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US
Fed keeps key interest rate steady
Washington: The Federal Reserve, keeping a close
eye on the fragile, postwar economy, held a key interest
rate steady at a 41-year low on Tuesday. But policy-makers
opened the door to a possible rate reduction in the future
in the event that business conditions take a turn for
the worse.Fed chairman Alan Greenspan and his Federal
Open Market Committee colleagues opted for now to keep
the federal funds rate at 1.25 per cent. The funds rate
is the interest banks charge each other on overnight loans
and is the Fed's primary tool for influencing economic
activity.
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US,
Singapore to ink free trade pact
Washington: President Bush and Singapore prime
minister Goh Chok Tong were set on Tuesday to sign a bilateral
free trade agreement linking the world’s largest
economy to the financial hub of southeast Asia.The pact
adds the city state of 4m mostly ethnic Chinese to a short
but growing list of US free trade partners that now includes
Canada, Mexico, Israel and Jordan.It is the first US free
trade agreement with a country in Asia and the first signed
by the Bush administration since taking office in January
‘01. The agreement strengthens economic ties with
a key ally in the US and offers increased US trade and
investment throughout the region, which includes the large
Muslim countries of Indonesia and Malaysia.
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US
probes if Boeing misused Lockheed
papers
Washington: In a sensational case involving two
rocket giants, the US Justice Department, along with the
Pentagon, is probing whether Boeing misused Lockheed Martin's
papers, obtained from a rocket scientist it had hired
away from Lockheed, in the competition for space-launch
business. While the department is investigating whether
Boeing illicitly obtained or used the competition-sensitive
documents belonging to Lockheed as part of a carefully
plotted campaign to win the military contract, an Air
Force administrative inquiry is also under way to determine
whether to suspend or bar Boeing from certain military
work.
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