
China is en route to become the world's second largest consumer market by 2015 following unprecedented growth several times faster than in developed countries during the last four decades, according to a report released by Boston Consulting Group.
October 19, two decades ago Alan Greenspan was fresh in the job, only two months before he had been named chairman of the Federal Reserve and that Monday was flying for a bankers conference to Dallas, Texas.
The International Monetary Fund should step up its surveillance of the United States and other advanced economies in light of the global credit crisis shaking world markets, the Group of 24 developing countries said Friday in Washington.
Finance ministers from the G7 group of leading industrial countries meeting in Washington have called on China to allow its currency to rise in value more quickly. Beijing must do more to let the Renminbi appreciate, said G7 ministers.

Spain's detention of the treasure-hunting ship Odyssey Explorer on Tuesday has prompted a diplomatic exchange between London and Madrid over the status of waters around Gibraltar.

Stocks of North Sea cod have slightly increased but quotas should remain in place for 2008, the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) said Friday. The independent scientific body monitors fish stocks in the North Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic Sea issued its latest projections of cod and other fish species on Friday.

The US dollar is in the midst of an extended period of decline which is forecasted to continue until the third quarter of next year according to the US Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI quarterly forecast.

Although the ozone layer over the Antarctic this year is relatively small, this is due to mild temperatures in the region's stratosphere this winter and is not a sign of recovery, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Thursday.

China's main oil coporation, government owned PetroChina Co. Ltd. shot past giant General Electric Co. to become the world's second-largest company. After its stock rose 13% on hopes of big new oil discoveries, the company's market value reached more than 430 billion US dollars, second only to Exxon Mobil Corp.'s 518 billion.

As oil prices hit new records the cartel of oil exporting countries promised Tuesday to respond to any supply disruption but also expressed concern about the rising prices which it attributes largely to market speculations.