A look at economic developments and stock market activity around the world Monday:
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BEIJING _ China will continue buying U.S. government debt while paying close attention to possible fluctuations in the value of those assets, People's Bank of China Vice Governor Hu Xiaolian said at a news conference. China is Washington's biggest foreign creditor, holding an estimated $1 trillion in U.S. government debt. A weaker dollar would erode the value of those assets. Hu's comments follow remarks earlier this month from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that he was "a little bit worried" about China's holdings of U.S. government debt. Wen called on the U.S. to honor its commitments, remain credit-worthy, and ensure the safety of Chinese assets.
Shanghai's key index added 2 percent to 2,325.48 on higher commodity prices alongside a broad rally in Asia. Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped 613.91, or 4.8 percent, to 13,447.42, and South Korea's Kospi climbed 2.4 percent to 1,199.50. Australia's benchmark gained 2.4 percent, while India's Sensex climbed 5.1 percent to 9,424.02.
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THE HAGUE, Netherlands _ The incoming chief executive of Dutch financial services company ING Groep NV made a "moral appeal" for his senior staff to pay back their 2008 bonuses. The call by Jan Hommen comes with ING under fire for handing its new chief financial officer 100,000 ING shares as part of his enlistment package, despite a government bailout of billions of euros to prop up the banking and insurance group. Some ING managers have indicated they were prepared to relinquish their bonuses, Hommen was quoted as saying in an interview published in the daily De Volkskrant.
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GENEVA _ Efforts to kick-start the global economy with billion-dollar spending packages will be in vain unless the financial industry comes clean about the full extent of its losses, the International Monetary Fund's managing director said. Experience from past financial crises shows that cleaning up banks' balance sheets is essential if the world is to return to growth in 2010, Dominique Strauss-Khan said.
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CAIRO _ Saudi Arabia's information minister says the OPEC powerhouse is committed to continuing with its long-term oil sector investment plans, despite the current global economic crisis.
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CALGARY, Canada _ Canada's Suncor Energy Inc. will acquire Petro-Canada in a 19.12 billion Canadian dollar ($15.4 billion) deal, the oil and gas companies announced. The move is expected to yield savings in operating costs of over 300 million Canadian dollars ($242 million) a year, and annual capital efficiencies above 1 billion Canadian dollars ($806 million), the companies said.
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LONDON _ Britain's FTSE 100 closed up 2.9 percent to 3,952.81, Germany's DAX climbed 2.7 percent to 4,176.37, and France's CAC 40 advanced 2.8 percent to 2,869.57.
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BERLIN _ The economic malaise that has gripped the world will deliver a heavy blow to export-oriented Germany, Commerzbank AG warned as it revised down its outlook for the continent's biggest economy. Joerg Kraemer, Commerzbank's chief economist, said that in light of plunging order intakes among German companies, gross domestic output in 2009 would drop not by 3 or 4 percent, as previously forecast, but by a massive 6 to 7 percent.
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TOKYO _ Tokyo shares soared, with the country's benchmark hitting a two-month high, after Japan's finance minister said aggressive public spending to the tune 20 trillion yen ($208 billion) might be needed to end the country's painful recession. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock average surged 269.57 points, or 3.4 percent, to 8,215.53 as a weaker yen also boosted sentiment.
Separately, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. said it will shutter dozens of branches and cut 1,000 jobs as part of continuing efforts to streamline operations since Japan's biggest bank was formed through a merger three years ago.
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ATHENS, Greece _ Greece is not planning any new measures to reduce its swelling deficit, the finance minister said, despite a warning from a top European Union official claiming tighter budget policies are needed.
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BEIRUT _ Lebanon's economic growth in the first two months of this year slipped to 4 percent, but the tiny Mediterranean nation should escape largely unscathed from the effects of the global economic meltdown if the security and political situation remains stable, the Central Bank governor said. But Riad Salameh's comments to reporters were soon followed three hours later by a bombing that killed a top Palestinian official and three others in southern Lebanon. The incident marked the first apparent assassination in the country in six months, and underscored the difficulty of pinning economic hopes on security in a nation that has endured decades of war and sectarian fighting.
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JAKARTA, Indonesia _ Indonesia's exports are expected to fall by 4 percent to 5 percent this year as demand for natural resources plunges amid the global economic slowdown, a top central bank official said.
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