Thursday, January 17 2019 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
HONG KONG - July economic indicators announced today, together with previously released credit data, suggest that China’s growth slowdown continued in July, says BBVA Bank. “In particular, fixed asset investment, industrial production and retail sales all dropped from previous readings and are below market expectations," the bank says.
MANILA - Beyond worsening economic fundamentals in the Philippines, the financial health of the Philippines’ firms has worsened, says Natixis in a research note. It has not been a good year for the Philippines, the French banking group says, pointing to a weaker peso, underperforming equities pushed by a vanishing current account surplus and a potentially larger fiscal deficit.
SEOUL - South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have agreed to hold a third inter-Korean summit in Pyeongyang in September. This will mark the third meeting of its kind this year, following their face-to-face meetings on April 27 and May 26.
GENEVA – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has released data for global air freight markets showing that demand, measured in freight tonne kilometres (FTKs), rose 2.7% in June 2018, compared to the same period the year before. This continues the slowdown in air cargo growth that began earlier in 2018. Growth for the first half of 2018 stands at 4.7%, less than half the growth rate in 2017.
HONG KONG – China’s State Council has released a circular announcing that residents from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan (HMT residents) no longer need to obtain an employment permit to work in mainland China. The announcement instructs the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (HRSS), to formulate substitute policies and measures to supervise the employment of these HMT residents.
TAIPEI – Noting that the EU has long been Taiwan’s leading source of foreign direct investment, Taiwan’s President, Tsai Ing-wen, has told a visiting member of the European Parliament, Hans van Baalen, that Taiwan is willing and able to enter into negotiations with the EU on a bilateral investment agreement.
HONG KONG - Despite official figures, the world should expect China’s frantic overseas M&A activity to continue in 2018 - because the underlying driving factors, especially the increasingly low growth prospects and the meagre return on assets, are still intact, says French banking group Natixis in a research note.
HO CHI MINH CITY – ANZ Bank is forecasting strong GDP growth for Vietnam this year and next as Vietnam continues to attract FDI inflows and expand its manufacturing base.
JAKARTA - The Indonesian economy accelerated to 5.3%YoY in Q2 2018 thanks to robust private consumption and government expenditure, which expanded 5.1%YoY and 5.3%YoY, respectively. This is the first significant pickup since 2013, but investment decelerated to 5.9%YoY in Q2 from 8%YoY in Q1 2018, suggesting that the V-shaped recovery remains elusive.
HONG KONG - China-US trade tariffs seem to have had more impact on China’s exports than its imports from the US, according to research conducted by ANZ Bank. July marks the first month since China and the US started to impose additional 25% tariffs on each other’s products worth US$34 billion (from July 6).
TAIPEI - Chia-Lung Lin, Mayor of Taichung City, which was to host the 1st East Asian Youth Games (EAYG) in 2019, says the City Government and the Taichung 2019 EAYG Organising Committee have formally lodged a complaint with the East Asian Olympic Committee (EAOC), requesting that Taichung continue to host the Games.
NEW DELHI - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has raised its policy repo rate to 6.50% while retaining a neutral stance. ANZ Bank comments that the neutral stance implies that future policy actions will be data dependent.
JAKARTA - At 5.3% year-on-year, Indonesia’s Q2 GDP growth has come in marginally higher than expected. Consumption activity provided support to overall growth and domestic demand in particular, compensating for the slowdown in investment.
SEOUL - South Korea has delivered a letter from its Vice Minister of National Defence, Suh Choo-suk, inviting a North Korean delegation to attend the Seoul Defence Dialogue in Seoul from September 12 to 14.
WASHINGTON - There is little denying that the continued imposition of tariffs as a means of punishment will result in what it terms “nontrivial damage” to each economy, BBVA Bank says in a special report on current US-China trade conflict.
JAKARTA - After years of complacency, emerging markets seem to have finally become scared of the FED, and Indonesia is no exception, says the French banking group Natixis in a research note. “(But) while the situation may look worrisome, we argue that the problem should not be overestimated,” the note says.