CHINA

World leaders must focus on bolstering growth in a global economy still scarred by crisis, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Saturday as the heads of the Group of 20 nations gathered in Canada.

World leaders neared agreement on Saturday to halve their budget deficits within three years but, fearing spending cuts would jeopardize a fragile recovery, they planned to allow each country to set its own pace.

A draft communique from the Group of 20 wealthy and emerging countries welcomes China's move to make its currency more flexible and its efforts to boost domestic demand, a G20 official said on Saturday.

World leaders hoping to shore up a fragile economic recovery will leave it to individual countries to decide how best to repair battered budgets without stunting growth.

World leaders cast about for a common approach on Saturday to securing an uneven economic recovery that is showing signs of fading.

The world's richest economies, saddled with huge debts after spending their way out of the credit crisis, papered over differences on Friday on how to clean up their finances with minimal damage to growth.

Most principles embodied in a new set of financial regulatory rules proposed by the United States and Europe also fit China, and embracing them early would help it strengthen financial stability, the country's deputy central bank governor said on Saturday.

Premium-car maker Volvo, which Ford is selling to China's Zhejiang Geely, has hired the head of Volkswagen's North America business as its chief executive.

The dollar climbed against the euro and fell against the yen on Friday as investors sought safety on concerns about euro zone fiscal strains and data showing soft U.S. economic growth.

Electronics maker Foxconn Technologies, under fire for its working practices after a string of worker suicides, will sign over management of staff dormitories at its complexes in Shenzhen, southern China, to other companies, it said on Friday.

There is no basis for major appreciation of the yuan, given China's shrinking trade surplus, although the country's latest yuan policy will help to restructure its economy in the long run, a senior central banker said on Friday.

The dollar rose against the euro and fell against the yen on Friday as investors sought safety amid ongoing concerns about fiscal strains in the euro zone and after a report showed soft U.S. economic growth data.

Yuan is the new driving force behind the base metals. Following China's announcement that yuan will be freed from the dollar peg, global base metals market has surged in a rapid way.

The euro fell broadly on Friday after investors pulled back from riskier assets as share prices fell, but the market was wary of chasing prices aggressively ahead of a Group of 20 leaders' summit.

The yuan CNY=CFXS ended at 6.7900 against the dollar on Friday, its highest close since its July 2005 revaluation, after the central bank set the daily reference rate at a post-revaluation high in an apparent goodwill gesture ahead of the G20 summit.

Asian stocks fell for a fourth straight session on Friday, driven by expectations of tighter financial regulation ahead of the weekend G20 meeting and uncertainty about the global economic recovery.

Asian stocks on Friday slid for a fourth straight session, driven by expectations of tighter financial regulation ahead of the weekend G20 meeting and uncertainty about the global economic recovery.

The dollar made little headway on Friday in subdued trade as traders marked time ahead of a Group of 20 leaders' summit this weekend, but remained wary about chasing riskier assets given debt and growth worries.

China's Ministry of Commerce, a long-standing opponent of a stronger yuan, fell into line on Friday behind the scrapping of the currency's peg to the dollar but said the exchange rate would climb only gradually.

The yen rose broadly and stayed near a 1-month high against the dollar on Friday on short covering, and as falls in regional share markets prompted traders to further sell risky currencies such as the Australian dollar.

Buyout funds are making a comeback, scouring deals from Australia to America after nearly two years of virtual shutdown, but private equity-backed M&A volumes remain far short of the boom times.