WASHINGTON - CHINA is pumping more money into US Treasury bonds, recent data show, despite concerns expressed in Beijing in recent months over the safety of dollar-linked assets.

Mainland China's holding of Treasury securities jumped to US$767.9 billion (S$1.13 trillion) in March from US$744.2 billion the previous month, according to US Treasury data.

PARIS - FRESH and deep recession data is doing little to dampen 'green shoots' talk that the global crisis is beginning to bottom out, although analysts are forecasting a long, bumpy journey to recovery.

Economists have seen light on the horizon in recent weeks and investors on Friday appeared to shrug off the latest backward-looking economic data as observers weighed how long it might be before a recovery really takes off.

ASIA'S leading airlines are bracing themselves for more rough weather after earnings nosedived in the first quarter with no signs of a global economic recovery in sight, industry analysts said.

Compounding the airlines' woes are the outbreak of swine flu and growing popularity and longer reach of budget airlines in the region, they said.