Business and City Summary

BENTSEN PREDICTS 3 PER CENT GROWTH

The US Treasury Secretary, Lloyd Bentsen, predicted that the US economy would expand at a rate of 3 per cent next year with continued low inflation and interest rates. In an interview with NBC television Mr Bentsen said the US was heading for 'long-term sustainable growth'.

He expected a surge in gross domestic product growth to 4- 5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 1993 from 2.8 per cent in the third quarter.

Mr Bentsen said the Federal Reserve should not raise interest rates.

FOX TV COUP

News Corporation's Fox network in the US has won the right to televise National Football Conference games with a bid of about dollars 1.5bn for what Rupert Murdoch, its chairman and chief executive, called 'the crown jewel' of sports programming.

COAL DEAL

British Coal signed a pounds 100m agreement to supply Coalite, the smokeless fuel manufacturer, with 2.5 million tonnes of coal, helping to secure the future of some of its 22 remaining collieries.

PERSONNEL DEARTH

Only a third of Britain largest corporations have a main board personnel director and one in five has partially or wholly withdrawn recognition from unions on existing sites, according to the industrial relations research unit at Warwick University.

JOBS BOOST

Job prospects are at their best for four years, according to the employment agency Manpower. Its latest Jobwatch survey shows says that 18 per cent of firms expect jobs to increase in the first quarter of 1994 against 21 per cent forecasting job losses.

CHIP LEAGUE

Philips, the Dutch electronics group, has been ousted from the lead position in the European semiconductor market after 16 years, according to Dataquest. Its 1993 survey puts Intel of the US top with sales of dollars 2.07bn.

CHINA DEAL OFF

Plans for a big joint venture power plant in China's Shangdong province collapsed at the last minute when the provincial power bureau pulled out, according to the Sunday Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong.

TODAY: 20.12.93

UK national accounts balance of payments.

Interims: British Thornton, EFM Japan Trust, Fletcher King, Ivory & Sime.

TOMORROW: 21.12.93

Non-EU trade figures.

Interims: Bespak, Faupel Trading Group, Foreign & Colonial Small, Jones & Shipman, Mosaic Investments, Wessex Water.

Finals: Eurotherm, TR High Income Trust.

WEDNESDAY: 22.12.93

Interims: ERF(Holdings), Phoenix Timber.

THURSDAY: 23.12.93

Finals: C A Sperati.