ASIA: China’s factory gate prices rose in annual terms in January for the first time in a year, as months of strong manufacturing growth in the world’s second-largest economy pushed raw material costs higher, Reuters reported. China’s the national Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement the producer price index (PPI) rose 0.3% from […]

ASIA: International experts investigating the origins of Covid-19 have all but dismissed a theory that the virus came from a laboratory in China. Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) mission (Mission to China), said it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab in the city of Wuhan. […]

ASIA: China’s capital city, Beijing, will hand out about $1.5 million in a limited trial of the central bank’s digital currency, the municipal government announced over the weekend. That marks the third major test of the digital currency under development by the People’s Bank of China. The cities of Shenzhen and Suzhou held similar experiments […]

ASIA: Australian farmers have warned that the country’s trade dispute with China and supply chain disruption linked to the coronavirus pandemic will cost the industry $28bn over the next decade. In a pre-budget submission published on Friday, the National Farmers’ Federation appealed to the government to invest A$3.5bn (US$2.66bn) to support a trading strategy aimed […]

ASIA: China’s growth is likely to moderate in the coming months as the country faces risks on two fronts, according to the chief Asia economist of Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs economist Andrew Tilton said the policy makers are quite comfortable with the recovery so far and are starting to pull back on policy stimulus to […]

ASIA: A World Health Organization (WHO) team has come out of quarantine and will start on-the-ground investigations into the origins of the coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The scientists will begin interviewing people from research institutes, hospitals and the seafood market linked to the initial outbreak. Their research will rely upon evidence provided […]

ASIA: Profits at China’s industrial firms grew for the eighth straight month in December, suggesting a sustained recovery as the manufacturing sector rapidly emerged from its COVID-19 slump, Reuters reported. Profits surged 20.1% year-on-year in December to 707.11-billion-yuan ($109.40 billion), after rising 15.5% in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Wednesday. […]

ASIA: Barring another wave of COVID-19 infections, the worst is over for India’s economy and policymakers may soon have more room to support a recovery, the central bank said in its January bulletin released on Thursday. The RBI slashed interest rates early last year to cushion the shock from the coronavirus crisis, but has left […]

ASIA: Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma has made his first appearance since Chinese regulators cracked down on his business empire. The billionaire met 100 rural teachers in China via a video meeting on Wednesday, according to local government media. The Chinese government slapped sanctions on former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former National Security Adviser […]

  ASIA: Chinese exports grew more than expected in December, customs data showed on Thursday, as coronavirus disruptions around the world fuelled demand for Chinese goods even as a stronger yuan made shipments more expensive for overseas buyers, Reuters reported. While Chinese exports are likely to benefit from solid global demand at the start of […]