Beijing  - China's economic growth fell to 6.8 per cent in the final
quarter of 2008, its slowest expansion since 2001, as the global
economic downturn hit China's exports, the national statistics bureau
said Thursday.

The year-on-year growth rate compared to 9-per-cent growth in the third quarter, the bureau said.

For all of 2008, China's economy expanded at a 9-per-cent pace,
reaching 30.07 trillion yuan (4.42 trillion dollars), the first time
since 2003 that it had not hit double digits.

Seoul  - South Korea's economy contracted a more-than-expected 5.6 per cent in the final quarter of 2008 - its biggest drop since the Asian financial crisis a decade ago - as exports shrank, domestic consumption waned and business investment declined, the central bank said Thursday.

The fall in the country's gross domestic product (GDP) from the quarter before contrasted with a 0.5-per-cent rise in the third quarter. On a year-on-year basis, the fourth-quarter fall was 3.4 per cent as the global economic crisis gripped South Korea, the Bank of Korea said.

Hong Kong  - Hong Kong people will give out less cash in traditional Chinese New Year "lucky money" packets this year because of the economic slump, according to a survey released Thursday.

Twenty-four per cent of people interviewed in an annual survey said they would be giving out less money in the "lai see" packets handed out by adults to children and employers to employees to mark the start of the Lunar New Year.

Washington  - Opposition Republicans on Wednesday criticized President Barack Obama's proposals to stimulate the US economy, and legislators in the House of Representatives said they were seeking a meeting with the newly inaugurated Obama.

An 825-billion-dollar economic stimulus package is making its way through Congress. Obama has said he wants input from all sides, in keeping with his campaign promises to reach across partisan lines as president.

The French government is planning to give second aid package worth Euro 5 - 6 billion (up to US $8 billion) to struggling carmakers including Renault SA and PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister said that she thinks they will have a sufficient sense of responsibility to take these measures themselves but it would seem absurd to me to put state money ... into industrial sectors, into carmakers Renault or Peugeot, and for company boards to decide to award superbonuses with that money.

New York - Industrial concern United Technologies (UTC) reported Wednesday that it managed a 1.14 billion dollar profit in the fourth quarter of 2008, up from 1.06 billion dollars a year earlier, despite a slippage in sales.

The Hartford, Connecticut-based concern said sales came to 14.5 billion dollars in the quarter, compared with 14.7 billion dollars in the final 2007 period.

"UTC had a solid close to 2008 in spite of deteriorating end markets and currency headwinds," President and CEO Louis Chenevert commented in a company statement.