ASIA: A report published by US-based Peterson Institute for International Economics said that China’s purchases of U.S. goods are still falling short of trade agreement levels, even as overall Chinese imports from the U.S. have surged. In January 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic and under former U.S. President Donald Trump, China agreed to buy at […]

ASIA: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday cut its economic growth forecast for China this year because of the patchy recovery from new coronavirus variants, as Beijing focuses on reducing debt and public investment. The Washington-based organization trimmed China’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth estimate to 8.1 per cent, down from April’s projection of […]

ASIA: Intel Corp said on Monday its factories will start building Qualcomm Inc chips and laid out a roadmap to expand its new foundry business to catch rivals such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd by 2025. Intel said on Monday it expects to regain its lead by 2025 and described […]

ASIA: China’s central bank on Friday said that non-bank payment firms must report plans for overseas initial public offerings and other major events. This is the latest move in a widespread regulatory squeeze on the country’s tech firms. Non-bank payment firms should report both domestic and overseas listing plans, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) […]

ASIA: China has scrapped its population control policy. Families in China can have as many children as they like without facing fines or other consequences. The announcement ended, in practice, decades of restrictions on the number of children each household could have, as authorities attempt to encourage births in the face of a rapidly aging […]

ASIA: China’s central bank cut the amount of cash most banks must hold in reserve. The People’s Bank of China will reduce the reserve requirement ratio by 0.5 of a percentage point for most banks, according to a statement published Friday. That will unleash about 1 trillion yuan ($154 billion) of long-term liquidity into the […]

  COMMENT: I’m a Canadian and just turned 60 this year and after receiving paperwork about the Canadian Pension here is what I learned. If I take early pension at 60 I’ll receive 489. a month. If I wait till 65 it will be 760. a month. If I wait till 70 it jumps to […]

ASIA: The Biden administration on Tuesday warned businesses with supply chain and investment ties to China’s Xinjiang province that they could face legal consequences, citing growing evidence of genocide and other human rights abuses in the country’s northwest region. A joint statement by the State Department, Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security, Labor and the Office of […]

ASIA: China will cut the amount of cash that banks must hold as reserves, releasing around 1 trillion yuan ($154.19 billion) in long-term liquidity to underpin its post-COVID economic recovery that is starting to lose momentum. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said on its website it would cut the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) for […]

ASIA: Japan’s government expects the country’s economy to rebound to pre-COVID-19 levels by the end of March 2022, with a government official touting a strong domestic vaccine rollout and robust growth as the main upward drivers. Revised estimates show that Japan’s economy shrank less over 2021 than initially predicted, with uprated figures showing a gross […]