Sunday, April 22 2018 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
BANGKOK - Thailand’s Q4 GDP for 2017 increased by 0.5% q/q in seasonally adjusted terms, translating into annual growth of 4.0% y/y. For full year 2017, growth came in at 3.9%. Growth remained predominantly supported by exports, with private investment unable to gain traction through the year.
SINGAPORE - Thailand's headline problem-loan ratio is stabilising, thanks to brisker economic growth. However, a recovery in its long credit down-cycle will depend on whether asset quality in the SME sector can catch up with that of larger companies, according to a report from S&P Global Ratings.
SINGAPORE - The number of announced M&A deals in Asia Pacific in the first half of 2018 is predicted to increase by around 14% on-year, based on data from the latest Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor, an indicator of future M&A announcements.
SINGAPORE - Between 2018 and 2022, US$1.1 trillion of rated Asia-Pacific financial and non-financial corporate debt should mature - about 11% of the total maturing globally, according to ratings agency Standard and Poor’s.
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s Q4 GDP growth moderated to 5.9% y/y from 6.2% y/y in the previous quarter, giving a full-year result of 5.9% growth, up from 4.2% in 2016. Underpinning the performance was continued strength in private consumption and investment as well as a pick-up in Government consumption.
SEOUL –BNY Mellon has opened a Foreign Exchange Trading Room in Seoul, providing liquidity for both domestic clients in Korea looking for exposure to major global currencies and to counterparties seeking to trade KRW across Asia-Pacific and globally.
HONGKONG - While the communiqués coming out of State visits to China by France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, and the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, look similar, the reality is that the two leaders have left China with quite different sets of agreement.
SINGAPORE – Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s says India's insurance sector is slated to get a boost following announcement of the Government's free health insurance plan. However, the potential impact of sweeping proposals announced in India’s latest Budget depends on implementation, S&P says.
HONG KONG - Chinese banks seem to have made meaningful progress in the resolution of problem loans, says the French banking group Natixis in a research report. The aggregate amount of announced debt-to-equity (D/E) swaps has reached RMB1,048 billion, amounting to 1.1% of total loans at end-2017. “We expect banks to see an improvement, with corresponding relief on overall asset quality/profitability, but only if the announced deals are implemented for real,” Natixis says.
SHANGHAI,- UnionPay International, China’s only credit card provider, says about 20 million more UnionPay cards were issued outside the Chinese mainland in 2017, increasing the total number of UnionPay cards issued outside mainland China to about 90 million. The transaction volume of these UnionPay cards grew by about 40% on-year.
SEOUL – Responding to an invitation to visit North Korea, South Korea’s President. Moon Jae-in, has said dialogue between North Korea and the U.S. is required for further development in inter-Korean relations. Moon urged Pyongyang to show more willingness to talk with Washington, the official South Korean newsagency reported.
SYDNEY – ANZ Bank is predicting May 2019 as the earliest likely timing for the first rate hike, in the absence of wage pressure emerging earlier than expected. “Greater clarity about the RBA’s reaction function most likely rules out a rate hike in 2018, in our view,” an ANZ research report says. “This is a shift from our previous expectation of two rate hikes.”
BANGKOK – The Thai Cabinet has approved new nationwide minimum wages as proposed by the Ministry of Labour effective from April l. The minimum daily wage rates increase between 2% and7% to a range of Baht 308 to Baht 330 varying from province to province.
HONG KONG - Chinese authorities released trade data today and foreign reverses data yesterday, pointing to a mixing picture of the country’s external balance amid global uncertainties.
LONDON - Climate Bonds Initiative and China Central Depository & Clearing Co. Ltd (CCDC), with the support of HSBC, today released the China Green Bond Market 2017 report, showing that total green bond issuance from China reached US$37.1 billion (RMB248.6 bn) in 2017, a 4.5% increase on the previous record-breaking year.
HONG KONG - Foreign banks in China are likely to step up growth in the next on-to-two years after a rather lacklustre performance in their first decade of operations there, says ratings agency Standard and Poor’s.