Asia and Australia May 2007

• Australia’s March jobless rate fell 0.1 percent from the previous month to 4.5 percent, a 0.3-percent increase from March 2006.
  
  
• China’s first-quarter GDP rose 11.1 percent from the same quarter in 2006 as agricultural production remained steady and industrial production efficiency improved and sped up.
  
  
• Hong Kong’s Q1 unemployment rate remained unchanged from the previous quarter at 4.3 percent, an 0.8-percent decrease from the same period a year earlier.
  
  
• Japan’s February jobless rate remained stable from the previous month at 4.0 percent. That marked the fourth month in a row the rate stood at 4.0 percent, although February’s number was a 0.1-percent decline from the same month in 2006.