Wednesday, April 24 2024 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
BEIJING - China’s Vice-Finance Minister, Shi Yaobin, says the New Development Bank (NBD), formerly known as the BRICS Development Bank, with membership pioneered by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – will be operational “as early as the end of this year or the beginning of 2016”, with membership open for all United Nations members.
HONG KONG - China registered its largest quarterly capital outflow of recent history in Q1 2015, coinciding with the changing behaviour of Chinese corporates in the FX market in the past year. Chinese corporates have become net USD buyers after many years of being net USD sellers.
BEIJING - A Government document released by China’s Cabinet, the State Council, says China aims to “expand trade relations with more countries and regions as well as raise the quality and variety of its exports to enhance the country’s competitiveness”. China is confident it needs only five years to “strengthen its advantages in trading traditional commodities” in addition to nurturing “some new strong points”, the paper says.
BEIJING - According to the official balance of payments released by China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China’s foreign exchange reserves fell by a record US$79.5 billion during Q1 2015, much more than the decline of US$29.3 billion occurring during Q4 2014.
PARIS - The annual survey by credit insurer Coface of Asia-Pacific economies questioned 2,695 companies in eight countries - and 70% of those surveyed had experienced overdue accounts in 2014 - the highest level in three years. In addition, 37% of respondents reported that overdue amounts increased in 2014, up by 2% since the previous year.
PARIS - The recent drop in the price of oil has had knock-on effects for company credit risk around the world, with credit insurer Coface identifying the one big winner as Europe’s chemicals industry and the one big loser as the North American energy sector - affected by an imbalance in supply and demand.
HONG KONG - Commercial banks in China loaned RMB708 billion in new yuan loans in April, lower than both the expected RMB903 billion and the RMB1,180 billion in new loans extended in March.
SINGAPORE - Standard & Poor's has affirmed its 'BB-' long-term and 'B' short-term sovereign credit ratings on Bangladesh, with the outlook stable. The transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment remains 'BB-'.
HONG KONG – BBVA Bank believes the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) will continue its easing mode. It says the once relatively polarised debate on what the PBoC monetary policy stance should be has increasingly leaned towards additional easing, with some analysts even proposing full-fledged quantitative easing (QE) in the form of US Treasury sales to raise funds for assets locally - such as local government bonds and other “hardly-performing” assets.
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia can maintain a current account surplus and achieve modest economic growth this year, provided there is no further fiscal slippage -- or unforseen shocks, ac cording to ANZ Bank.
HO CHI MINH CITY – ANZ Bank in a research note says it is now of the view that a persistent return to trade deficits – dragging the current account into full year deficit – seems inevitable in Vietnam for 2015 and 2016.
TAIPEI - With Q1 GDP expanding 3.46% y/y, Taiwan was the best-performing of the Newly Industrialised Economies (NIEs). However, April’s exports (-11.7% y/y) dropped sharply, extending the weakness seen in Q1 as growth momentum started to lose steam.
SEOUL - While its baseline forecast remains for the Bank of Korea (BOK) to stay its hand this Friday (May 15), ANZ Bank says an unexpected rate cut to 1.50% has become a material risk. “To quantify, we attach the odds of 40% for the event. Previously we would have put a probability of 20% only,” ANZ says.
BEIJING - With the economy facing increasing downward pressure, China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China, has lowered its benchmark one-year lending rate by 25 basis points to 5.1% effective today. The benchmark deposit rate will be cut by the same amount to 2.25%.
HONG KONG - Assuming stimulus works and growth rebounds in China, exports from Australia, Taiwan and Thailand would benefit most, followed by South Korea and Indonesia, according to an HSBC assessment.
SINGAPORE - The International IMF will this minth review whether to include China’s RMB in the currency basket of Special Drawing Rights (SDR), and will make a final decision by year-end.