ASIA: The People’s Bank of China added 90 billion yuan ($14 billion) of funds on a net basis through seven-day and 14-day reverse repurchase agreements on Friday, the most since February. Today was the first time this month it added more than 10-billion-yuan short-term liquidity into the banking system on a single day. The move […]

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 […]

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: 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: 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: China’s economy stalled this month as the country tried to stamp out a surge in coronavirus cases and contended with the ongoing shipping crisis. China’s economy initially coped with the pandemic much better than many of its peers, recording growth last year as others shrank. But the fallout from the Delta variant and China’s […]

ASIA: China’s businesses and the broader economy came under increasing pressure in August as factory activity expanded at a slower pace while the services sector slumped into contraction, raising the likelihood of more near-term policy support to boost growth. The world’s second-biggest economy staged an impressive recovery from a coronavirus-battered slump, but momentum has weakened […]

ASIA: China is maintaining “normal communication” with the United States on trade, the Chinese government said on Thursday. Washington and Beijing signed a so-called Phase 1 trade deal in January 2020, before the widespread outbreak of COVID-19. The pact calls for China to increase its purchases of U.S. exports by $200 billion over two years. […]

ASIA: The Reserve Bank of India may launch its first digital currency trial programs by December, central bank governor Shaktikanta Das told CNBC. Central banks including those in China, Europe, and the UK are exploring digital currencies that they would issue, either to commercial lenders or to the public directly. The RBI is studying various […]