East Asian Economic News ����*Some of the Asian companies running into difficulties in the current financial crisis have been selling their hotels in the United States, The New York Times reported Sunday. ����*The banking system of Thailand lost 300 billion baht(one US dollar is about 37 baht) in 1998, due to the attack of the Asian financial crisis. ����The large amount of bad debts is the main reason for the loss, economists said. ����*The export surplus of Japan hit a record high of about 13.99 trillion yen in 1998 and was 40.1 percent higher than that of 1997, according to the statistics published by the Japanese Finance Ministry. WorldNews 1999-01-26 Page7 Full Story in Chinese