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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has threatened to ban some foreign media organizations from working in the country after what he described as alarmist coverage of the deepening financial crisis.

Lukashenko directed his harshest criticism Friday at the Russian media, since many Belarusians watch Russian television.

He also ominiously criticized Belarusian journalists working for foreign organizations and ordered the government to “make sure those media organizations no longer work on our territory.”

The National Bank this week cut the value of the Belarusian ruble against the dollar almost in half, which set off panic buying.

Belarusians are buying up goods and lining to get dollars or euros in an attempt to protect their savings.

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Indonesia’s economic growth slowed last quarter as investment eased, boosting scope to extend a pause in interest-rate increases after inflation moderated.

Gross domestic product in Southeast Asia’s largest economy rose 6.5 percent in the three months through March from a year earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in Jakarta today. It gained 6.89 percent in the previous quarter, according to previously reported data. The first-quarter number was lower than the 6.58 percent median forecast of 14 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.

“Investment wasn’t as good as in the fourth quarter last year,” Juniman, chief economist at PT Bank Internasional Indonesia in Jakarta, said before the announcement. “Private consumption was the main supporter of economic growth last quarter as inflation eased.”

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono aims to expand the economy at an annual average rate of 6.6 percent, partly by boosting investment in roads, railways and ports. The rupiah’s rise against the dollar is the second highest among Asia’s 10 most-traded currencies this year, as officials permit gains to restrain price pressures fueled by the growth.

The Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) fell 0.2 percent as of 11:19 a.m. local time today, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The rupiah declined 0.2 percent to 8,568 per dollar, and has risen 5 percent in 2011. Bank Indonesia will provide “more room” for the currency to appreciate to reduce import costs, Deputy Governor Budi Mulya said in Jakarta last week.

PT United Tractors, Indonesia’s biggest heavy equipment seller, expects to sell 7,000 units of Komatsu Ltd. (6301)’s heavy equipment this year, a 29 percent increase from 2010, due to strong demand from coal miners, Finance Director Gideon Hasan said in Jakarta on May 2.

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Nissan says it will fix a software glitch on 5,300 Leaf electric cars worldwide.

The company says owners of a small number of Leafs have reported that the car won’t start after they’ve turned it off.

About 500 Leafs sold in the U.S. are affected.

Nissan says dealers will reprogram the engine control computer. Owners will get a message on their car’s dashboard telling them to contact their dealer and they’ll also get letters. Spokesman Brian Brockman says dealers may even send someone to the owners’ homes or workplaces to fix the problem cash advance in one hour.

The company says there is no safety issue with the cars because they will not stop when they are running.

The battery-powered Leaf can go up to 100 miles on a single charge.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said policy makers must watch inflation “extremely closely” for evidence that rising commodity costs are having more than a temporary impact on consumer prices.

“So long as inflation expectations remain stable and well anchored” and the rise in commodity prices slows, as he’s forecasting, then “the increase in inflation will be transitory,” Bernanke said yesterday in response to audience questions after a speech in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

“We have to monitor inflation and inflation expectations extremely closely because if my assumptions prove not to be correct, then we would certainly have to respond to that and ensure that we maintain price stability,” he said.

The dollar rose against the euro and yen after the comments, which are similar to both Bernanke’s congressional testimony and the statement from the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee last month. He told lawmakers March 1 that Fed officials “continue to monitor these developments closely and are prepared to respond as necessary,” while the FOMC said on March 15 that it “will pay close attention to the evolution of inflation and inflation expectations.”

The dollar rose to 84.36 yen at 10:11 a.m. in Tokyo from 84.06 yesterday after earlier touching 84.49. Against the euro, the dollar strengthened to $1.4199 from $1.4221.

Responding to another question yesterday about housing, Bernanke said that the Fed expects a “very high rate” of foreclosures this year, which harms home prices and construction and creates a drag on the recovery, which he said is “not as strong as we would like it to be.”

Price Gauge

The Commerce Department reported last week that the Fed’s preferred price gauge, the personal consumption expenditures index, excluding food and energy, increased 0.9 percent in February from a year earlier. Including all items, prices rose 1.6 percent, compared with a 1.2 percent 12-month increase through January.

Fed officials aim for annual inflation in the long run of 1.6 percent to 2 percent.

Bernanke, in his response yesterday, acknowledged gains in prices of commodities including metals, grains and energy. The national average price of gasoline rose to $3.55 on March 15 from $3.07 on January 1. Gasoline rose further after the Fed’s meeting to $3.66 on Apr. 3.

The FOMC, led by Bernanke, said after its last meeting that the economy is on a “firmer footing” and affirmed plans to buy $600 billion of Treasuries through June. Bernanke hasn’t said what he favors as the next move for monetary policy after that no fax payday advances.

Close to Zero

The Fed has kept its benchmark interest rate close to zero since December 2008 and last month reiterated it would remain there for an “extended period.”

Even so, some policy makers who have broken with Bernanke before are discussing the need to tighten credit. Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser, who dissented twice from decisions to lower borrowing costs in 2008, said April 1 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that an increase in growth or inflation expectations may “suggest that it is time to begin taking our foot off the accelerator and start heading for the exit ramp.”

While Bernanke’s “remarks echoed the vigilance on inflation expectations that was present in the last meeting statement, it was certainly less hawkish” than recent comments from some regional Fed presidents, Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) in New York, said in a research note.

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Samsung Asset Management Co., South Korea’s largest bond-fund manager, said it’s reducing holdings of short-term government debt and buying more longer-term notes on expectations the central bank will raise interest rates.

The Seoul-based company, which oversees 66 trillion won ($60 billion) of assets in bonds, is shifting into South Korean debt with a maturity of 10 years or more and into corporate bonds, Chief Investment Officer Eugene Kim said in an interview yesterday.

“Short-term debt is hit most when interest rates begin to rise and you’d better stay away from it,” Kim said. “Our central bank may raise the base rate as much as possible in the first half and up to 3.5 percent or even higher this year.”

Nine of twelve economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predict the Bank of Korea will increase the seven-day repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 3 percent when it meets on Feb. 11, joining Thailand and India in extending interest-rate increases this year. Kim said the local bond market will weaken further on selling by overseas investors after the government revived a tax of as much as 14 percent on interest income from treasury and central bank bonds held by foreigners.

“Corporate bonds, especially those of consumer financiers and credit-card issuers with better earnings outlooks, are attractive,” Kim said, without naming any companies. “I won’t be buying inflation-linked bonds because there isn’t enough liquidity yet.”

The company is reducing holdings of three-year local treasuries and shorter-term notes, according to Kim.

Trigger to Buy

Yields on 3 percent government bonds due in December 2013 were at 4.06 percent yesterday, according to prices from Korea Stock Exchange. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. The won advanced 0.3 percent to close at 1,104.68 per dollar yesterday in Seoul.

“The odds are increasing that the Bank of Korea will raise the base rate to 3 percent this Friday and the market has been quickly pricing it in,” Kim said. He added that if yields on three-year bonds reach as high as 4.5 percent, Samsung may start buying again.

The yield on the 3 percent bonds has jumped 117 basis points since Dec. 7, compared with 50 basis points for equivalent 10-year debt, according to the data provided by the Korea Financial Investment Association.

The consumer-price index rose 4.1 percent in January from a year earlier, after gaining 3.5 percent in December.

China Impact

Consumer-price inflation may stay around 4 percent in the first quarter and exceed the government’s 3 percent target this year, with pressure coming from rising raw material costs and accelerating inflation in China, finance ministry Director- General Yoon Jong Won said on Feb. 1.

Asia’s fight against price gains lacks “urgency” and policy makers need to raise interest rates more aggressively to restrain inflation expectations, Morgan Stanley Asia’s Stephen Roach said in a note on Feb. 7.

President Lee Myung Bak last month declared “war” on inflation and tightened price controls, saying it must be contained at 3 percent to protect people on low incomes.

Kim at Samsung said that foreign investors have already started their exit from the South Korean bond market, disappointed at the bond taxes and emboldened to invest in riskier assets elsewhere as the U.S. economic outlook improves.

“Thai investors are no longer rolling over much of their Korean short-term bonds at maturity and global funds, including hedge funds, are shifting from debt to equities,” Kim said. “Still, Asian central banks, including China, seem to be still buying, partly for asset diversification.”

Thailand cashed out a net 249 billion won from the Korean debt market in December while China invested a net 425 billion won, according to the Financial Supervisory Service data. Net outflows by overseas investors were a record 5.3 trillion won in December, according to the data.

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Facebook has launched a new feature in Canada that allows mobile users to claim discounts through smartphones by

DETROIT

The Toronto stock market was lower Friday as the latest moves by China to slow down its economy in order rein in inflation raised concerns about demand for commodities.

The resource-heavy S&P/TSX composite index slipped 10.69 points to 13,390.79 while the TSX Venture Exchange lost 11.88 points to 2,277.12.

Lower prices for oil and gold helped push the Canadian dollar lower against the American currency, down 0.35 of a cent to 100.74 cents US.

China

Chrysler will try to refinance its government loans this year as it prepares for an initial public stock offering, and the reduced expense could let the company post a net profit for the first time since it left bankruptcy protection in 2009, CEO Sergio Marchionne said Monday.

Marchionne told reporters Monday at the Detroit auto show that the automaker, which lost $453 million in the first three quarters of last year, will need to post two quarterly net profits before it returns to the stock market as a publicly traded company. He has said the IPO could take place in the fourth quarter of this year, although no date has been set.

Refinancing the loans could reduce interest expenses and help the company become profitable, although Chrysler could make money without the refinancing, Marchionne said.

Chrysler owes the U.S. government $5.8 billion and the Canadian government $1.6 billion. The money is part of a $12.5 billion loan package that funded the automaker’s bankruptcy in 2009. The U.S. government also got a 10 percent stock ownership in the company while Canada got 2 percent. Chrysler has already repaid nearly $4 billion of the loans, but it is paying more than $1 billion a year in interest to Canadian and U.S. taxpayers.

“The interest costs associated with this funding today are pretty high,” Marchionne said. “It is possible that if the debt load would change by either changing the interest rate associated with the funding or the size of the financing would change, then obviously we would reduce the burden associated with carrying the debt and we could be profitable.”

Chrysler has narrowed its losses considerably after losing $3.8 billion in the second half of 2009. In the third quarter of 2010, the company lost only $84 million. It has yet to report fourth-quarter 2010 results.

Marchionne, who also runs Italy’s Fiat Group SpA, hinted that the company may post a net profit as soon as the first or second quarter of this year, but didn’t make a definite prediction best flat iron.

Fiat also announced Monday that it raised its stake in Chrysler by meeting a government requirement to build a new fuel-efficient engine in the United States. It got 20 percent of the company in 2009 when Fiat took control of its management. The stake rose to 25 percent on Monday, and could go up to 35 percent if Fiat meets certain government-set benchmarks. Fiat also has the option to get another 16 percent, which Marchionne said it may take this year. That would give Fiat a controlling interest in the company with 51 percent of the stock.

Marchionne has been trying to resurrect Chrysler from financial disaster after it was neglected by two previous owners. Its U.S. sales rose 17 percent last year, and it has rolled out 16 new or refurbished models in an effort to be more competitive, including a new Chrysler 300 large sedan unveiled at the Detroit show on Monday.

He said Monday that Fiat got the additional 5 percent stake for building a small four-cylinder engine at a factory in Dundee, Michigan.

Currently Fiat is the second-biggest shareholder in the company, which is almost 68 percent owned by a United Auto Workers retiree health care trust fund.

Turin, Italy-based Fiat includes Fiat Group Autos plus Maserati and Ferrari.

Marchionne also said that Fiat’s industrial unit is interested in buying Volkswagen’s interest in the MAN and Scania commercial truck units and is not interested in selling Alfa Romeo to Volkswagen.

Volkswagen AG has stakes in both the German MAN SE and Sweden’s Scania AB.

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