outlook.

We are more cautious on the economic outlook than the FOMC (top graph).

Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, said voters could send a message to politicians that they need to cooperate and confront the nation’s looming fiscal issues.

Said Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economics and public policy professor.

Allen Sinai, chief economist with Decision Economics, sees the US economy diving back into recession in 2013 if Washington doesn’t avoid the fiscal cliff.

The Federal Reserve, which has been optimistic forecasting the economy’s performance, anticipates an acceleration next year to a growth rate of 2.5 percent to 3 percent.

But if policy makers strike a plan that revamps the tax code in a way that supports economic growth and shrinks deficits, Mr Sinai said, he sees the boost to confidence adding as much a percentage point to the US growth rate and bringing the unemployment rate down more quickly.

He has called for higher taxes on individuals with taxable income of more than $200,000 a year and on couples making more than $250,000.

With the so called fiscal cliff of higher taxes and more spending cuts due by year end, its hard to believe the rise government spending will go up next year.

He also has called for lowering the corporate tax rate to 28% from 35%, while eliminating a number of unspecified business deductions.

Mr Obama is likely to benefit from an extraordinarily low interest rate environment for at least a few more years.

IRVINE, California (Reuters) – The US Federal Reserve’s unconventional monetary policies have lowered borrowing costs and boosted growth without creating unwanted inflation, a top Fed official said on Monday, predicting the Fed’s latest round of asset buying will exceed $600 billion.

Confirmation battles in a year could set the stage for Congress to draw new battle lines over the stance of Fed policy.

For now, the Fed looks sure to be geared toward promoting US economic growth, particularly in such rate sensitive sectors of the economy as housing and car sales.

Sonecon’s Shapiro says that “the central economic problem” of the next four years is to “change the path of earnings” so the benefits of economic growth reach ordinary workers, not just corporations and their shareholders.

Consumer purchases of automobiles rose 8.9% in the third quarter from a year earlier and home construction increased 13.8%, according to Commerce Department data.

“We are seeing what is beginning to look like a pretty healthy housing market,” said Joel Shine, chief executive of Woodside Homes, a West Coast home builder.

China’s economy grew by 7.4 percent in the third quarter, missing the government’s target and falling to its slowest rate of growth since the global financial crisis.

GDP grew 7.4 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, in line with forecasts of economists polled by Reuters who expected the first miss of the official target since Q1 2009′s 6.5 percent.

A separate release fromthe National Bureau of Statistics showed that gross domesticproduct expanded 7.4 percent in the third quarter from a yearearlier.

Industrial production, retail sales and investment data were all slightly ahead of forecasts, however, and quarter on quarter GDP growth was strong, suggesting the worst may be over and the world’s No.2 economy will pick up in the final quarter – as a once a decade leadership transition gets under way in Beijing.

“Those fearing a hard landing will be able to sleep a little better tonight, but those positioned for a clear recovery might be disappointed,” Alistair Thornton, senior China economist at IHS Global Insight wrote in a client note.

But Premier Wen Jabao is still optimistic China can reach its target of 7.5 percent growth for this year, saying on Wednesday the economy is stabilizing and has been “relatively good” the past three months.

“We have 7.7 percent growth in September, which laid a solid foundation for achieving the full year growth target. So we are confident that we can achieve 7.5 percent full year growth or above,” NBS spokesman, Sheng Laiyun, told a news conference.

Fixed asset investment during the January to September period was up 20.5 percent, slightly faster than 20.2 percent growth forecast by analysts.

Riskier assets reacted positively, with Asian shares outside Japan rising to a 7 month high, while the Australian dollar, sensitive to Chinese demand for industrial commodities, touched its highest in two weeks.

HEALTH WARNINGWhile GDP growth at 7.4 percent would be cause for joy in recession stalked developed economies, it represents a sharp slowdown for China, where GDP grew 9.2 percent in 2011 and has averaged an annual rate around 10 percent for three decades.

Fixed asset investment rose 20.5 percent in January September from a year earlier, ahead of the 20.2 percent consensus forecast, although still down from around 25 percent seen for most of last year.

Consumption also quickened, with retail sales in September expanding by 14.2 percent year on year, ahead of the 13.2 percent forecast, which would have been unchanged from August.

The increase was driven by company controlled comparable sales growth of 21 percent, with average retail sales per comparable store during the past 12 months reaching a record $2.1 million, a 31 percent increase over the prior year period.

Growth in factory output came in at 9.2 percent, slightly ahead of both the 9.0 percent forecast and August’s 8.9 percent.

Meanwhile the NBS revised five prior quarters of seasonally adjusted GDP data to show the economy bottomed in Q1.

“We prefer to exercise the usual caution in interpreting these numbers, given the seemingly conflicting trends in other data (such as PMI, corporate profits, trade, etc.) in the first half of this year,” Yao Wei, chief China economist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong, wrote in a note to clients.

The biggest upside surprise in the data flurry also carried the biggest health warning – a quarter on quarter surge of 2.2 percent in Q3, implying an annualized growth rate of 8.8 percent.

It was far ahead of Q2′s 1.8 percent quarterly growth, a level that investors had expected to hold steady.

In addition, the company delivered strong volume growth in key emerging markets such as Thailand (+19 percent) and India (+15 percent) in the quarter.

“The quarter on quarter data has in the past on many occasions been hard to reconcile and hard to replicate,” Zhang Zhiwei, chief China economist at Nomura in Hong Kong said.

UNCERTAIN PROPERTY MARKETReal estate investment, which affects 40 other business sectors from cement and steel to furniture, was also an area of uncertainty for economists.

It rose 15.4 percent in the first nine months of 2012 from a year earlier, slowing from an annual increase of 15.6 percent in January August.

Meanwhile, land sales growth slowed to 4.9 percent in September from a year earlier, down sharply from August’s 20.4 percent, according to Reuters’ calculations based on NBS data, and newly started property construction fell 8.6 percent in the first nine months of the year, accelerating the January August fall of 6.8 percent.

“There is still a bit of uncertainty around how much housing can hold up. That’s a critical sector, representing 27 percent of (total) investment and that’s probably where the uncertainty is at the moment,” Zhang said, adding that nevertheless signs pointed clearly to a visible rebound in GDP growth in Q4.

Beijing reduced its full year growth target to 7.5 percent for 2012 from the previous 8 percent, and the consensus forecast of economists polled by Reuters is that it will deliver on that goal with an expansion of 7.7 percent.

Indeed, Premier Wen Jiabao was quoted by local media as saying on Wednesday that the economic situation in the third quarter was relatively good, and the government was confident of achieving its goal.

But the steady slowdown has confounded forecasters repeatedly this year, with the initial consensus call for growth to bottom in the first quarter being persistently beaten back to its present position of a trough in the third quarter followed by a mild uptick in the fourth quarter.

This outlook assumes total sales growth during the fourth quarter of at least 20 percent.

LIQUIDITY TAPS OPENSome analysts cite electricity usage growth running at roughly half the average rate of the last five years as a manifest sign of economic malaise.

That could stem from a more efficient use of energy, or be a sign that China’s much heralded rebalancing away from dirty, resource intensive heavy industry towards services and domestic consumption is gaining traction.

Economists meanwhile say the financial system’s liquidity taps have been opened and that fine tuning policies – Beijing’s mantra for a year now – are working.

The fine tuning includes two interest rate cuts, three cuts to the proportion of deposits banks must keep as reserves (RRR) – freeing an estimated 1.2 trillion yuan ($190 billion) for lending – and approvals in the last month for infrastructure projects worth about $157 billion, although Beijing has not said explicitly where the money to fund them is coming from.

And investors should expect still to see further moves to underpin the fledgling recovery that the new leadership of the ruling Communist Party – set to be unveiled at a Congress next month – will want to cement.

Ting Lu, China economist at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch thinks 100 basis points of RRR cuts by year end could come alongside more aggressive acceleration of new infrastructure project approvals and faster construction of existing projects.

“With the political dust almost settled, top policymakers have been shifting their focus on stabilizing economic growth and financial markets,” Lu wrote in a note to clients.

(Additional reporting by Beijing Economics Team; Writing by Nick Edwards; Editing by Ian Geoghegan and Alex Richardson).

Most of the growth has been between the middle class and top earners, with the disparity becoming more extreme the further one goes up in the income distribution.

In 2010, the top 1 percent of US families captured as much as 93 percent of the nation’s income growth, according to a March paper by Emmanuel Saez, a University of California at Berkeley economist who studied Internal Revenue Service data.

The credit crisis we experienced a few years ago reflects this trend: Middle class Americans were simply on an unsustainable path with regard to taking on debt to support unaffordable lifestyles.

Putting all political bickering aside, the continued disparity in wealth and income is not a healthy thing for the long term growth of the economy.

The economy can only grow at its potential if there is a large pool of consumers that is both willing and able to spend money to drive that economic growth.

Friday’s report underscored how slowly the jobs market is recovering from the depths of the 2008 financial crisis and likely will stoke increased debate amid the halting gains the latest numbers indicate.

And the growth in incomes and spending we’ve seen since the financial crisis has been driven by those at the top.

The Bloomberg article said, “The earnings gap between rich and poor Americans was the widest in more than four decades in 2011, Census data show, surpassing income inequality previously reported in Uganda and Kazakhstan.

Data from a number of sources indicate that income inequality over all has grown significantly since the late 1970s, after several decades of stability.

“The article goes on to say:In 2010, the top 1 percent of US families captured as much as 93 percent of the nation’s income growth, according to a March paper by Emmanuel Saez, a University of California at Berkeley economist who studied Internal Revenue Service Data.”.

Not surprisingly, this issue is taking center stage in this year’s presidential election.

Republicans argue that a stronger private sector is the answer to the problem of inequality.

They argue that government spending and taxes should be cut so that private industry can create more jobs, effectively lifting up the middle class in a process known during the Reagan administration as “trickle down economics.

A broken middle class isn’t just an economic challenge — it also erodes political stability, said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc.

The prospect of a synchronised recession across the global economy loomed larger on Thursday after news that China’s factory output shrank for an 11th straight month, Europe’s recession intensified and the manufacturing sector in the US had its weakest quarter in three years.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Manufacturing closed out its weakest quarter in three years this month as foreign demand for US goods continued to fade, an industry survey showed on Thursday.

Four years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered the biggest slump since the 1930s, a range of gloomy data highlighted the struggle of policymakers to boost activity.

Analysts said Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, high commodity prices, the legacy of the financial collapse and tension between the world’s three biggest economies had soured the economic environment since the start of 2012.

However, renowned financial organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund, also compliment the resilience of the South Korean economy against various economic crises, citing low state debt, and high fiscal reserves that can quickly be mobilized to address any expected financial emergencies.

Japan, involved in a territorial row with China over disputed islands, reported a drop in exports for a fourth month, leaving the country on course in 2012 to run a trade deficit for a second year.

Meanwhile, a flash estimate of US industry in the third quarter from Markit showed that output has barely been rising over the summer.

The purchasing managers index stood at 51.5 in September, down from 54.2 in June and the weakest since September 2009.

“Manufacturing isn’t looking good,” said David Sloan, economist at 4Cast in New York.

Growth in Asia, and China in particular, is slowing down, so US growth is going to have to be domestically generated.

Japan needs further easing, while China “should have easier interest rates to support slowing domestic activity but will need to be targeted to avoid another housing boom,” Bennett said.

“Markit chief economist, Chris Williamson, said: “With output growing at the slowest pace since the recovery began, the manufacturing sector may have even acted as a slight drag on the economy in the third quarter.

We’renot altogether hopeful about that,” Markit chief economist ChrisWilliamson said.. “Further macroeconomic stimulus – including a weaker euroand an ECB rate cut – is likely to be needed to put the regionon a path of sustained growth and hence ensure the survival of(the euro zone),” said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING.. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.. Fortune dives into a medical device giant’s decision to illegally test a bone cement on patients, which reportedly resulted in at least five deaths.  Read more at Counterparties  . DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s economy unexpectedly failed to grow in the second quarter, just about skirting a return to recession after a poor first three months of the year, and making it trickier to meet modest 2012 growth targets set under its EU/IMF bailout.. Irish gross domestic product (GDP) has been one of the most resilient in the euro zone during the debt crisis, growing by 1.4 percent last year but the export led nature of that growth makes it vulnerable to a slowdown among its trading partners.. Ireland therefore sees GDP growing by just 0.7 percent this year, a view backed up by another set of disappointing euro zone business activity surveys on Thursday, but the flat second quarter only slightly bettered the 0.7 percent dip in the first.. “It was disappointing.

We can only hope that the improved sentiment on financial markets in the wake of the latest actions by the central banks will spill over to the real economy – not just in Germany – and help foster a gradual recovery in the fourth quarter.

Indeed, further macroeconomic stimulus – including a weaker euro and an ECB rate cut – is likely to be needed to put the region on a path of sustained growth and hence ensure the survival of EMU.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – US manufacturing suffered its weakest quarter in three years and conditions at European businesses worsened, surveys showed on Thursday, while China’s economy continued to lose momentum.

The data shed more light on the difficult task facing global policymakers, particularly in Europe and the United States, who have tried to boost growth with aggressive monetary stimulus.

European stocks remained weaker and the euro depreciated against the dollar on Thursday as fresh data compounded concern about global growth, while yields on the debt of fiscally strained euro zone nations were stable after a Spanish government bond sale exceeded targets.

The US manufacturing sector closed out its worst three months since the third quarter of 2009 in September, according to financial information firm Markit.

Export orders fell for a fourth month running as demand from Europe and Asia faded, with September’s slide the steepest in nearly a year.

“Manufacturing isn’t looking good,” said David Sloan, economist at 4Cast Ltd in New York, adding that “the global situation is a restraint on the US economy.”.

Growth in Asia, and China in particular, is slowing down, so US growth is going to have to be domestically generated.

A separate report showed factory activity in the US mid Atlantic region shrank for the fifth month in a row in September, though the rate of contraction was not as severe as in prior months.

The fall in the PMI is another reminder that the ECB’s new asset purchase program is not an answer to all of the region’s problems,” said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics, in a research note. “The euro zone recession looks set to deepen in the latter part of the year.

A preliminary euro zone purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, for the euro zone fell to its lowest level since June 2009.

“MORE STIMULUS EXPECTED IN CHINA, EUROPEExport driven Asian economies struggled also again in September.The China HSBC manufacturing PMI inched up in September to 47.8 from August’s nine month low of 47.6, suggesting the world’s second largest economy remains on track for a seventh quarter of slowing annual growth.”.

In order to convert hopes into reality and avoid an outright hard landing, the Chinese authorities have to step up again their accommodative efforts on both the fiscal and the monetary side,” said Nikolaus Keis, economist at UniCredit.China’s economic slowdown is expected to reach its nadir this quarter, with a recovery of momentum delayed until the final quarter, leaving growth for 2012 likely to fall below 8 percent, a level last seen in 1999, a Reuters poll showed last week. <ECILT/CN>European Union and Chinese leaders are meeting in Brussels on Thursday leaders to try to bridge growing differences over trade and find common ground on tackling Europe’s debt crisis.European manufacturers performed slightly better than economists had hoped this month, while the downturn in Germany, the euro zone’s largest economy, also eased a bit.”.

LONDONConstruction across the euro zone continued to decline in July, indicating the single currency area will likely struggle to post economic growth in the third quarter of this year, data showed Wednesday.

We’re not altogether hopeful about that,” said Markit chief economist Chris Williamson.However, trouble for French factories and service oriented businesses increased at a faster pace than expected.Altogether, the surveys bolstered expectations that the ECB will cut its main interest rate in October to a new record low.”.

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) – China sounded the alarm about the state of the global economy on Saturday and urged countries gathering at an Asia Pacific summit to protect themselves by forging deeper regional economic ties.

Chinese President Hu Jintao said his country would play a role in helping deepen cooperation between the 21 members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) by rebalancing its economy to improve the chances of a global economic recovery.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had also expressed concern about the world economy on Friday, and particularly about Europe’s debt crisis, as he prepared to host the annual APEC summit in the Pacific port city of Vladivostok.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) listens to Chinese President Hu Jintao during their meeting at the APEC summit in Vladivostok September 7, 2012.

The underlying impact of the international financial crisis is far from over,” Hu told businessmen in a speech before the summit.. “We will work to maintain the balance between keeping steady and robust growth, adjusting the economic structure and managing inflation expectations.

“We will work to maintain the balance between keeping steady and robust growth, adjusting the economic structure and managing inflation expectations. We will boost domestic demand and maintain steady and robust growth as well as basic price stability,” he said.

Hu said China was addressing problems such as creating jobs since its economic growth slowed.

But China’s economy remains dominant in Asia and it is key to Russia’s decision to look eastwards as it seeks to develop its own economy.

Hu also announced a $157 billion government spending drive to boost infrastructure in agriculture, energy, railways and roads as well as pledging his country’s support for greater trade liberalisation.

“We should improve and explore new mechanisms for infrastructure investment and financing, and encourage participation in infrastructure development by various actors,” he said.

Hu steps down as China’s top leader in the autumn after a Communist Party congress, but he promised continuity and stability for the economy.

Putin, who has just begun a new six year term as president, said for his part on Friday that Russia would be a stable energy supplier and a gateway to Europe for Asian countries, and also pledged to develop his country’s transport network.

The economic side effects of the European sovereign debt crisis, accompanied with slowing US and Chinese growth continues to provide obstacles to world economic growth.

Having almost no natural resources and always suffering from overpopulation in its small territory, which deterred continued population growth and the formation of a large internal consumer market, South Korea adapted an export oriented economic strategy to fuel its economy, and in 2010, South Korea was the seventh largest exporter and tenth largest importer in the world.

Boosting trade and growth is vital for APEC as a whole as it tries to remove trade barriers that hinder investment.

Putin limped slightly as he greeted other leaders at the summit on Russky Island, linked to mainland Vladivostok by a spectacular new bridge that cost $1 billion, but aides said he had merely pulled a muscle.

“Discussions at the two day meeting will focus on food security and trade liberalisation. An agreement was reached before the summit to slash import duties on technologies that can promote economic growth without endangering the environment.Ministers agreed on a list of 54 green technologies that will be subject to import duties of 5 percent or less from 2015, following through on a commitment made by leaders at the last APEC summit in Honolulu a year ago.According to summit documents seen by Reuters, the list includes equipment used in generating power from renewable energy sources such as the sun, wind and biomass; treating waste water; recycling and environmental monitoring.Breakthroughs are not expected on other trade issues at the summit, which US President Barack Obama is missing. He has been attending the Democratic Party convention and Washington is being represented by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Clinton also called for trade liberalisation and balanced economies in a speech to businessmen, saying “a balanced and stable economy is a challenge too sweeping and complex for countries to approach in isolation.

Some countries are confronted with complex and difficult sovereign debt problems,” he said.. He added that “the grave challenges in the global economy” were having an impact in the Asia Pacific and urged steps such as greater government spending on infrastructure to help boost development.. China has approved a massive infrastructure package worth more than 1.0 trillion yuan ($158 billion) and encompassing 55 projects ranging from subway lines to highways, Chinese state media reported on Friday.. Hu Jintao acknowledged Chinas economy faced "notable downward pressure", hitting exports and general business activity (AFP/File, Mark Ralston). NEW DELHI: Although global slowdown is affecting the country, the fundamentals of Indian economy are strong and the government is taking a series of steps to see it moves to a higher growth trajectory, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth today.. The world economy is passing through a very difficult phase and the performance of the Indian economy has to be viewed in this context, Seth said at Global Summit, organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.. “There is no dearth of projections and statistics which we see bandied about, about what the growth rate (is).

TOKYO (Reuters) – Risk assets from stocks, through oil to the Australian dollar fell on Tuesday as investors waited for a gathering of central bankers and economists at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, later in the week, that could shed some light on a possible US Federal Reserve stimulus plan.

“Investors appear to be deferring decisions in the short term until after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech in Jackson Hole this weekend,” said Cho Byung hyun, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities.

The past month’s broad based rally has been driven by hopes for more easing from the Fed to support growth through a third round of bond buying or other measures, and expectations the European Central Bank will act to firmly cap borrowing costs.

But investors, becoming wary of the past month’s rally which has extended in absence of any concrete action, turned to growth worries to dictate trade this session.

MIAPJ0000PUS inched down 0.3 percent to a three week low, dragged down by its materials sector .

AXJO pared early gains to trade flat as iron ore miners were hit by uncertainty over global growth, while Japan’s Nikkei stock average .

N225 turned negative and traded down 0.3 percent, weighed by a drop in its China linked index .

We have seen quite a lot of shorting on some China linked names, some of the machinery, chemical that kind of stuff,” a senior dealer at a foreign bank said.Shanghai shares .SSEC steadied after slumping to their lowest level since March 2009 on Monday on fading hopes for more “formal” monetary easing to underpin China’s fragile growth, as the Chinese premier failed to refer to the possibility in recent comments.”.

We believe the cautious (Chinese) response reflects mixed economic assessments from government officials, the acceleration of inflation in July, and lack of clear policy direction during a period of political transition,” said Barclays Capital analysts in a research.The Australian dollar, a typical gauge for investor risk appetite and highly sensitive to the outlook of Chinese economy, hit a five week low against the US dollar of $1.0345.Some see value stocks even in the current environment, as companies have strengthened their balance sheets by cutting costs and building cash buffers.”.

The US economy has picked up a little but that’s coming from a low level, while in Europe, all the macro numbers seem to suggest the economy is not faring very well.

It’s not exactly a healthy picture for the global economy,” said Kwok Chern Yeh, head of investment management, Japan, at Aberdeen Investment Management in Tokyo.”.

China, India and other major developing countries have reportedly started showing signs of declining economic growth in the wake of the Euro crisis and a sluggish US recovery.

Over the last few decades, the term ‘Third World’ has been used interchangeably with the Global South and Developing Countries to describe poorer countries that have struggled to attain steady economic development.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it highlighted the intensification of concern about the developing world, nations that had helped prop up global growth but which are now beginning to slow, and may be nearing crises of their own.

The IMF sounded cautious about a situation where rounds of government stimulus spending and low interest rates have failed to take hold, and left developing and as well as developed countries saddled with debt and other problems that give them little room to maneuver if conditions get worse, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Overall, the world economy is still expected to expand by 3.5 percent in 2012 and 3.9 percent next year, only slightly less than fund economists had forecasted in April, the report cited.

However, the research found that the trend is in the wrong direction, in which the growth in the first months of the year was stronger than expected, and the slowdown in developing countries means the world is losing one of its few economic bright spots.

The Developing 8 are a group of developing countries with large Muslim populations that have formed an economic development alliance.

Now the opposite concern has taken hold as investors pull back in light of the slowdown.

But the IMF said it is worried that some of the world’s previous star performers could face a quick turnaround if conditions deteriorate.

“If and when a large downside shock ultimately materializes, these combined vulnerabilities could quickly come to the fore, putting financial stability to a serious test,” the fund concluded.

But “expanding credit significantly at the current juncture would heighten asset quality concerns and potentially undermine GDP growth and financial stability in the years ahead,” the fund said.