US retail sales saw their biggest gain in 18 months in March, according to official figures.

Retailers said sales were up 1.1% last month, the biggest rise since September 2012 and beating analysts' forecasts.

Sales at general merchandise stores such as Wal-Mart, Target and department stores, rose by 1.9%, their strongest one-month gain since March 2007.

PREDICTIONS of A crisis in coconut production in Asia could open markets for Central American producers.

The UN Agency for Food and Agriculture (FAO) is warning of an impending crisis in production in Asian countries which are majorglobal producers, due to aging plantations, whose yields have fallen from 100 coconuts per tree year, to just 40.

Sector productivity is increasing by 2% a year, while global demand is growing by 10%. In Asia, the coconut palm that characterizes the landscape from the Philippines to India, is facing a crisis because ageing palm crops are less productive, reducing the harvest of the commodity which is used in food, fuel, soaps and cosmetics.

Almost 60 percent of US minimum-wage workers are in either food service or sales, and the inflation-adjusted wages of workers in retail trade have fallen almost 30 percent since 1973, he noted.

: hiking the minimum wage has little or no adverse effect on employment, while significantly increasing workers' earnings," Krugman said.

the Economic Policy Institute estimated that an increase in the national minimum wage to 10.10 US dollars from its current 7.25 dollars would benefit 30 million workers, he said.