Millionaires in Asia grew 9.7 percent to 3.3 million last year, and their total assets reached US$10.8 trillion, surpassing the US$10.2 trillion for Europe, according to a report released by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management and Capgemini yesterday.

Asian economies are closing the gap on the West in terms of their IT competitiveness, a study showed Tuesday, as they strengthen copyright protection and implement regulatory reforms.

As European and U.S. economies falter, China is making a trade push with the Arab world, where businessmen say recent political changes will further open up the region to investment.

The commodities-linked Australian dollar Thursday slumped below parity with the greenback for only the third time since October after the U.S. Federal Reserve's new measures to support its economy.

Asia's resilient economies are on a strong growth track, but must build up demand from their newly affluent consumers to offset shrinking exports to the crisis-hit West, the IMF said Tuesday.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) maintained its economic growth for Taiwan this year at 4.8 percent, but adjusted its growth for next year downwards from 5.0 percent to 4.7 percent in its latest report.

The downgrade of Japan's sovereign debt by Moody's will not affect Taiwan's business solicitation effort in the country, said Liu Yi-ju, chairwoman of Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) yesterday.

Developing Asia needs to create more high-quality jobs if the region is to sustain the rapid economic expansion seen over the past two decades, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Tuesday.

Asia's rice production is expected to reach 649.8 million tons this year, helping to push the world output to a new peak, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Wednesday.

Three publicly traded companies pitched their sales performances and rosy outlooks yesterday during the first of a series of business conferences held by the Taiwan Stock Exchange aiming to restore investors' confidence in the midst of the recent stock fiasco.