Thursday, July 18 2019 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
HANGZHOU - Alipay has released preliminary statistics on Chinese consumers' mobile payment behaviour during China's week-long Lunar New Year celebrations ending February 10. The findings, drawn from more than 40 markets where Alipay is accepted, provide a snapshot of the proliferation of mobile payment in China's vibrant outbound tourism market.
GENEVA - Full-year 2018 data for global air freight markets released by IATA show that demand measured in freight tonne km (FTKs) grew by 3.5% compared to 2017. Growth in 2017 was extraordinary, at 9.7%.
NEW DELHI - The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut its policy repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25% today, and simultaneously changed its stance to neutral from 'calibrated tightening'. Both decisions were in line with ANZ Bank forecastsour forecasts.
SINGAPORE - Close to US$11 trillion in corporate debt rated by S&P Global Ratings is scheduled to mature from Januart 1, 2019, through to the end of 2023. S&P says the amount of rated corporate debt scheduled to mature over this period has risen by 5% since the beginning of 2018.
SYDNEY - ASX-listed Star Combo Pharma Limited is to acquire the businesses of Koala Mall Pty Ltd and Austoyou Group Pty Ltd for AUD10 million following completion of due diligence on the Ausway Group of companies.
BANGKOK - Thailand is introducing new rules for the work of both foreign arbitrators and representatives in arbitration proceedings in Thailand, freeing up current restrictive regulations.
JAKARTA - Indonesia's GDP expanded by 5.18% y/y in Q4, broadly unchanged from the 5.17% pace seen in Q3. For 2018 as a whole, growth came in at 5.17%, marking the third straight year of faster growth.
SYDNEY - China's Alipay and Tourism Australia have chosen Sydney as the pilot city for a new service to promote leading tourist and retail destinations to Chinese tourists.
MELBOURNE - WIPRO, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company founded in India, is to set up a Chair for Artificial Intelligence at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.
PARIS - Asia has been under pressure following tighter global liquidity in 2018 as global monetary policy tightening drains liquidity from Asian markets, says the Paris-headquartered credit insurer Coface. A few markets will benefit from strong fundamentals, pro-active monetary policies and ample buffers to resist outflows, but others will be under pressure inn 2019, says Coface.
ISLAMABAD - Ratings agency Standards and Poors says Pakistan's economic outlook, as well as its external position, have deteriorated well beyond S&P's previous expectations, and has lowered the country's rating to 'B-'.
SEOUL - The Korea Tourist Organization (KTO) says the number of foreign visitors visiting South Korea in 2018 rose 15% from 2017 to 15.34 million, while the number of foreign tourists excluding those from China (which accounts for the most tourists going to Korea) reached 10 million for the first time.
HONG KONG- It is important to realise that the US-China trade war has evolved into a more complex reality, namely strategic competition between the two largest economies in the world, says French banking group Natixis in a research note on current US-China talks.
SINGAPORE -- China's current economic slowdown is mainly driven by domestic Government policies, according to S&P's Global Economics team in report titled, "China's Slowdown--This Time Is Different."
BEIJING - China's Stater newsagency, Xinhua, is reporting China's Ministry of Commerce as saying it will take more effective measures to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in legislation, the justice system and through law enforcement.
SINGAPORE - Export growth of emerging markets in Asia has slowed sharply in recent months, and the near-term outlook remains challenging, according to a research note from ANZ Bank, which says the export weakness is broad-based across the region and reflects both slower export price and volume growth.