Monday, April 12 2021 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
BANGKOK -- Thailand's GDP growth slumped 12.2% y/y (-9.7% q/q ) in Q2, the weakest level since the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis. Public spending and investment picked up, but could not offset a sharp plunge in private demand.
GUANGZHOU - China's State newsagency, Xinhua, reports that more than 120,000 samples for nucleic acid tests of COVID-19 had been collected by Sunday morning in the cities of Shanwei and Shenzhen, in South China's Guangdong Province after a new confirmed case emerged earlier last week.
SINGAPORE -- Interest rates have risen as China's better-than-expected second quarter GDP growth lifted markets, according to S&P Global Ratings, which says that underlying inflation continues to keeps fall, causing an even larger rise in real rates. S&P believes a climb in real interest rates may throw China's recovery off course "just as it should be gathering steam".
TAIPEI -- In a video address to two US-based think tanks, the Hudson Institute and the Centre for American Progress (CAP), Taiwan's President, Tsai Ing-wen, has reiterated her four principles for management of cross-strait relations, mooted a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, and called on the international community to speak out and act against the demise of Hong Kong's freedoms.
BEIJING - China's State newsagency, Xinhua, says Chinese national flags will be flying in more places in the country, including compounds of Party and State organs, schools and public cultural facilities.
BEIJING - Chinese media group Caixin reports that Huawei Technologies has confirmed supplies of its self-developed flagship chipset will stop after September 15 under US sanctions barring major chipmaking partners from working with the telecom giant.
MANILA - GDP in the Philippines contracted by 16.5% y/y in Q2, reflecting the full extent of COVID-19 containment measures implemented during March-April. In a research note, ANZ Bank says a recent resurgence of infections and re-imposition of mobility restrictions could delay the recovery.
NEW DELHI -- In a unanimous decision, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today kept its policy repo rate and reverse repo rate unchanged at 4.00% and 3.35%, respectively. Acknowledging that growth will contract in FY21, the central bank noted that policy space is available for further action, but only when inflation has durably reduced.
BEIJING - China's Minister of National Defence, Wei Fenghe, on Thursday took a phone call from US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper "upon invitation", China's State newsagency, Xinhua, reported.
HONG KONG -- Hong Kong is facing a deeper economic quagmire owing to a third wave of COVID-19 infections, with the global financial group, Natixis, lowering its forecast for Hong Kong GDP in 2020 from minus 4% to minus 7%. Natixis says negative consumer sentiment implies that Hong Kong's unemployment rate could deteriorate from 3.3% in 2019 to between 7% and 8% in the second half of 2020.
BANGKOK - In an attempt to support the business sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, Thailand's Cabinet has approved in principle relaxation of the capital-to-loan ratio requirement of 1:7 under the Foreign Business Law for non-financial institutions (e.g. companies conducting leasing, credit card, personal loan, and nano finance businesses).
BEIJING - The latest outbreak of COVID-19 in China's port city of Dalian was most likely to have been caused by contaminated imported seafood, said Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
China's top epidemiologist was quoted by the media group Caixin as saying that the outbreak had largely been brought under control, with the new case count declining to single digits for three straight days despite a spike nationwide.
WASHINGTON - The global banking group BBVA says that GDP in the United States dropped by 32.9% in the second quarter, marking the steepest decline in over-the-quarter growth since 1937. It says that the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases since mid-June has lowered the likelihood of the "V-shaped" recovery, and that economic and health outcomes will be interwoven in the near future.
SINGAPORE - The blend providing Hong Kong's comparative advantage, making it unique in the global economy and financial system, cannot be replicated -- and has propelled its economy for decades. Now, however, these advantages are at risk of erosion, says Standard and Poor's in a report released today.
WASHINGTON - Due to the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy faces a deep recession this year, with partial and uneven recovery expected in 2021, says Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
BEIJING -- China's GDP rebounded sharply by rising 3.2% y/y in Q2, easing growth pressure in H2. To achieve 1.8% y/y 2020 growth, China will only need to reach around 4.5% growth in H2, according to a research note by ANZ Bank.