ASIA: Singapore has raised concerns with India about its ban of popular gaming app “Free Fire,” owned by technology group Sea Ltd, in the first sign of diplomatic intervention after the move spooked investors, Reuters reported. After the ban, the market value of the New York-listed Southeast Asian firm dropped by $16 billion in a […]

ASIA: China will unveil bigger tax and fee cuts this year and step-up payments to local governments to offset their hit to revenues, Finance Minister Liu Kun said on Tuesday, amid efforts to support a slowing economy. China’s strong economic recovery from its sharp pandemic-induced slump started losing momentum in the middle of last year, […]

ASIA: India and the United Arab Emirates signed a broad trade and investment pact on Friday that will eventually cut all tariffs on each other’s goods and aims to increase annual trade between the two nations to $100 billion within five years. The virtual signing ceremony marks the first trade deal sealed by the Gulf […]

ASIA: India’s imports of oil from Iraq surged in January to a 29-month high of about 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd), making up nearly a third of the supplies to Asia’s third-largest economy, data from shipping and industry sources show. India imported 4.6 million bpd of oil in January, a decline of about 1% […]

ASIA: Japan ran its biggest trade deficit in a single month in eight years in January as high energy costs swelled imports and manufacturers struggled with global supply constraints, causing a decline in car shipments. Imports soared 39.6% year-on-year in January to hit a record high in terms of their value in yen, coming to […]

ASIA: China’s factory-gate inflation eased to its slowest pace in six months and consumer price growth also softened in January amid weakening property sector demand, new coronavirus curbs and government efforts to rein in surging materials costs. The producer price index (PPI) increased 9.1% from a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said […]

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 […]

In all honesty, Biden is the very last person you should put on the phone with Putin, who is clearly the most intelligent world leader on the stage today. The US is showing it is pathetic, incompetent, and barks but has no teeth. The West has clearly surrendered Ukraine to Russia. There is no way […]

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 […]