Beijing  - How large is China's economic stimulus package?

This question not only occupied the delegates of the National People's Congress, whose annual session ended Friday in Beijing, but also representatives of foreign companies who want to know what is going to be in the picture for China's economy.

In November, the programme designed to stimulate the economy was announced in the amount of 4 trillion yuan (586 billion dollars).

But concrete details were still lacking as congress delegates demanded "more transparency."

Berlin  - Group of 20 (G20) finance ministers and central bankers are meeting near London Friday amid signs of renewed tensions over the action to combat the global recession and the long-term drive to tighten global market regulation.

Gathering in the neo-Jacobean splendour of the South Lodge Hotel in the rolling green hills on the outskirts of the British capital, the finance ministers from the world's leading industrial and emerging nations will also set the stage for next month's summit in London of the G20 government chiefs.

Hong Kong  - Li Ka-shing, Asia's richest man outside India, has lost more than 10 billion US dollars of his fortune in the past year, Forbes business magazine said Thursday in its list of the world's richest people.

The 80-year-old Hong Kong tycoon has seen his wealth fall from 26.5 billion US dollars to 16.2 billion US dollars this year, the magazine said.

The loss saw him drop from 11th to 16th on the list of the world's wealthiest, but he remained the richest man in Asia outside India, the annual survey concluded.

Stockholm  - Saab, the loss-making Swedish subsidiary of US giant General Motors Corp, Thursday said it planned to shed 750 employees from its workforce of about 4,000 in Sweden.

Broadcaster TV4 said 650 of the affected employees were blue- collar workers.

The employees were informed about the plans Thursday.

Saab last month filed for bankruptcy protection while it attempts to reorganize its business. That move came after GM said it planned to shed the brand as part of its restructuring efforts.

Bangkok  - The value of Cambodia's garment exports in January was 27 per cent lower than in the same period last year as demand in the United States and Europe slumped, national media reported Thursday.

Garment exports were worth about 246 million US dollars in January 2008 but had dropped to about 177 million in the first month of this year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Commerce.

Exports to the United States dropped by about 35 per cent while exports to Europe were down by about 10 per cent.

Tokyo  - Japan's economy shrunk an annualized 12.1 per cent in the final quarter of 2008, according to revised statistics released Thursday by the Japanese government.

Initial figures had projected a 12.7-per-cent contraction for the gross domestic product (GDP.)

Nonetheless, in light of an unprecedented drop in exports, Japan's economy has shrunk the most since the oil crisis 35 years ago.

According to the revised figures, GDP in the third quarter of 2008 shrank only 3.2 per cent instead of the 3.4 per cent initially projected.