Forecast Illustrates Solid Growth for 2004

Economists see solid growth, improvement in the labor market and growing corporate profits heading into 2004.

Economists who participated in the semi-annual forecasting survey expect growth at around a 4% inflation-adjusted annualized rate throughout the year - starting with growth of nearly 4.5% in the first quarter. They believe unemployment will ease toward 5.5% and profits will grow 15.9%.

These predictions are a far cry from the 8.2% growth posted in the third quarter of 2003, the latest period for which gross domestic product numbers are available. But they represent more consistent strength than the economy has managed since the recession ended in November 2001.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Traders said they are continuing to see signs that millions of new dollars are still flowing into mutual funds and that fund managers are putting the money to work quickly.

Stock investors appeared to shrug off a decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut production quotas, which sent oil prices higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 34.82 points, or 0.33%, to 10613.85, up 1.5% so far this year.The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.72%, or 14.76 points, to 2075.33, up 3.6% on the year. The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 0.50%, or 5.73 points, to 1145.54, a gain of 3% this year.

Source: Wall Street Journal

According to research by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), more than 42 million Americans say they have taken at least one trip in the past year to attend a wedding, go on a honeymoon, or celebrate an anniversary. This equates to 20% of all US adults traveling for romance-related purposes in the past year.

TIA found that romance-related travel is most popular among Baby Boomers, as four in ten (41%) romance travelers are age 35-54. One third (33%) of these travelers are Gen X and Gen Y travelers between the ages of 18-34. The majority of romance travelers are married (67%) and many of these travelers (38%) have above-average annual income of $50,000 or more.

Source: Travel Commerce Report

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"The Tahitian Noni Juice has become the number one overall export in French Polynesia," John Wadsworth, one of the five founders of Tahitian Noni International, recently announced after meeting with Edouard Fritch, Vice President of French Polynesia. “We were formerly the number-one agricultural export, but were behind black pearls in dollar volume,” Wadsworth said. “Now we are the absolute number-one export of French Polynesia.”

Tahiti Noni International extracts the juice from the noni plant, or Morinda Citrifolia, which the people of Tahiti & Her Islands have consumed for its health benefits for the past 2,000 years. Before the Morinda Company was set up in Tahiti, the business produced a purée of noni in French Polynesia that was shipped to Los Angeles, where the juice was extracted, Fritch said. “Now the factories in (French) Polynesia also treat the purée. Moreover, some new products are being planned." Morinda is planning to manufacture tea from the leaves and from the skin of the noni and (to manufacture) cosmetic products from seeds of the plant,” Fritch said.

After having conquered the Pacific market and that of the U.S.A., Canada and Asia, Tahiti Noni International has emerged in the European market for the past year, holding its first European press conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, last year to announce the European marketing network it had created.

Source: tahitipresse

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The government of Tahiti has committed 500 million French Pacific francs (approximately $5.5 million USD) this year to re launch the territory’s production of vanilla with an objective of reaching 62.9 tons of dried vanilla in 2009.

Agriculture Minister Frédéric Riveta signed an agreement between the territory and the Socredo Bank on Monday that provides vanilla growers the opportunity to borrow money at a low interest rate to invest in new covered plantation equipment. They have five years to reimburse the loan, starting in the third year, he said.

The territory’s program, financed by taxes on certain imported products, has already been a big success since a public company was created last year for the relaunching of the vanilla industry. So far, 173 files are waiting to be financed under the government’s program. “These 173 requests are going to provide us with 13 covered hectares (32 acres) instead of the 10 originally included in the three-year plan set up for vanilla planting,” the agriculture minister said. “This plan calls for 10-hectares (24.7 acres) of covered area for this year, 15 hectares (37 acres) for next year and 20 hectares (49 acres) for 2006. “So by 2007 we will already have 205 tons of green vanilla, which is the equivalent of some 51 tons of dried vanilla,” Riveta said. “Today we’re in the plantation phase and we’re already planning on 6,500 square meters (69,965 square feet) of covered areas in the Leeward Islands, where we completely control the plantation technique.” That means taking into account unknown weather conditions, he said.

The agriculture minister emphasized the quality of Tahiti’s vanilla. “Since 1964 our elders have grown vanilla and I don’t wish to see our vanilla end up being run by multinationals, as in Uganda, for example, where vanilla is produced for Coca-Cola. We’re selling more than a product. We’re selling an image and a fragrance that are special to Tahiti,” Riveta said.

Source: tahitipresse