World

COLOMBO : Car spare parts dealers in Sri Lanka's main city of Colombo are receiving a steady stream of customers looking for what is fast becoming a prized commodity in the island nation - side mirrors for Suzuki's compact Wagon R. The scramble for the humble product highlights rising economic risks for the South Asian country as imports slump, foreign exchange reserves plummet and a potential sovereign default looms. Suzuki's boxy, five-seater vehicle is hugely popular in Sri Lanka, given its low running costs. With some 30,000 of the cars sold over the past four years in a nation that has relatively high road crash rates, replacement side mirrors are commonly sought in the spare parts shops scattered across the suburb of Nugegoda. "Everyone is looking for Wagon R parts," said Supun De...

MELBOURNE : Australia on Friday cleared the way for millions of carbon credits to be sold to the private market instead of to the government, allowing developers of carbon abatement projects to potentially earn more for their emissions reductions. The surprise change in policy immediately hit the carbon market, with the price of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) dropping 24per cent on the prospect of a sharp increase in the supply of credits, research firm RepuTex said. The government is now giving carbon abatement project developers, such as vegetation projects, the option of selling the ACCUs generated by their projects to the private market instead of selling them to Australia's Emissions Reduction Fund. "This will allow projects to take advantage of higher market prices over ti...

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine significantly strengthens the case of the critical nature of reinforcing a rules-based order, the central pillar of not only Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) vision. After World War II, international institutions and law were designed to prevent large states from dominating smaller states. It was hoped these institutions could stop the world from spiraling into another major disastrous conflict, not only in Europe but in the Indo-Pacific region as well. Today, we are seeing authoritarian states, specifically Russia and China, eschew international law and the stability that was brought about by the post–World War II rules-based order to create spheres of influence — extending into Ukraine, and likely other parts of Eastern Europe, in the case ...

This year, Equal Pay Day lands on March 15, which signifies how far into the year women must work to catch up to what men earned the previous year. On average, full-time working women earn 83 cents for every dollar paid to a man, which adds up to about $417,000 in lost wages over a 40-year career, according to the National Women's Law Center (NWLC). The NWLC estimates that it would take about 12 years of extra work for women to match men's earnings. These numbers, however, understate the severe impact the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has had on women's progress in the workplace. Women have lost more than 1.4 million net jobs since February 2020 and make up close to 70% of job losers since the start of the crisis. Women continue to bear the brunt of pandemic job losses, too, as more than on...

MANILA : U.S. private equity firm Cerberus will acquire for $300 million a debt-laden shipyard in the Philippines at a former U.S. navy base close to the South China Sea, the facility's trustee and two sources with knowledge of the deal said on Tuesday. The fate of the strategically located Subic Bay shipyard has been a national security concern for defence chiefs, with fears it could be taken over by state-run firms from China, with which the Philippines has a long history of mistrust. In 2019, at least eight foreign companies had expressed interest in the shipyard including two unidentified Chinese firms. China has overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea with several countries including the Philippines, which has repeatedly protested Chinese actions to expand its presenc...

LONDON: The safe-haven Japanese yen fell back on Friday (Feb 18) and risk-sensitive currencies like the Australian dollar advanced as investors took comfort from news of talks between the United States and Russia over the crisis in Ukraine. The euro edged higher versus a weaker dollar. The yen and rival safe-haven, the Swiss franc, have gained this week as investors sought safety amid rising tensions on the Ukrainian border, where more than 100,000 Russian troops are massed. Western powers say Russia is looking for a pretext to invade, a charge Moscow rejects. The improvement in sentiment on Friday came after US State Department said late on Thursday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had accepted an invitation to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov late next week provi...

JAKARTA: Foreign travellers can now enter the Indonesian islands of Bintan and Batam without quarantine, in addition to Bali. According to an Indonesia COVID-19 task force circular issued on Tuesday (Mar 8), travellers from abroad can enter via Batam’s Hang Nadim Airport, Batam Port, Raja Haji Fisabilillah Airport in Tanjung Pinang, Bintan Port and Tanjung Pinang Port. Among the task force’s duties include regulating travel health protocols amid the pandemic. To be eligible, travellers must be fully vaccinated and show a negative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test taken 48 hours before departure, the circular wrote. Foreign travellers must also have a valid visa and show payment of a tourism package or hotel in Batam or Bintan. They also need to have health i...

LONDON: HSBC aims to cut emissions associated with loans made to its oil and gas clients by 34 per cent this decade, the bank's sustainability chief told Reuters, marking the first time that Britain's biggest lender has committed to such a target. More than 100 banks have pledged to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and are under pressure to provide details on the deep shorter-term cuts to "financed emissions" that are needed if banks are to have any chance of meeting their goal. "This is rewiring the way we make financing and investment decisions from here on in," group chief sustainability officer Celine Herweijer said of HSBC's 2030 targets. HSBC is a major lender to corporate clients across Asia and some of the world's biggest oil and gas companies, and its plan is expected to...

U.S. Treasury yields rose sharply Wednesday as traders dumped traditional safe havens and loaded up on riskier assets like stocks. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note moved 18 basis point higher to 1.89% in afternoon trading. That marks the rate's biggest one-day jump since March 2020. The 10-year Treasury yield fell as low as 1.68% on Tuesday, with investors rushing into safe-haven investments, as Russia continued its invasion of Ukraine. The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond advanced 15 basis points to 2.26%. Yields move inversely to prices and 1 basis point is equal to 0.01%. Treasurys Wednesday's moves in bonds came as stocks rallied perhaps in anticipation of the Ukraine-Russia situation taking a turn for the better soon. The conflict in Eastern Europe has continued to...

Oil’s relentless surge above $125 a barrel threatens to stoke inflation across Asia, forcing central banks to decide whether to respond to higher prices with tighter policy, or hold off amid the blow to economic growth. As a net importer of energy, Asia is vulnerable to the oil price spike triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And with more than 40% of global exports stemming from the region, any sustained price increases will ripple throughout the world. “Most are huge energy importers, so soaring crude and gas costs will weigh on economic growth,” said Frederic Neumann, co-head of Asian economic research at HSBC Holdings PLC. “But the inflation impact is also substantial, even if the precise impact on individual markets varies. A delicate balancing act for central banks.” Here’s ...