Tokyo - Japan's current account surplus shrank 17.3 per cent to 1.53 trillion yen (14.22 billion dollars) in July, compared with the same month a year before, thanks to expanding imports, the government said Wednesday.

The surplus shrank for the fifth-consecutive month as import growth was led by high prices for fuel, the Finance Ministry said.

The goods and services trade surplus plunged 93.5 per cent to 29.2 billion yen.

The goods trade surplus shrank 69.8 per cent to 232.2 billion yen while the services trade marked a deficit of 203 billion yen, down 35.8 per cent from a year before.

Washington - Azerbaijan made more pro-business reforms than any other country over the last year, while Singapore remains the best place in the world to run a business, the World Bank said Wednesday.

Azerbaijan helped Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia make more progress than any other region - more than 90 per cent of countries made improvements that made it easier to run a business.

Berlin - A surge in imports caused an unexpected cut in Germany's trade surplus for July, according to figures released by the federal statistics office Tuesday, in further evidence of an economic slowdown in Europe's largest economy.

Imports rose 16 per cent to 73.2 billion euros (103 billion dollars), with imports from outside the European Union (EU) soaring 20 per cent to 26.2 billion euros.

Germany's trade surplus fell to 13.9 billion euros, from a surplus of 18.1 billion in July 2007.

In June, the trade balance was 19.9 billion euros in surplus.

Hanoi - Vietnam needs to spend nearly 2 billion dollars by 2020 to shore up its coffee industry and compete on the international market, a government official said Tuesday.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development last month approved a plan to enhance the competitiveness of Vietnamese coffee by improving coffee strains, farming techniques and processing technologies, Deputy Minister Diep Kinh Tan said.

"It's important to raise the quality of Vietnamese coffee," Tan said. He said the country would not necessarily increase the quantity of coffee it grows.

Washington  - US stocks soared early Monday as investors welcomed the US government's takeover of beleaguered mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and broader Standard & Poor's 500 index both climbed more than 2 per cent in morning trading in New York, before retreating slightly from their early highs. Asian and European stocks also made extensive gains Monday.

London- Financial stocks led a rally on almost all world stock markets Monday, caused by the US government's decision to take control of embattled mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The only significant market indices to buck the trend were China's Shanghai Composite and the smaller Shenzhen Component, which fell 2.7 and 3.0 per cent respectively.

In London, Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) was the strongest performer, gained as much as 15 per cent, with Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays rising more than 14 per cent.