Asia

29May By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, Market, World

China hands rare death sentence to former senior banker for taking US$151 million in bribes

Former manager Bai Tianhui is the second China Huarong official to receive the ultimate penalty, after his former boss was executed in 2021No mention was made of Bai’s intention to appeal the court’s ruling, which is unusually severe in Chinese corruption cases A court in eastern China delivered a rare death sentence on Tuesday, after finding that a former senior banker accepted bribes worth more than 1.1 billion yuan (US$151 million) in his role with one of the country’s top four state asset managers. Bai Tianhui, former general manager of China Huarong International Holdings (CHIH), took advantage of his position to aid others in the acquisitions and financing of projects in exchange for the huge sums, the court found. A report on the Secondary Intermediate People’s Court of Ti...
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29May By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, Market, World

Georgian Finance Minister, delegation of China’s Export-Import Bank discuss cooperation

Georgian Finance Minister Lasha Khutsishvili on Wednesday discussed economic and trade cooperation with China with a visiting delegation of the country’s Export and Import Bank state policy bank. The meeting comes as part of intensified ties between the two governments, who signed a strategic partnership agreement in July last year. The Georgian Ministry said the meeting with the delegation also featured Ekaterine Guntsadze, the country’s Deputy Finance Minister.
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Over the past five months, confidence in the US economy has almost doubled.
29May By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia

Over the past five months, confidence in the US economy has almost doubled.

The proportion of chief economists expecting strong growth in the US this year has gone to 97% now from 59% in January 2024, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). The implication is that, despite high interest rates, the world's largest economy isn't slowing down. Global markets have their hopes pinned on interest rate cuts from the US Federal Reserve, as inflation inches down. Nearly seven out of every 10 economists polled by Reuters expect a rate cut by the American Central Bank in September this year. However, if growth remains strong in the US and new jobs continue to get added, it may affect the odds of a reduction in inflation, further deferring the impending rate cut cycle that the markets are waiting for. The US added 175,000 jobs in April, a strong growth, al...
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S&P updates India’s outlook to “positive” after ten years and maintains its “BBB-” long-term rating.
29May By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia

S&P updates India’s outlook to “positive” after ten years and maintains its “BBB-” long-term rating.

Taking note of robust growth and rising quality of government spending, S&P Global Ratings on Wednesday revised outlook on India’s economy to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’. However, it retained the sovereign rating as ‘BBB Minus’. The rating has been on BBB- since January 30, 2007 (when it was upgraded from BB+). It has been on BBB-/stable since September 26, 2014 (it was placed on negative outlook on April 25, 2012).  Meanwhile, it is the first agency which has revised the outlook. Earlier in January, relying on a robust medium-term GDP growth outlook and sound external finances, Fitch affirmed India’s sovereign rating at ‘BBB Minus’ with stable outlook. ‘BBB Minus’ is the lowest investment grade rating offered. Rating upgrade Change in outlook means there is ...
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The Justifications for an Economic Stimulus in Thailand
28May By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia

The Justifications for an Economic Stimulus in Thailand

A range of data suggests Thailand’s economy has not reached maximal employment. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has some good grounds to inject economic stimulus—but should reconsider the policy’s design. Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin proposed a 10,000 baht per person stimulus as a central piece of his economic agenda. Almost ever since, the stimulus has faced intense criticism. In an otherwise bitterly partisan environment, the stimulus has united factions against Srettha. Democrat Party officials have called out corruption risks and damage to national budgets. Move Forward’s Pita Limjaroenrat said infrastructure improvement and broader reform should take precedence. Srettha’s military-linked coalition partners appear unenthused about passing the legislation. Last month in...
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26May By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, Market, World

G7 steps up economic and financial war against Russia and China

The three-day meeting of the finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 group of imperialist powers held in Stresa, Italy, concluded on Saturday. Significantly, it stepped up its aggressive stance against Russia and China, as well as giving carte blanche to the Israeli genocide in Gaza. A major item on the agenda was how the $300 billion worth of foreign assets of the Russian central bank, frozen by the US and European powers at the start of the Ukraine war, could be used to finance the Zelensky regime as it prepares to throw thousands more men into the meat-grinder, on top of the hundreds of thousands already killed or wounded. As well, revealing the interconnected character of the imperialist war fronts, the meeting adopted a more strident attitude to China and its so-called ...
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It’s time to handle Bangladesh’s external debt cautiously.
26May By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia

It’s time to handle Bangladesh’s external debt cautiously.

Bangladesh's outstanding external public and publicly guaranteed (PPG) debt, at $79 billion as of September 2023, is not high when compared to economies of similar size. The amount, equivalent to about 17 percent of the country's GDP, is not an outlier when compared to corresponding figures for other developing countries and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). However, if the recent growth trend of its external debt-servicing obligations is taken into consideration, the management of external sovereign debt should demand closer attention. Indeed, in recent years, issues of external debt-servicing and debt-carrying capacity have emerged as a global concern in policy circles. A review of the literature shows that many low-income countries could face debt distress and fall into the dre...
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Pakistan is fighting China for relief from a $15 billion energy debt.
24May By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia

Pakistan is fighting China for relief from a $15 billion energy debt.

ISLAMABAD -- Cash-strapped Pakistan is moving to restructure more than $15 billion in power-plant debt owed to Chinese energy producers, in a move that threatens to dampen Beijing's appetite for future investment. The South Asian nation is already on the hook for about $1.9 billion in unpaid operating bills at 20 China-backed power plants across the country. Most were built under the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key part of Beijing's globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). But Islamabad announced last weekend that it was seeking to restructure $15.4 billion in loans linked to the construction of those China-funded plants. Pakistan wants to extend the maturity of the loans by five years to save roughly $2 billion in debt-servicing costs over the ne...
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21May By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, Market, USA, World

BMW and Jaguar used banned China parts – US probe

BMW, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Volkswagen (VW) used parts made by a supplier on a list of firms banned over alleged links to Chinese forced labour, a US congressional report has said. At least 8,000 BMW Mini Cooper cars were imported into the US with components from banned Chinese firm Sichuan Jingweida Technology Group (JWD), according to the report by Senate Finance Committee chairman Ron Wyden's staff. "Automakers’ self-policing is clearly not doing the job," the Democrat Senator said. BMW said it had "strict standards and policies regarding employment practices, human rights, and working conditions, which all our direct suppliers must follow". It added it had taken steps to "halt the importation of affected products and will be conducting a service action with custo...
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21May By Online DeskNo Comments
Asia, China, Market, World

Assessment of the coupling coordination relationship between the green financial system and the sustainable development system across China

Abstract Green finance (GF) is recognized as a key driver of sustainable development. While existing studies have extensively discussed the relationship between GF and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), few have explored the coupling coordination relationship between GF and SDGs. In this paper, we use data from thirty Chinese provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) from 2008–2021 to examine the degree of coupling coordination development (CCD) between GF and the SDGs systems using the CCD model. We find that most SDGs and their sub-goals exhibit a significant upward trend, except for SDG8, 14–16. GF presents a fluctuating upward trend, with a significant decline in 2010 and 2019. The CCDs between GF and SDGs and their sub-goals generally show an M-shaped upward trend i...
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