Gold rose more than 30 percent in 2007.

SINGAPORE,
Dec. 31--Gold rallied to a 7-week high on Monday and close to a record high of $850 on speculative buying driven by a weak dollar and tensions in Pakistan following the assassination of opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto.
But thin trading in Asia ahead of the New Year holidays meant gold and other precious metals were prone to sharp fluctuations. Platinum dropped but held near last week’s record high of $1,542 an ounce, Reuters wrote.
Spot gold hit an intraday high of $842.90 an ounce before dipping to $842.00/842.80. This was still higher than $837.80/838.50 late in New York on Friday.
“There’s still a potential for further unrest in Pakistan following Bhutto’s assassination. I guess there’s a potential for us to push higher and test the highs around $847 at least,“ said Darren Heathcote of Investec Australia in Sydney.
Gold rose more than 30 percent in 2007--the biggest annual gain since 1979--as a number of factors, including weak dollar, record-high crude prices, credit market turmoil and falling US rates, boosted its safe-haven appeal.
The latest safe-haven buying was sparked by Bhutto’s killing last week, which plunged Pakistan into crisis.
Oil was steady at $96 a barrel on Monday, heading for its biggest annual gain this decade as growing geopolitical concerns and dwindling consumer nation stockpiles outweighed the risk of a softening US economy.
US light crude for February delivery trimmed earlier gains to stand 5 cents higher at $96.05 a barrel by 03:02 GMT. London Brent crude rose 9 cents to $93.97 a barrel.
Oil prices are up 57 percent since the start of the year and touched a record high of $99.29 on November 21 as a falling dollar and thinning inventories stoked investor interest.
The dollar was under pressure Monday as expectations of more US interest rate cuts enhanced the euro’s yield advantage, while the yen benefited from a reluctance to hold risky positions over the holidays.
The euro was hardly changed at $1.4715, compared to $1.4714 late in New York on Friday and just off a two-week high of $1.4727. The dollar was barely moved at 112.60 yen, having fallen almost a full percent on Friday to 112.63.

Alexei Kudrin

MOSCOW, Dec. 31--Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) reached $1.25 trillion in 2007, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told reporters this week.
According to him, the country’s GDP increased more than six-fold as compared to 2000, when it amounted to $200 billion, Itar-Tass reported.
Therefore, Russia will reach the level of developed countries in terms of its per capita GDP, which will rise to $11,000-12,000, Kudrin said.
He pointed to the high rates of Russia’s economic development and stressed that, as per forecasts, investment growth will reach 20 percent compared to the average 11.8-percent in the last few years.
The country’s capital influx will reach $75-80 billion and real incomes of the population will increase by 10 percent, Kudrin said.
At the same time, the deputy prime minister believes that the main goal is to guarantee stable economic development.
He also expressed hope that joint work with the new State Duma would help to reach the goal.

Suez Canal is Egypt's third largest source of revenue, after tourism and remittances from expatriate workers.

ISMAILIYA, Egypt, Dec. 31--Transit fees for ships using Egypt’s Suez Canal will increase in 2008 by an average of 7.1 percent, the canal authority said on Sunday.
Fees will rise by 5.7 percent for container ships, by 7.3 percent for oil tankers and by 10.5 percent for natural gas ships, authority chief Ahmed Ali Fadel told reporters in the canal city of Ismailiya, AFP reported.
Passenger ships’ fees will increase by 5.2 percent, naval vessels will see a 10 percent increase and all other types of ships will increase by five percent, Fadel added.
The authority, which has run the canal since its nationalization in 1956, last raised transit fees in April 2007.
The Suez Canal, which opened in 1869, is Egypt’s third largest source of revenue, after tourism and remittances from expatriate workers.
Fadel said he expected canal revenues to reach $4.6 billion in 2007, the highest ever.
Fifty years after its nationalization, the Suez Canal is more vital than ever to Egypt’s economy and revenues from transit fees look set to continue a spectacular rise.
“Since the first oil crisis in 1973 and the soaring prices, the economic importance of the canal for Egypt never ceased to grow and it has become an irreplaceable source of income,“ economist Samir Radwan told AFP.
Radwan stressed that the success of the strategic waterway parting the desert and linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea had also triggered a boom in surrounding areas.

KARACHI, Pakistan, Dec. 31--Pakistan’s shares slid on Monday in its first reaction to the assassination of former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, whose death last week plunged the country into one of its deepest crises.
In early trade, the benchmark Karachi Stock Exchange 100-share index fell 4.3 percent, close to the market’s limit of 5 percent. Under market rules designed to prevent panic selling, the index cannot move by more than 5 percent in a day, Reuters wrote.
Bhutto was killed in a gun-and-bomb attacks on Thursday ahead of elections scheduled for January 8, throwing into doubt a smooth transition to civilian-led democracy after almost a decade of military-backed government under President Pervez Musharraf.
The market was shut on Friday because of the assassination.
In related news, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said Friday Pakistan’s sovereign credit ratings could be lowered “if the assassination of Benazir Bhutto precipitates heightened levels of violence and political turmoil“.
“The assassination in itself will not result in a rating action. However, a further weakening of Pakistan’s institutions, in conjunction with rising levels of violence and disorder, and the possible postponement of the Jan. 8 elections would lead to a rating downgrade,“ the ratings agency warned, MarketWatch wrote.

SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 31--South Korea’s Financial Supervisory Commission has unveiled a slew of rule changes aimed at encouraging foreign investors to trade in securities in the domestic market.
The revised rules will take effect Jan. 1, 2008, the financial regulator said in a statement Sunday. Changes include allowing foreigners to invest in domestic bonds through omnibus accounts managed by the International Central Securities Depository, AP wrote.
An omnibus account is a general account held by a financial intermediary that may be used to clear or settle transactions for clients of the account holder. It allows individual foreign investors not to reveal their identity.
Foreign investors are currently required to register with the Financial Supervisory Service and open an account under their own names to trade local bonds.
Finance Minister Kwon O-kyu said in May the government would introduce the omnibus account system for foreign investors later this year or in early 2008.
From next year, foreigners will also be able to trade in bonds and stocks with other foreign investors off the market, the FSC said. Foreign investors currently can trade in securities only in the market with a few exceptions.
“We expect the revised rules to help South Korea to acquire Developed Market status from FTSE next year,“ the financial regulator said.
In September this year, FTSE said some restrictions in securities transactions among foreign investors in South Korea were the critical area keeping the country from getting upgraded to Developed Market classification.
South Korea is currently classified by FTSE as an “Advanced Emerging Market.“
FTSE Group is a financial information company owned by The Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange.
Meanwhile, South Korea announced a New Year’s Eve amnesty Monday for tens of businessmen, including the former chairman of collapsed conglomerate Daewoo Group.
Kim Woo-choong, who was sentenced last year to 8 1/2 years in prison for embezzlement and accounting fraud, was pardoned under the presidential amnesty. Others received reduced sentences or had suspended rights restored.
The Justice Ministry said the pardons would take effect Tuesday.

CANBERRA, Australia, Dec. 31--Australians who have run up credit card bills they are unable to repay may face the loss of their homes, a consumer advocacy group was quoted by UPI as saying.
The Consumer Credit Legal Center said banks, instead of garnishing paychecks and repossessing items bought on credit, are more likely to start bankruptcy proceedings, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
“It scares the hell out of me,“ said Katherine Lane, a lawyer with the group. “If debt-collection practices become harsher, we’re just going to see more desperate people.“
Australians charged $20 billion ($17.5 billion US) in December. The total owed on credit cards is expected to be $43 billion ($37.6 billion US) by the end of the year.
Lane said debtors could be declared bankrupt and forced to sell their homes to cover their debts within three months of a creditor taking action, even when they are current on mortgage payments.

BEIJING, Dec. 31--China will extend a nationwide crackdown on shoddy food products into the New Year as it seeks to restore confidence in the “made in China“ label, according to a government statement seen Monday.
From Jan. 1, the crackdown will focus on 28 categories of food, including rice, cooking oil, meat, dairy products, instant noodles, tea and beer, the nation’s product quality watchdog said on its website, AFP wrote.
The sale of such food products without the required quality and inspection certificates would also be curbed and violators severely punished, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said.
China has been embarrassed, and its vital exports sector threatened, in 2007 by mounting reports of shoddy, fake or dangerous food and other products.
Chinese-made goods ranging from seafood to car tires to children’s toys have been hit with bans and recalls overseas amid safety fears.
In response, China in August launched a four-month crackdown, which the official Xinhua news agency said had resulted in 192,400 unlicensed food shops being closed and some 1,254 tons of substandard food withdrawn from domestic markets.
The government had earlier also reported hundreds of arrests in the campaign, which had been set to conclude at year-end but will now continue.
The product watchdog’s announcement made no mention of how the extended crackdown was expected to affect export products.

LONDON, Dec. 31--Singapore’s economy probably expanded for a 15th quarter as a buoyant jobs market spurred demand for goods and services and construction companies increased building.
Gross domestic product grew an annualized 3.1 percent in the three months ended December, easing from 4.3 percent in the previous quarter, according to the median forecast of 12 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The trade ministry’s report is due at 8 a.m. in Singapore on Jan. 2.
Government efforts to transform the island into a financial hub for hedge funds, insurers and banks this year spurred a flurry of building of condominiums and office towers. The unemployment rate is at a 9 1/2-year low and the number of workers hired probably reached a record in 2007.
“Domestic consumption has been picking up as incomes are rising and the services industry is still going strong,“ said Prakriti Sofat, an economist at HSBC Holdings Plc in Singapore. Singapore is a developed economy growing annually at the pace of India or Vietnam and that’s impressive.“
From a year earlier, the economy probably expanded 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter after growing 8.9 percent in the previous three months, according to the median forecast of 15 economists in the Bloomberg survey.
The government expects a rate of growth of between 7.5 percent and 8 percent this year, and as much as 6.5 percent in 2008.
Still, the expansion has raised concern that the $132 billion economy is overheating, with consumer prices rising at the fastest pace in more than 25 years. Inflation pressures are likely to increase as companies pass on rising business costs, according to economists.
Office rents in Singapore’s central business district are at unprecedented levels and private home prices have climbed every quarter for the past 3 1/2 years.
Average monthly wages rose 6.9 percent in the third quarter, according to the Ministry of Manpower.