VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said that China's economic slowdown should not worry markets as there was no risk of a hard landing, and emphasized that a move to raise U.S. rates should be viewed as a positive sign for the world's largest economy.

Central bankers and finance ministers from China, Japan and South Korea said on Sunday they remained committed to policies to support demand in the face of moderate and uneven global growth.

Manufacturing activity growth remained sluggish in some of the world's major economies in April, suggesting that global economic growth remains "moderate and uneven," as the International Monetary Fund described it in its World Economic Outlook in April.

China's factories stayed stuck in the slow lane in April while Japanese output went into reverse and South Korea suffered its worst export performance in two years, adding urgency to calls for more state stimulus in all three economies.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Monday asked China to drop a ban on imports of U.S. poultry imposed because of an outbreak of bird flu in chickens and turkeys.

Emerging Asian central banks are expected to cut interest rates again in the coming months, but economists polled by Reuters are doubtful the moves will significantly boost growth or inflation.

The United States is pressing Mexico, the top importer of U.S. chickens and turkeys, to relax restrictions imposed on poultry shipments because of an outbreak of a strain of avian flu deadly to birds, an Agriculture Department spokeswoman confirmed on Friday.

The United States on Friday pressed the world's leading exporters, including Germany and Japan, to generate more economic growth within their borders, warning that the world could not rely too much on U.S. consumers.

Saudi Arabia has reduced contractual crude supplies to some customers in Japan and South Korea since March by trimming the volumes of oil loaded, six industry sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.

General Motors Co (GM) (GM.N) on Thursday said its labor costs have risen nearly 50 percent over the past five years in South Korea, where it makes nearly one-fifth of its global output, but that it does not plan to shut any of its four plants there.

China is discussing ways in which a new regional lender being pushed by Beijing can cooperate with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Sunday, as he sought to fend off concerns that the two banks would become rivals.

A possible deal over Iran's nuclear program that would phase out economic sanctions against Tehran is unlikely to flood world markets with more oil any time soon, despite Iran's declared intention to claw back market share lost because of the curbs.

Australia expects to make a decision within weeks on whether it will seek to join the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Saturday.

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Thursday it will start buying or selling the Chinese yuan for the won from the Seoul market on March 16.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has raised its production target for the new flagship Galaxy smartphones following positive market reception, the Electronic Times newspaper reported on Wednesday.