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SINGAPORE - Standard & Poor's today affirmed its 'AA-' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term unsolicited issuer credit ratings on Taiwan, with the outlook is stable. Taiwan’s transfer and convertibility assessment remains 'AA+', and S&P’s 'cnAAA/cnA-1+' Greater China regional scale ratings on Taiwan were affirmed. The ratings agency said Taiwan's extremely strong external position, sound monetary management, and dynamic information technology (IT) companies in the private sector support the ratings. “Tempering these strengths are moderately high Government debt and a small, open economy that is vulnerable to global economic conditions.”

NEW DELHI – India’s lower house of Parliament has approved new food subsidies – bringing a range of budget concerns into play. “Notwithstanding its admirable goals of poverty alleviation and more equitable growth, the initiative poses upside risks to the overall food subsidy bill (budgeted at 0.8% of GDP for FY14), at a time when fiscal concerns are adding to weak investor sentiment and contributing to a further weakening of the rupee,” says BBVA Bank.

BEIJING – China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has announced that the country’s economy is showing clear signs of stabilisation and is on track to meet the Government's 2013 growth target of 7.5%. A pickup in industrial output, better-than-expected global market conditions and the Government’s pro-growth mini-stimulus each have contributed to faster growth. At the same time, the NBS suspended release of industry-specific data from a purchasing managers’ index for manufacturing because of accuracy concerns.

TAIPEI – Taiwan’s Department of Health has designated infections of the avian influenza strain H7N9 as a notifiable disease after four more cases of a bird flu virus new to humans were reported in China. "We have decided to list the H7N9 infection as a fifth-category notifiable disease," Health Minister Chiu Wen-da said. The DOH also raised the quarantine alert against H7N9 from Grade 2 to Grade 3.

SYDNEY – In an update of its Country Report on Australia released today, Atradius Trade Credit Insurance asks whether Australia’s non-mining sectors will be able to assume the role of growth engines. Atradius forecasts that growth in Australia will slow in 2013 to 2.4% - but will increase to 2.7% in 2014. It says mining investment has reached its peak, that depreciation of the Australian dollar should help rebalance the economy, and that there are still many insolvency cases in the construction and retail sectors.

HONG KONG – China’s State Council has formally approved the Shanghai Free Trade Pilot Zone, whose creation was announced in June. Policies within the Zone aim to relax regulations on foreign investment (for example, the introduction of a negative list); open the service sector to foreign investors; and advance financial liberalisation, including the streamlined opening of foreign bank branches. But observers say plans are still sketchy and could encounter some resistance from vested interest groups.

SINGAPORE - Standard & Poor's has affirmed its 'AAA' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term issuer credit ratings on Hong Kong. The rating remains stable, and in line with this, S&P has affirmed its Greater China regional scale rating on Hong Kong at 'cnAAA/cnA-1+'. The transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment is unchanged at 'AAA'.