Wednesday brought gloom to Quebec as its Finance Minister Monique Jerome-Forget warned that the province will be forced to post a deficit in 2009-2010 because of the current global economic crisis.

"The budget has got to reveal the truth," she said in a news conference.

"I have no intention of playing a game here. No intention. I am going to tell the truth and the truth is that we're being affected."

The budget is expected to be listed in March. For the first time in the last decade the province is, in most probability, about to show a deficit.

Hong Kong - The head of HSBC bank in Asia Thursday warned of the dangers of "financial nationalism" by banks because of the recent crop of stimulus packages by governments worldwide.

Sandy Flockhart, chief executive officer for the bank's Asia-Pacific banking operations, also warned of bail-out funds being swallowed up by "fringe projects."

Seoul  - South Korea's central bank on Thursday cut interest rates for the sixth time in four months to 2 per cent, a new record low, as the country heads towards recession.

The Bank of Korea cut its base rate by 0.5 percentage points to 2 per cent.

Since October, the rate was slashed by 325 basis points, but bank Governor Lee Seong Tae did not rule out further cuts to counter the recession threatening the country for the first time in 11 years.

Sydney  - Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's 42-billion-Australian-dollar (27-billion-US-dollar) spending programme was voted down in the upper house of the federal parliament on Thursday.

The opposition Liberal Party voted against the package and Labor failed to win the support of independent MPs it needed to get the legislation through both houses of parliament.

Rudd said the massive stimulus package would put the government deeply into debt but was necessary to stop the faltering economy from falling into recession.

Singapore  - Singapore Thursday announced a 4.2-billion-Singapore-dollar (2.78-billion-US-dollar) financing scheme that is projected to generate 14.4 billion Singapore dollars' worth of trade and 1.6 billion Singapore dollars worth of overseas investments this year.

Some 2,500 companies would benefit from the scheme in the form of loans, said the International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the city state's trade promotion agency.

Washington  - US lawmakers reached a compromise deal Wednesday on a record economic recovery package which could allow the plan to pass both houses of Congress before the end of the week.

The leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives ironed out differences in separate versions of the stimulus bill and knocked the total price tag down to 789 billion dollars. The measure includes a mixture of tax cuts and government spending projects to pull the US out of its worst recession in decades.