JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S President announced further cuts in fuel prices on Sunday, aiming to soften the blow of a global economic crisis and aid the poor as Southeast Asia's biggest economy heads toward elections next year.

The 9 and 13 per cent reductions in gasoline and diesel prices, already among the lowest in Asia thanks to state subsidisies, should also contribute to an easing of inflationary pressures and allow the central bank to join its global peers in cutting interest rates more aggressively.

LONDON - OPEC, the cartel pumping 40 per cent of world oil, is this week set to announce plans to slash output in the hope of lifting crude prices weighed down by a recession-fuelled slide in energy demand.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Wednesday convenes in the Mediterranean port city of Oran, Algeria, where it is widely expected to announce plans to cut its oil output quota for a third time since September.

TOKYO - TOYOTA Motor Corp. will postpone large capital investments and eliminate executive bonuses due to the worldwide slump in auto sales and the yen's continued appreciation, Japanese media reported on Sunday.

The moves by Japan's top automaker come amid speculation that it will report a US$1.1-billion (S$1.63 billion) loss for the second half of the year to March, its first interim operating loss since introducing US accounting standards in 1999.