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Bombardier Inc. says growth in both its aerospace and transportation divisions helped it post improved results for the fourth quarter.

The Montreal-based company said Wednesday it made $112 million US (six cents a share), up from $86 million US (five cents a share) a year earlier. Bombardier reports its results in U.S. dollars. Bombardier three-month trading

According to Thomson Financial, analysts had been forecasting the company would make a profit of five cents a share before one-time items.

Bombardier shares jumped as much as four per cent in early trading on the TSX, but later pared those gains. The stockfinished up four cents to $4.65.

Bombardier’s revenue for the quarter totalled $4.39 billion, including $2.56 billion from aerospace and $1.83 billion from transportation. In the fourth quarter of the previous year, the company’s revenue was $4.04 billion, including aerospace revenue of $2.40 billion and transportation revenue of $1.64 billion.

The company said incoming orders for the year brought its total order backlog to an unprecedented $40.7 billion at the end of January, an increase of $9.1 billion compared with last year.

The company said aircraft net orders reached 363, compared with 302 aircraft last fiscal year, while deliveries amounted to 326 aircraft, compared with last year’s 337. The division’s order backlog stood at $13.2 billion on Jan.31, and it expects total deliveries to increase in the current year.

Bombardier Transportation said its order backlog stood at $27.5 billion, an increase of $6.6 billion compared with last year.

“Bombardier Transportation had an exceptional year, breaking industry records in terms of new orders and total backlog,” Laurent Beaudoin, the company’s chairman and CEO, said in a release.

Canadians travelling at home helped tourism spending across the country in 2006, as it registered its third straight year of growth, Statistics Canada said Thursday.

After a 2003 downturn in tourism-related spending due to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the war in Iraq, tourism spending climbed 4.6 per cent last year, following gains of 3.9 per cent in 2005 and 5.2 per cent in 2004.

Tourism spending reached $66.9 billion in 2006, with domestic tourists accounting for three-quarters of the total, which is up from two-thirds in the late 1990s.

Statistics Canada said spending by Canadians at home rose last year by 7.7 per cent its fastest pace in a decade, while spending by foreign visitors fell for the second year in a row.

In the fourth quarter, tourism spending grew by 1.8 per cent, marking a 14th straight quarter of growth.

LONDON (AFX) - The UK’s economic growth will remain robust this year but begin to ease going into next year, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research said today.

As part of a bi-annual report for the European Commission on the UK and euro area economies, the NIESR said it expects UK GDP to grow by 2.75 pct this year and 2.50 pct in 2008. Inflation should moderate from 2.8 pct currently to hover just above the Bank of England’s 2.0 pct target over the next couple of years.

The 2007 Budget presented last week by Chancellor Gordon Brown should see government spending as a share of GDP falling from 39.1 pct in 2007/08 to 38.5 pct in 2010/11, the NIESR said. This will allow the general government deficit to remain below 3.0 pct of GDP.

The forecasts for the euro area see GDP growing by 2.5 pct this year and 2.2 pct in 2008. Inflation is expected to average 1.8 pct in 2007 but accelerate to 2.0 pct next year on the back of higher wage settlements.

The key driver of the euro area, the labour market, is expected to continue to improve, with the unemployment rate averaging 7.2 pct this year and 6.8 pct next year.

The NIESR added that while further weakness in the US housing market does constitute a risk to growth in the euro zone and UK, it would have a much smaller impact than an internationally-based adjustment, such as a dollar depreciation caused by an adjustment in the current account deficit.

carlo.piovano@thomson.com

cp/cp/slm

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