S.Korea cuts rates again, Obama to address crisis

Source: Agencies  |   2008-11-7  |     ONLINE EDITION

SOUTH Korea's central bank cut interest rates for the third time in a month today to soothe markets and shore up its economy, after a flurry of deep rate cuts across Europe failed to calm panicky investors.

Central bank action could not halt a slide in global stock markets and coincided with a warning by the International Monetary Fund that the developed economies were headed for the first full-year contraction since the World War Two in 2009.

"Increasingly, the signs point to a deep and synchronised global recession that began last quarter and has gathered momentum," said Bruce Kasman, an economist at JPMorgan Chase in New York.

The IMF cut its 2009 global growth forecast to 2.2 percent from 3 percent, a prediction made only last month, and urged governments to ramp up spending to support the economy.

Asian stocks fell for a third day and commodity prices also tumbled, as layoffs and corporate profit warnings piled up.

Later today, Barack Obama is due to hold his first news conference since winning the US presidency after a meeting with his economic team, as the world awaits signs of how he might tackle the economic crisis.

Markets are particularly keen to learn who will become Obama's Treasury Secretary, but it was not clear when he might announce his choice.

Among those seen as leading candidates for the job are Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker.

Investors also looked anxiously ahead to today's US jobs payroll report for October, which is expected to further underscore the weakening economy.

According to the median of a Reuters forecast of 87 economists another 200,000 non-farm jobs were shed last month, which would be the largest monthly cut in jobs since March 2003 and would mark a 10th straight month of losses.

CORPORATE WOES