In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief.

No need for rate cuts yet, says Fed chief

TheUS Federal Reserve sees no need to lower US interest rates in the light of recent adverse economic data, Ben Bernanke said yesterday, challenging market expectations of imminent rate cuts.

But the Fed chairman said risks to both inflation and growth had increased in the past few weeks and the US central bank would respond flexibly to future economic news.

Mr Bernanke told the joint economic committee of Congress: "To date the incoming data have supported the view that the current stance of policy is likely to foster sustainable economic growth and a gradual ebbing in core inflation."

The Fed's recent policy statement was not intended to signal that the Fed now had a neutral policy stance, he said. "I want to emphasise that we have not shifted away from an inflation bias," he said. - (Financial Times service)

CSO's balance of payments data

Rising imports dented Ireland's balance of payments last year but the impact was cushioned by the strong performance of the services sector, data released by the Central Statistics Office yesterday show. The deficit on the current account balance - which reflects mostly the excess of income earned by foreign-owned entities in Ireland over Irish income earned abroad - was €5.8 billion in 2006, up from €4.2 billion in 2005.

The merchandise trade surplus, the balance of exports over imports of physical goods, deteriorated significantly as the level of imports rose to €57.6 billion in 2006, up €3.5 billion on 2005. Exports rose by €1.1 billion to reach €84.8 billion. The resultant merchandise surplus, €27.2 billion, compared with a €29.61 billion surplus last year. However, the service sector - where imports still exceed exports - partly offset this as growth in services exports reduced the size of the services deficit. Due to a €7.9 billion increase, service exports rose to €54.1 billion. Services imports rose by €6.1 billion to reach €62.3 billion, resulting in a €579 million reduction in the services deficit.

Merge export bodies, says report

The amalgamation and consolidation of State-sponsored export promotion bodies should be considered to help boost Irish exports, a new report from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business has recommended.

All of the agencies should operate from one location and local embassies should be closely interlinked with their efforts, the report from Senator Terry Leyden concluded.

"Locating all overseas offices of agencies supporting exporters in one building with one contact number will facilitate companies working abroad," he said.

Representatives from the various trade and export organisations should attend the seminars of the National Trade Forum (NTF) in order to realise its potential as a guiding authority for future trade policies, said Mr Leyden.

Barclays warns on ABN Amro price

Barclays, the British bank, yesterday said it would walk away rather than overpay for ABN Amro of the Netherlands, but rejected suggestions that it might then be vulnerable to a takeover itself.

John Varley, Barclay's chief executive, said: "If we can't get the deal we want, then we can walk away. There's a price at which it would be right to do the deal. And there's a price at which it would be wrong to do the deal."