Saturday, May 25 2019 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
SINGAPORE - Today sees formal entry of onshore China bonds into the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Index, another important milestone in China's financial market liberalisation. ANZ Bank estimates potential foreign bond inflows of US$150 billion from asset managers tracking the Global Aggregate Index over the 20-month phase-in period.
SYDNEY - Hong Kong and Australia today formally signed off on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and an Investment Agreement, which are comprehensive in scope, covering trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property, Government procurement, competition and other related areas.
MELBOURNE - The U.S. Federal Reserve's pause on interest rate hikes and China's loosening of its credit purse strings have eased credit conditions in Asia-Pacific, but economic growth remains soft and macro risks persist, says a report released today by S&P Global Ratings.
HONG KONG - S&P Global Ratings said today that China's further cuts to subsidies on new energy vehicles (NEV) will increase pressure on the country's evolving and highly-competitive car market. However, given that NEVs make up a small proportion of current sales, subsidy phase-outs are not the biggest challenge on the horizon for rated Chinese car.
BEIJING - Construction of two underwater tunnels for the China-Russia natural gas pipeline has been completed, according to a report by China's State newsagency, Xinhua. It says the two tunnels, each 1,139m long, connect Heihe in Heilongjiang province and Blagoveshchensk in Russia.
JAKARTA - A study of the online content viewing behaviour of Indonesian consumers reveals that 29% of consumers use a TV box which can be used to stream pirated television and video content, according to AVIA, the Asia Video Industry Association.
SINGAPORE - Financial conditions in China have eased again and, together with tax cuts, should partly help offset stiffening headwinds from trade, manufacturing, and real estate, says S&P Global Ratings. It says growth in China slowed in early 2019, based on limited data around the lunar New Year.
HONG KONG - ANZ Bank says Chinese authorities can still regulate the extent of capital flows, despite the release of new regulations on the cross-border RMB cash pooling structures of multinational corporations (MNCs).
HONG KONG - Hong Kong's GDP growth decelerated further to 1.3% YoY in Q4 from an already weak base of 2.9% YoY in Q3 2018, registering the slowest pace of growth since 2016. The drag mainly came from investment and exporting activities due to sluggish global demand and US-Mainland trade conflicts.
HONG KONG - ANZ Bank believes China may cut 50 basis points from its reserve requirement ratio (RRR) to release about CNY800 billion of reserve money into the banking system.
TAIPEI - External headwinds are creating more uncertainties in Asia, and Taiwan is feeling the squeeze, says the French banking group Natixis in a research report. Besides the risks of the US-China trade war, a lengthened phone replacement cycle continues to pose challenges to Taiwan's trade-dependent economy before the rollout of 5G technology and related equipment, it says.
KUALA LUMPUR - Visiting South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad have pledged to conclude negotiations toward a bilateral Free Trade Argeement by year-end.
NEW DELHI - The Modi Government's reform agenda has not generated enough jobs to absorb India's excess labour, the French banking group, Natixis, says in a research note on India's upcoming election. Natixis assesses Modi's pledges on three key factors of production: labour, capital and productivity.
HONG KONG - HSBC says it expects global commodity prices to be 9% lower in 2019 (on average) than the previous year, reflecting the drop seen in late 2018, but for them to rise by 9% in 2020.
KUALA LUMPUR - ANZ Bank has reduced its growth forecast for Malaysia for 2019 and 2020 to 4.4% and 4.7% respectively (previously 4.9% and 5.0%).
HONG KONG - The stage is set for another global credit downturn, but the next crisis, if any, is unlikely to be as dramatic as in 2008-2009, according to S&P Global Ratings, which says that, while global debt levels are higher than a decade ago, contagion risk is lower.