ASIA: The World Bank cut its economic growth forecast for India and the whole South Asian region on Wednesday, citing worsening supply bottlenecks and rising inflation risks caused by the Ukraine crisis. The international lender lowered its growth estimate for India, the region’s largest economy, to 8% from 8.7% for the current fiscal year to […]

ASIA: China’s imports unexpectedly fell in March as COVID-19 curbs across large parts of the country hampered freight arrivals and weakened domestic demand, while export growth slowed, prompting analysts to expect a worsening in trade in the second quarter. Inbound shipments fell 0.1% in March from a year earlier, marking the first decline since August […]

ASIA: Crisis-stricken Sri Lanka defaulted on its $51 billion external debt on Tuesday, calling the move a “last resort” after running out of foreign exchange to import desperately needed goods. Sri Lanka’s finance ministry said in a statement that creditors, including foreign governments, were free to capitalize any interest payments due to them from Tuesday […]

ASIA: China’s producer inflation for March was higher than expected. The producer price index surged 8.3% as compared with a year ago, official data showed Monday, above expectations for a 7.9% increase in a Reuters poll. Chinese consumer inflation also rose more than expected in March, with the consumer price index climbing 1.5% year-on-year. That […]

ASIA: China’s five major state-owned banks have adopted a slew of measures to ease the residential mortgage burden for individual borrowers affected by the COVID-19 epidemic.  These steps include postponing mortgage repayments, extending repayment periods, as well as deferring principal and interest repayments on housing loans, the banks told Xinhua. Bank of China has urged […]

ASIA: Indian shares fell for a third straight session on Thursday, as global sentiment soured on hawkish US Federal Reserve minutes, while investors looked forward to the Reserve Bank of India’s policy decision on Friday amid rising inflationary pressures. The NSE Nifty 50 index declined 0.6% to 17,692.70, and the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.5% […]

COMMENT: Hi, I live in Finland/Helsinki. The Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1939, Stalin was one who arranged a false flag in Manila. A lot of Finnish soldiers and civilians died. But we survived. We Finnish people know Russians extremely well. It is a historical fact that Russians always arrange false flags and try to […]

ASIA: Core consumer prices in Japan’s capital rose at the fastest pace in more than two years in March, propelled by energy costs that have hit a four-decade high following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The relentless uptrend in global commodity prices could ruin Japan’s fragile recovery from the pandemic, even as domestic COVID-19 infections wane […]

ASIA: Japan cannot avoid crafting a supplementary budget for fiscal 2022 as part of measures to mitigate the impact of rising prices on the economy, former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Sunday. His successor, Fumio Kishida, is reluctant to compile an additional budget at an early date as the new fiscal year just started this […]

ASIA: Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua called on Saturday for greater efforts to stabilize foreign trade amid a complex external environment, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said in March that China’s economy faced multiple challenges at home and abroad this year, including “huge” pressure from uncertainty over global trade and […]