Washington - A key gauge of US economic performance dropped 0.7 per cent in July, a sharper slowdown than previous months and a sign of continuing weak growth in the world's largest economy, according to a private survey released Thursday.

The New York-based Conference Board also revised slightly its leading economic indicators of the last two months. June figures were reported level and May's index fell only 0.1 per cent - in both cases an upwards revision of 0.1 per cent.

Tokyo  - Japan's trade surplus in July shrank 86.6 per cent to 91.1 billion yen (829 million dollars) compared with July 2007, as China overtook the United States as the country's biggest export market, the Finance Ministry said Thursday.

The nation's exports rose 8.1 per cent to 7.63 trillion yen, and imports rose 18.2 per cent to a record 7.54 trillion yen, as high oil prices drove up the price of energy imports, shrinking Japan's trade surplus for the fifth month in a row.

The trade surplus with the rest of Asia jumped 42.3 per cent. Exports to Asia rose 12.7 per cent to a new peak of 3.86 trillion yen, and imports also went up 5.7 per cent to a record 2.93 trillion yen.

Taipei - The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) is to launch its fifth bond issue in Taiwan to raise funds for economic development in Central America, Taiwan's Central Bank said Thursday.

CABEI has applied to issue Taiwan-dollar bonds worth 7 billion Taiwan dollars (225 million US dollars), and the Central Bank has given it permission to issue the bonds before September 2010, the Central Bank said in a statement.

CABEI has not announced the date for the bond issue.

Since 1997, CABEI has launched four Taiwan-dollar bond issues in Taiwan, worth 17.8 billion Taiwan dollars.

Washington - Sixteen years after "it's the economy, stupid" became a slogan of Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaign, this year's presidential election has witnessed a resurgence of that idea.

With the war in Iraq and the wider threat of terrorism subsiding from the minds of many in the United States, the sputtering US economy has become the top issue of this presidential election season.

According to a CNN opinion poll this month, 48 per cent of voters said their decision in November would turn on which candidate has the best economic plan, nearly 30 percentage points higher than any other issue.

Vienna - The price for crud

Singapore - Members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are only "tiny blips" on investors' radar screens compared to China and India, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Wednesday.

Opening the 29th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) session, Lee said the 10-member group has to struggle to get its share of investments, jobs and growth.

Through hosting the Beijing Olympic, China had shown the world the talents, energy and organizational prowess of its people, Lee said. "India's economy too has considerable dynamism, and is moving up in terms of skills and technology," he added.