ASIA: Singapore is committed to reopening its economy and borders to the rest of the world, said Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat on Monday. The continued opening of the vaccinated travel lanes (VTLs) for quarantine-free travel with more than 20 countries despite the global surge in Covid-19 cases reflects this commitment, he said. Mr […]

  ASIA: The Bank of Japan made an offer for unlimited government bond purchases Monday, moving to curb a surge in long-term interest rates in the world’s third-largest economy. Japan’s central bank set the interest rate for purchasing 10-year government bonds at 0.25%. The market rate had risen close to that level recently on speculation […]

ASIA: The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy committee (MPC) stuck to its accommodative policy stance to help the economy recover from the pits of the pandemic, keeping the key lending rate at record lows on Thursday. As expected, the MPC held the lending rate, or the repo rate, at 4%. The RBI however, surprised […]

ASIA: Business investment commitments into Singapore dropped about 31% last year, marking the first decline in five years, and after hitting a more than decade high in 2020, government data showed on Wednesday. Commitments for investments in fixed assets such as facilities, machinery, and other equipment shrank to S$11.8 billion ($8.78 billion) in 2021 but […]

ASIA: A prolonged slowdown in China’s economic growth could hurt some multinational companies and commodity producers for years to come, casting a shadow over the global recovery from the pandemic—but likely not derailing it entirely. Sputtering momentum in China’s economy—which accounts for about 15% of global trade and a quarter of projected global economic growth in […]

ASIA:   The major Asian stock markets had a mixed day today: NIKKEI 225 increased 35.65 points or 0.13% to 27,284.52 Shanghai increased 23.05 points or 0.67% to 3,452.63 Hang Seng decreased 250.06 points or -1.02% to 24.329.49 ASX 200 increased 75.90 points or 1.07% to 7,186.70 Kospi increased 1.41 points or 0.05% to 2,746.47 […]

ASIA: Property prices in Singapore have climbed in the past two years, and will likely keep going up despite the government’s efforts to cool the market, CNBC reported. Private residential prices could rise between 1% to 3% in 2022, according to Leonard Tay, head of research at real estate agency Knight Frank Singapore. Prices of […]

ASIA: Japan’s economy likely rebounded in the final three months of 2021 as consumption rose during a drop off in COVID-19 cases, a Reuters poll showed, though it could slide back into contraction this quarter after a spike in Omicron variant infections. The world’s third-largest economy likely grew an annualized 5.8% in October-December, rebounding from […]

ASIA: India plans to buy 1 million tonnes of potash from Belarus in the first such bilateral deal between the two countries after sanctions crippled Minsk’s ability to sell the crop nutrient, Reuters reported. India has suggested that the state-run Belarus Potash Company (BPC) could open a rupee account with a state-run Indian bank for […]

ASIA: By 2030, China is forecast to become the world’s largest economy, for now it has just surpassed the EU. In a milestone moment, the economy of China surpassed the whole of the European Union (EU) for the first time. China’s GDP for 2021 expanded by 8.1 percent, according to figures released last month by […]