Beijing, Mar 10 : A research paper issued by the China Policy Institute of the University of Nottingham (UK) has revealed that China is likely to overtake Japan to become the world''s second largest economy, either this year or by 2010.

Yao Shujie, the author of the research paper told China Daily in a telephonic interview, "Right now, we don''t have figures for Japan''s GDP in 2008, but I think China may have already overtaken Japan last year."

Manila  - Philippine merchandise exports contracted 41 per cent in January as demand slowed down amid the global financial crisis, the government said Tuesday.

The National Statistic Offices said export receipts in January were only 2.49 billion dollars, compared to 4.23 billion dollars the same month in 2008, and down from from
2.67 billion dollars in December.

Geneva - Brazil should further reduce barriers to trade in order to boost its economy, particularly given the global economic downturn, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said in a report released Monday.

The report was prepared in February ahead of Brazil's trade policy review, which goes on for three days and will conclude on Wednesday.

Brussels  - Eurogroup finance ministers were meeting in Brussels on Monday amid growing concerns that the European economy may get stuck in recession until
2010, prompting possible new bail-outs of troubled countries and shedding some 6 million jobs in the process.

Latest projections from the European Central Bank (ECB) suggest euro area gross domestic product (GDP) could shrink by up to 3.2 per cent this year, far more than previously expected.

GDP could either fall by 0.7 per cent or rise at the same rate in 2010, the ECB said.

Manila  - The global financial crisis has slashed the value of financial assets worldwide by a massive 50 trillion dollars last year, a study by the Philippines-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Monday.

Developing Asia suffered more losses than other emerging market regions at 9.6 trillion dollars, according to the study, Global Financial Turmoil and Emerging Market Economies: Major Contagion and a Shocking Loss of Wealth?

Tokyo  - Japan saw the first current-account deficit in 13 years and a record amount in January as the trade balance widened due to declining exports, the Finance Ministry said Monday.

Japan's deficit amounted to 172.8 billion yen (1.76 billion dollars) in January, compared to surplus of 1.16 trillion yen in the same month a year before.

Goods and services trade logged a record deficit of 1.1 trillion yen.

In goods' trade, Japan saw a deficit of 844.4 billion yen, compared to surplus of 71.3 billion yen a year earlier.