Market Information

NEW Zealand’s annual trade deficit narrowed to the smallest in almost three years as soaring prices for dairy products buoyed export earnings. The shortfall shrank to NZ$4.41 billion (US$3.5 billion) in the 12 months ended on February 29 from NZ$4.8 billion in the year through January, Statistics New Zealand said in Wellington yesterday. It was the narrowest gap since the 12 months ended in April 2005 and was less than the median estimate of NZ$4.54 billion in a Bloomberg News survey of 10 analysts. Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard is looking to exports, which make up 30 percent of the NZ$104 billion economy, to buoy growth as he keeps interest rates at a record high to curb domestic demand. Growth may miss the central bank’s forecasts as drought and falling world prices curb dairy exports, which make up a fifth of all overseas shipments. World dairy prices soared to a record in November amid surging demand from China. Prices have fallen 6.6 percent in the past three months, and drought has hit milk production, according to Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd.

Via:   Dairy exports lower NZ trade gap

via Shanghai Daily: Business by Tracy Withers on 3/28/08

Property prices in major Chinese cities remained high, but rose at a slower pace in February, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. The average housing price in China’s 70 large and medium-sized cities climbed10.9% in February
Source:  Housing prices rise 10.9% in major Chinese cities in Feb.

via China Business on 3/18/08

A COURT in the southern Guangdong Province has fined a five-star hotel after holding it responsible for leasing space to a seller of knockoff Louis Vuitton products. The Intermediate People’s Court in Dongguan City ordered the hotel to pay 100,000 yuan (US$14,124), in combined compensation with the shop manager, to the French luxury goods producer. The court also ordered the shop and the hotel to stop selling the products and destroy any remaining counterfeit items. The court documents didn’t name the hotel but said it collected a monthly rental of 20,000 yuan from the shop. The documents said the salespeople in the shop wore hotel uniforms. “There were no signboards or any notices in the shop for customers to be able to identify that its management was independent from the hotel,” the court ruled. Louis Vuitton demanded compensation of 500,000 yuan from the hotel and a public apology. But the court said the hotel hadn’t caused widespread market harm to the brand. The French firm has also won a suit against a Chinese handbag producer for copying its trademark design, sources within the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing said. The court heard the handbag company obtained a Chinese patent in October 2003 for a bag design, but Louis Vuitton said it was too similar to its trademark design. It took the Chinese company to court in April The court said it had no jurisdiction over the validity of the patent, but could order the firm to stop using the design because it was being disputed.

Source: Bag maker sues fakers

via Shanghai Daily: National by on 3/19/08