Wednesday, April 24 2024 | ASIA TODAY INTERNATIONAL - Reporting the Business that Matters in Asia
BANGKOK – ANZ Bank says the appointment of Veerathai Santiprabhob as Governor of the Bank of Thailand brings a spark of optimism at a time when drought is adding to Thailand’s economic woes. The new Governor will take office in October.
SINGAPORE - Standard & Poor's has affirmed its 'A-' long-term and 'A-2' short-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating on Malaysia, saying it does not that believe corruption allegations involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd. (1MDB) will impede current policy flexibility and responsiveness.
HONG KONG – A new report from SNL Financial says that, industry-wide, China’s bank assets grew 13.84% to 172.3 trillion Chinese yuan (US$28.55 trillion) at the end of 2014 from 151.35 trillion yuan (US$25 trillion) a year earlier. The figure rose to 178.8 trillion yuan (US$28.84 trillion) at the end of first quarter of 2015.
BEIJING - Li Jin, senior product director of Aliyun Cloud Computing, has told a news conference in Beijing that the company will launch a second data centre in the United States as part of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s broad plan to become a global cloud service provider. While no further details of the new centre were provided, Li said the company will set up more data centres in Singapore, Europe and Japan within a year.
BEIJING - China's A-shares dropped sharply yesterday by 8.5% to close at 3,903 – but ANZ Bank says the market movement is not surprising. “The sharp fall has been propelled by a rapid deleveraging process triggered by tightening of margin financing pledged mainly by securities brokers and to some extent informal credits created through unregulated trading platforms,” ANZ says.
HONG KONG – The most important of new policies announced by the State Council of China to stimulate exports and support growth is the decision to expand the RMB floating band. After three expansions since exchange rate reform in 2005, this will further promote financial liberalisation and RMB internationalisation, BBVA Bank says in a research note.
SEOUL – South Korea’s GDP slowed to 2.2% y/y in Q2, compared with 2.5% in the first quarter. This is the slowest growth rate since Q1 2013. Sequentially, Korea’s GDP grew 0.3% q/q sa, marginally lower than the Bank of Korea’s estimate of 0.4% earlier this month, and below 0.8% reported for Q1, suggesting that growth momentum has slowed significantly.
SINGAPORE - The Chinese Government's measures to stem heavy losses in China’s stock market have set back its stated aim of increasing the role of markets in the economy, ratings agency Standard & Poor's warns in a report released today. "We believe the Central Government has shown a reduced regard for long-term implications when addressing immediate risks," says S&P credit analyst, Kim Eng Tan.
TAIPEI – The Taiwanese Government has announced that its Ministry of the Interior (MOI) will release a new book in August which documents Government efforts to develop national territories in the South China Sea over the past century.
SINGAPORE – with external demand continuing to deteriorate, Taiwan's export orders contracted by 5.8% on-year in June, compared with a fall of 5.9% in May, a third consecutive month of decline. For the first half, export orders fellby1.5% y/y, compared with a 2.5% gain in Q1.
TAIPEI – Taiwan’s ruling Kuomintang Party has named Legislative Yuan Vice President Hung Hsiu-chu as its Presidential candidate for the 2016 election. Hung becomes the first woman to carry the Party’s endorsement in a Presidential election. She now goes head-to-head with Tsai Ing-wen, Chairwoman of the Opposition Democratic Progressive Party, in the race for the Presidency.
BEIJING – In an interview with Caixin media, Australia’s Minister of Industry and Science, Ian Macfarlane, on Australia’s recently signed free-trade agreement with China, Macfarlane says the focus of the agreement is on market access and investment opportunities, and that the details are not fully fleshed out (see ATI April 20115). “We do want to make sure (we) eliminate barriers to investment between our two countries, and the FTA will definitely address that,” he is quoted as saying.
BANGKOK – ASEAN member States have signed off on the ASEAN Medical Device Directive (AMDD), creating a new set of rules for providers. Only medical devices which conform to the provisions of the AMDD and its Annexes may now be placed in the markets of the Member State.
HONG KONG - The risk of downgrades in Asia-Pacific has eased in the near term as China settles to a lower economic growth trajectory, Standard & Poor's says in a report published today, but while forecasting that the overall growth rate in Asia-Pacific's corporate credit will stabilise, S&P says some sectors, including financial institutions, real estate, and natural resources, have high negative rating biases.
TAIPEI - Bilateral trade between Taiwan and Australia reached US$10.9 billion last year, making Australia Taiwan’s 13th-largest trade partner, but Australian exports to Taiwan fell by 7.26% in 2014, while exports from New Zealand increased 22.3% on the back of a trade agreement signed between Taiwan and NZ in 2013.
BEIJING - A controversial new security bill in Japan that will allow Japan’s military to take part in non-UN peacekeeping missions – the Bill has the backing of nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and right-wingers in the US Congress – will “increase opportunities for war in Asia”, according to some commentators.