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 […]

Iraq finalized its $52.4 billion reparation payment for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, according to the United Nations. Under Saddam Hussein, 100,000 Iraqi troops occupied Kuwait in search of oil on August 2, 1990, leading to the first Gulf War. Iraq retreated from Kuwait in February 1991 after the United Nations Security Council placed embargos […]

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 […]

Desperate and unwilling to speak directly to the truckers, Justin Trudeau is now vowing to freeze the personal and business bank accounts of those involved in the Freedom Convoy. Trudeau is drunk with power and passed the emergency order despite the premiers of Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta stating it is an unnecessary move. Only […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; it is easy to see why the government wanted Socrates. You said Monday would be the low then a bounce and that is what unfolds. You forecast so many markets and you get it to the day. Others claim this is the guy who called 2008 so buy his latest forecast resting […]

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 […]