Business news with words economy+growing. 60 or more news.

Reuters - Oil steadied near $96 a barrel on Monday, heading for its biggest annual gain this decade as dwindling fuel stocks and growing concern over political turmoil offset the impact of a softening U.S. economy.

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil steadied near $96 a barrel on Monday, heading for its biggest annual gain this decade as dwindling fuel stocks and growing concern over political turmoil offset the impact of a softening U.S. economy.

Several nations have opened or revived consulates in Denver in recent years -- one sign of Colorado's growing stature in the world economy.

HONG Kong's exports grew at the slowest pace in 14 months in November on weak demand in the United States, where a housing recession threatens to stall economic growth. Shipments rose 6.6 percent from a year earlier to HK$244 billion (US$31 billion) after gaining 9.8 percent in October, the statistics department said yesterday. The deepest housing slump in 16 years may undermine US consumer spending. The US economy will expand at a one percent annual pace in the fourth quarter after growing at a 4.9 percent rate from July through September, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed this month by Bloomberg News.

If 2007 was a year of ructions in financial markets, for the real economy it was one of real progress. True, there were huge pressures on the world economy from rising energy and food prices, from the decline in the dollar and, within much of the developed world, growing indebtedness; and it was true, too, that it saw rising concerns about inequality and the environment. Yet for the world as a whole, 2007 saw growth at around 5 per cent, with rising living standards in almost every country, rich or poor. We don't have final figures yet, but according to estimates from the International Monetary Fund, 2007 looks like being one of the best years in terms of growth and living standards of any for the past quarter-century.

CINCINNATI -- Challenged by a troubled U.S. economy and the steeply falling dollar, a growing number of U.S. manufacturers are making up for slowing domestic sales by expanding them overseas, often with sophisticated products.

GUANHZHOU Toyota Motor Co Ltd plans to raise its sales target by 17 percent next year as it launches new models and on an expanded output capacity. The second Chinese joint venture of Toyota Motor Corp aims to sell 210,000 vehicles next year, including 175,000 units of Camry premier sedan and 35,000 Yaris hatchback which is scheduled to sell domestically in the middle of next year, the company said yesterday. Guangzhou Toyota has pinned high hopes on the Yaris, one of the Japanese car maker's global models, to tap the nation's fast growing economy car segment amid rising demand for fuel-efficient models. "The competition in the premier class segment will be more intense next year," said Yuan Zhongrong, executive vice president of Guangzhou Toyota. "The launch of Yaris meets local demand and will be key to fulfill our target." Guangzhou Toyota raised its sales target twice to 170,000 units this year fueled by high demand for the Camry sedan as its only

CHINA'S central bank raised interest rates six times in 2007 and stocks in the world's fastest growing economy are still more than twice as expensive as United States shares. PetroChina Co, whose market value tops Exxon Mobil Corp's by 39 percent, earns half the profit of the largest US oil company. China Mobile Ltd, the Beijing-based wireless carrier, is worth 41 percent more than AT&T Inc and brings in two-thirds its revenue. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd has grown to almost double the size of Bank of America Corp with a third the US lender's earnings. While the People's Bank of China pledged "forceful measures" and raised interest rates to a nine-year high last week to curb inflation and investing, stocks in the CSI 300 Index trade at 44.7 times earnings, the most expensive among the 10 largest markets, and more than double the ratio for the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, data compiled by Bloomberg News show. The benchmark is up 171 percent this year in US

Chinese central bankers raised interest rates six times in 2007 and stocks in the world's fastest growing economy are still more than twice as expensive as U.S. shares.

DETROIT -- Some up-and-coming Michigan entrepreneurs are betting they can boost their businesses and the state's struggling economy by giving each other a helping hand.

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Fund manager pessimism about the global economy deepened in December, but they don't believe a recession is in the cards, according to Merrill Lynch's monthly survey.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis released its regional economic outlook Tuesday forecasting a growing economy at a slow pace.

While donors and the middle class crow about growth statistics, the masses ask: for whom is the economy growing, says John Githongo

US stocks posted their biggest two-day drop in more than a month, led by energy companies and miners, on growing concern that the US economy will slow. Exxon Mobil Corp., the biggest US oil company, and Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the...

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, told a Treasury committee that the rise in inter-bank spreads is not due to any shortage of cash, but rather to concerns about where derivative losses come to rest, and over the past four weeks, growing doubts about the health of the U.S. economy. The coordinated action was to demonstrate central banks were working together and to show they were conscious of bank concerns. He said there's a misunderstanding about central bank injections, noting for example that the European Central Bank in net terms has injected "hardly any" funds into the euro-area banking system.

US stocks tumbled today on worries the housing slump was dragging on the economy at the same time inflation was posing a growing menace.

WASHINGTON - Support is growing on several fronts in Washington for mortgage-industry reforms and homeowner-assistance programs with broader potential impact than the Bush administration's plan to freeze interest rates on a small percentage of home loans.

Bank of England policymakers voted unanimously in favour of this month's interest rate cut amid growing fears of a sharp slowdown in the economy

The Bank of Japan's tankan quarterly survey showed confidence among firms fell, adding to worries on the economy.

The economy is growing at a "gathering pace" and "strongly on all fronts", says President Thabo Mbeki in his political report.