Vienna  - The Austrian government is to raise guarantees on savings deposits to prevent funds from flowing to Germany, with proposals for the measure to be presented at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, reports said Monday.

Austrian Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Wilhelm Molterer announced the proposal, which comes after similar moves by countries such as Germany, Greece and Nordic states, on television late Sunday,

Stockholm/Copenhagen  - Sweden and Denmark on Monday joined the growing group of European countries that have raised state guarantees for bank deposits amid the ongoing financial turmoil.

The Swedish government said it planned to double the state guarantee to 500,000 kronor (70,000 dollars) for deposits in Swedish- owned banks.

"The measure aims at ensuring that savers continue to trust the financial system," Finance Minister Anders Borg and Local Government and Financial Markets Minister Mats Odell said.

Hong Kong  - The booming market for Chinese art appears to be the latest victim of the global economic downturn, a Hong Kong news report said Monday.

A Sotheby's auction of 20th-century Chinese art Sunday in Hong Kong saw 71 of the 110 lots go unsold, the South China Morning Post reported.

The most expensive work sold, an abstract painting by Zhao Wuji, fetched 4.22 million Hong Kong dollars (543,000 US dollars) after the auction house estimated it would bring in 4.7 million to 5.5 million Hong Kong dollars.

Jakarta  - Indonesia's central bank predicted the financial crisis that is rippling out from the United States to the rest of the world would shackle Indonesia's economic growth and cause a credit shortage for local business players, media reports said Monday.

"The shortage of global liquidity will be felt as a result of this crisis," said .Boediono, governor of Bank Indonesia.

"We must be prepared to face this over the next six months to one year," The Jakarta Post quoted Boediono as saying.

Sydney - Australian stocks lost ground at the opening bell Monday following the selloff last week on Wall Street.

The ASX 200 gave up 107 points, or 2.2 per cent, in the first hour of trading to 4,587.

Shares fell across the board, with mining stocks hit hardest because the financial crisis is slowing economies around the world and crimping demand for raw materials.

Brussels - The European Union has a common market and a common currency, supported by a common monetary policy.

But its jumbled response to the global credit crunch shows that it still lacks a common financial policy.

The governments of Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Britain and the Netherlands have so far adopted ad-hoc approaches to bank rescues and savings protection.