11th January 2008: World business briefs: Japanese disagree on economy

Kansas City.com

Japanese division
It’s nice to know U.S. analysts aren’t the only ones who disagree. On Friday, Toshihiko Fukui, Bank of Japan governor, said his country’s economy was slowing “and will likely keep slowing for the time being.”
But Economy Minister Hiroko Ota said she did not foresee stunted growth. “At this moment, I don’t think the economy is slowing down,” Ota said at her regular news conference. “No indicators show a clear sign of slowing, and the economy is recovering.”
Bertelsmann chairman
Bertelsmann AG said Friday that its former chief executive, Gunter Thielen, had been named chairman of the company’s supervisory board.
Thielen replaced Dieter Vogel, who stepped down at the end of 2007 after 11 years on the supervisory board, the German equivalent of a U.S. board of directors.
Norway pulls out
The Norwegian government global pension fund has dropped three companies because of their roles in producing nuclear weapons or cluster munitions: Hanwha Corp. of South Korea; Serco Group PLC of Britain; and GenCorp Inc. from the United States.
Norway, a major exporter of oil and natural gas, sets aside surplus central government revenue in the Government Pension Fund-Global — formerly the oil fund — for foreign investment to avoid overheating the domestic economy of the Nordic nation of 4.7 million people.
Brazilian prices
Sharply higher food prices pushed Brazilian inflation up to 4.5 percent in 2007, ending several years of inflation decreases for Latin America’s largest nation. The rate was up from 3.1 percent for 2006.
It also marked the first time that Brazilian inflation had increased since 2002, following a push by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to end the nation’s history of high rates.