Washington  - US economic activity has slowed across all regions of the country since mid-October, the Federal Reserve warned Wednesday, deepening an already-existing recession in the world's largest economy.

All 12 regional Federal Reserve banks reported "weakened" activity in the central bank's latest Beige Book, a regular report on the economy that was last published October 15.

Sharp drops in retail and car sales as well as weak home sales have spurred the declines. Reports across the services industry "were generally negative," the Fed said.

The availability of loans "contracted" in residential, commercial and industrial sectors, the result of a massive ongoing financial crisis.

Wellington  - New Zealand's Reserve Bank announced Thursday a record 1.5 per cent cut in its benchmark interest rate to 5 per cent - the lowest level in five years.

Washington  - President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday welcomed plans submitted this week by US carmakers to Congress seeking billions of dollars in government assistance to keep them afloat.

Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC on Tuesday asked for a total of 34 billion dollars from the government to see them through the economic downturn as sales of vehicles fell to the lowest level in 25 years. The chief executives of the so- called Big Three are to testify before Congress later this week on the requests.

Washington  - President-elect Barack Obama nominated Bill Richardson as his commerce secretary on Wednesday, the first Hispanic member of his cabinet and the latest key player in the new administration's economic recovery team.

Richardson, who endorsed Obama for president after his own abbreviated run for the White House this year, brings a wealth of experience in executive and legislative positions to Obama's administration, which will take over on January 20.

Hanoi  - The Vietnamese government has announced a fiscal stimulus package to compensate for the effects of the global economic recession, Vietnamese media reported Wednesday, but analysts said it remained unclear how large the package was and whether it would be spent in an effective manner.

The package includes an order to the Finance Ministry to make 1 billion dollars worth of foreign currency reserves available to high-priority development projects, many of which have been delayed by financing problems in recent months as foreign credit has dried up.

Jakarta - Indonesia's exports declined by more than 11 per cent in October, dragged down by weak demand and falls in prices for the country's products, media reports said Tuesday.

Total export value reached 10.8 billion dollars for the month, a 11.6 per cent decline compared with the previous month's figure of 12.23 billion dollars, the National Statistics Agency said.

Exports for first 10 months of the year stood at 118.4 billion dollars, up by 26.9 per cent over the same period in 2007, the agency said.