Beijing - China's domestic economy is facing increasing challenges despite rapid growth, the country's President Hu Jintao said Friday, pledging reforms after the Olympic Games.

Uncertainties and destabilizing factors in the global economy were increasing, Hu said in a group interview with foreign journalists.

At the same time, challenges in China were increasing, despite the economy growing by 10.4 per cent in the first quarter, he said. China was to ensure steady and fast growth while at the same time keeping fast-growing inflation in check, Hu said.

Bucharest  - Romania's central bank raised its key interest rate Thursday for the sixth time this year in a bid to fight inflation that is among the European Union's highest.

The quarter-point hike pushed the monetary policy rate to 10.25 per cent, keeping the cost of borrowing at a three-year high after consumer prices rose 8.6 per cent in June.

Prime Minister Calin Popescu-Tariceanu's government, which faces November parliamentary elections, recently pushed through increases in retirement benefits and the minimum wage - moves that will increase inflationary pressure, local analysts said.

Curbing inflation is a key requirement for Romania to switch its currency to the euro, a goal the government has set for 2014.

Berlin - European consumer prices jumped to a record 4.2 per cent in July, data to be released Thursday is predicted to say, increasing the pressure on the European Central Bank as it faces up to the threats posed by surging inflation and slumping growth.

Analysts' forecasts for consumer prices in July, which are to be released by European Union's statistics office Eurostat, would leave inflation in the 15-member eurozone at more than double the ECB's target of "close to, but just below 2 per cent".

Washington - The US Federal Reserve Wednesday extended until January 2009 its emergency lending programmes to investment banks suffering from an ongoing credit crisis.

The announcement lengthens direct lending options that are usually reserved only for commercial banks, but were first made available to financial firms at the start of 2008 in an effort to prevent a more serious collapse of investment banks and mortgage lenders in the United States.

The Fed also said it had increased its dollar swap line with the European Central Bank by 5 billion dollars to 55 billion dollars in an effort to boost the weak dollar.

New Delhi, July 30 : The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is disappointed over the inability of Trade Ministers to bridge their differences at the Doha WTO negotiations in Geneva.

In a statement, R Gopalakrishnan, Chairman, CII WTO and Trade Agreements Committee and Executive Director, Tata Sons Limited, said: "It is disheartening to know that the talks collapsed over the issue of a reasonable trigger point needed to safeguard the livelihood concerns of millions of subsistence farmers in developing countries.

Manila - A majority of Filipinos believed the Philippine economy worsened over the past three years despite government data of record growth in 2007, a survey showed Wednesday.

"Despite claims of economic growth by the national administration, 86 per cent say the national economy has worsened in the last three years," according to survey firm Pulse Asia Inc.

Pulse Asia said its nationwide survey on July 1-14 also showed that 81 per cent of 1,200 respondents said they personally felt the worsening of the economy.