ASIA: China’s dramatic steps to contain the coronavirus this summer have taken a toll on consumer confidence in the country and are fueling concerns about the strength of the world’s second largest economy. Retail sales struggled in August, increasing just 2.5% compared to a year earlier, according to government statistics released Wednesday. That was much […]

A House committee last week advanced serious legislation to combat climate change. Biden already went to OPEC to ask them to increase production because gasoline prices have jumped. These people are hopeless. They are passing legislation for an agenda and cutting off the supply BEFORE there is a system with renewable energy, which is only […]

ASIA: China’s sprawling real estate developer, Evergrande, has the distinction of being the world’s most debt-saddled property developer and has been on life support for months. The rating agency Fitch said this week that default “appears probable.” Moody’s, another ratings agency, said Evergrande is out of cash and time. Evergrande is faced with more than […]

ASIA: Japan’s wholesale inflation hovered near a 13-year high in August as raw material imports continued to rise on solid global demand, data showed on Monday, putting pressure on companies to pass on higher costs to households. Many analysts, however, expect companies to keep any price hike moderate as a state of emergency curbs to […]

ASIA: The SENSEX and Nifty50 were closed today to honor Ganesh Chaturthi. We wish those celebrating a happy holiday. The major Asian stock markets had a green day today: NIKKEI 225 increased 373.65 points or 1.25% to 30,381.84 Shanghai increased 9.98 points or 0.27% to 3,703.11 Hang Seng increased 489.91 or 1.91% to 26,205.91 ASX […]

ASIA: China’s GDP grew by 7.9% year on year in the second quarter of 2021, which was lower than the Caixin survey of economists that showed the median estimate for the second quarter was 8.2% growth. Chinese economists broadly agree that China’s potential growth rate is 6%. So, taking into consideration the base effect, China’s […]

ASIA: Japan’s economy grew faster than initially estimated in the April-June quarter, helped by solid capital expenditure, although a resurgence in COVID-19 is undermining service-sector consumption and clouding the outlook. Revised gross domestic product (GDP) data by the Cabinet Office released on Wednesday showed the economy grew an annualized 1.9% in April-June, beating economists’ median […]

ASIA: China’s exports unexpectedly grew at a faster pace in August due to solid global demand, helping to take some of the pressure off the world’s second-biggest economy as it is facing challenges from several fronts. Shipments from the world’s biggest exporter in August rose 25.6% year-on-year, picking up speed from a 19.3% gain in […]

ASIA: BNP Paribas’ asset management arm is in talks to form a wealth management venture with a unit of Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank), as the French firm pursues a bigger slice of China’s $19 trillion market, Reuters reported. China further deregulated its financial markets in 2019, allowing foreign asset managers to form majority-owned wealth […]

ASIA: President Xi Jinping announced plans this month to spread “common prosperity” in what is one of the world’s most unequal major economies, signaling a shift from his predecessors’ pursuit of growth and heralding a tough crackdown on wealthy elites – including China’s burgeoning group of technology billionaires. China, the first country to succumb to […]