Sunday, June 25 2017 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
BEIJING - China’s forex reserves rose for the third month in a row in April. Data from the People’s Bank of China shows reserves climbing to US$3.0295 trillion at the end of April, up from US$ 3.0091 trillion a month earlier and up 0.7% month on-month.
NEWPORT, California - By focussing so intensely on U.S. political developments, investors risk missing a silent shift in what has arguably been the strongest driver of global reflation in the last five years: Chinese credit. This driver is now moving sharply in reverse.
MANILA – ANZ Bank is tipping Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to raise its policy rate by a cumulative 50 basis points this year, starting from the third quarter, and by 75 basis points in 2018.
JAKARTA – First quarter GDP in Indonesia has undershot market expectations, with both private consumption and investment continuing to grow at the same pace as in the previous quarter. On the positive side, exports materially strengthened. Government spending also rose, following two consecutive quarters of contraction.
SHANGHAI - Shenyang Machine Tool, based in Liaoning province’s namesake provincial capital, will receive a major support package from China Construction Bank and the Shenyang branch of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administrative Commission (SASAC), the agency that oversees big State-run companies and is one of Shenyang Machine Tool’s major stakeholders.
BEIJING - Chinese insurance giant Ping An is launching a US$1 billion global fund to invest in financial and healthcare tech. Jonathan Larsen, a veteran of Citigroup, will head the fund – dubbed Global Voyager – as Ping An’s chief innovation officer.
BEIJING - The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has given a green light to its first loan to India, granting US$160 million to a power project endorsed by New Delhi. The funds will be used to strengthen the power transmission and distribution system in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, which is part of the Indian government’s Power for All program, the AIIB said in a statement.
HONG KONG – the Hong Kong Stock Exchange plans to introduce physically settled CNH (offshore Renminbi, or RMB) and US dollar (US$) Gold Futures contracts in the third quarter of this year, subject to regulatory approval.
SYDNEY - Australian Vintage Limited (AVL), parent company of wine brands Tempus Two, McGuigan and Nepenthe, today signed an agreement with Vintage China Fund L.P., a new partnership established by the founders of China’s largest online wine retailer, YesMyWine.
MANILA - The Duterte Administration has put the first package of tax reforms at the top of its priority list in the Congress, but despite the reduction in personal income tax rates being taken positively, necessary reforms to offset foregone revenue have been holding up Congressional debates.
WASHINGTON—With data is the lifeblood of the modern global economy, 34 countries and counting have enacted unwarranted policy restrictions that make it more expensive and time consuming—if not illegal—to transfer data across national borders, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF).
HONG KONG – Leighton Asia, part of the CIMIC Group, has been awarded a contract by the Hong Kong Government to build the East Kowloon Cultural Centre. Revenue to Leighton Asia, which is part of CIMIC Group construction company CPB Contractors, will be around AUD436 million.
HONG KONG - Supportive base effects aside, three defining features of Asia’s current export upcycle raise doubts over the sustainability of this cycle - or at least, its strength, says ANZ Bank. “We think that exports would lose their lustre in the second half of 2017,” the bank says.
HONG KONG - GDP data confirms that China’s economy is strengthening (6.9% growth year on year), marginally beating market expectations and last quarter’s growth rate (6.8%), says global asset manager Natixis. “Although growth in the tertiary sector retreated (16Q4: 8.3%; 17Q1: 7.7%), the contribution of final consumption to GDP increased again (16: 71%; 17Q1: 77%) in line with very strong consumer confidence (highest level since 2008),” it says.
NEW DELHI - India's steel production, which stood at 101.3 million metric tonnes (MMT) in 2016-17, is expected to grow by 10-12% in 2017-18 and to more than double to 240 million tonnes (MT) by 2031, according to Sanak Mishra, Secretary-General of the Indian Steel Association.
SINGAPORE - S&P Global Ratings has affirmed its 'BBB' long-term and 'A-2' short-term sovereign credit ratings on the Philippines, and says the outlook is stable. It has also affirmed its 'axA/axA-2' ASEAN regional scale ratings. The transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment is unchanged at 'BBB+'.