Manila - Developing Asia's economic growth is expected to slow down in the next two years due to high oil and food prices and an economic slump in industrial countries, a report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Tuesday.

The Manila-based ADB said developing Asian economies will revert to moderate growth of 7.5 per cent in 2008 and 7.2 per cent in 2009 after posting their fastest growth of 9.0 per cent in 2007.

Warsaw - Prime Minister Donald Tusk's bold plan for Poland to adopt the euro by 2011 has strong support among the business community and ordinary Poles, but others doubt that Warsaw can meet - or maintain - the strict economic criteria for joining the club.

Post-communist Eastern Europe's largest economy has in effect chosen high growth over low inflation and fiscal restraint. Poland's gross domestic product expanded 1.5 per cent in the second quarter compared to the previous three months, while the eurozone's GDP shrank by 0.2 per cent.

Milan, Italy  - The collapse of US bank Lehman Brothers reverberated in Italy's financial capital of Milan where the stock exchange plunged nearly 3.6 per cent by midday Monday.

Vienna - The price for crude oil produced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (O

Manila - Remittances from overseas Filipinos rose 18.17 per cent in the first seven months of the year as more Filipinos found employment abroad, the Philippine central bank said Monday.

The central bank said remittances from January to July reached 9.60 billion dollars, higher than 8.13 billion dollars in the same period last year.

In July alone, remittances from overseas Filipinos rose 24.64 per cent to 1.36 billion dollars from 1.09 billion dollars in the same month last year.

There are estimated to be more than 8 million Filipinos working abroad. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said that from January to July this year, an additional 761,836 Filipinos left for jobs abroad, a jump from 594,445 last year.

Singapore- Economic uncertainties pushed Singapore's overall unemployment rate up for a second consecutive quarter to a seasonally adjusted 2.3 per cent for the period between April and June, the Ministry of Manpower said on Monday.

Preliminary estimates showed the rate rose from a seasonally adjusted 1.7 per cent in the last quarter of 2007 to 2 per cent in the first quarter of 2008.

A seasonally adjusted 60,900 residents were unemployed in June, up from 54,300 in March, according to the figures.

The economy created 71,400 new jobs in the second quarter, slightly less than the 73,200 in the first, setting a record for the number of jobs added in a six-month period, the ministry said.