World

Indian economy predicted to continue growing strongly in spite of the world’s woes
30Nov By Michael SmithNo Comments
Asia, World

Indian economy predicted to continue growing strongly in spite of the world’s woes

Indian economy is likely to continue its strong growth in the quarter to end of September, helped by a solid urban consumption and government spending, outpacing a slowing global economy squeezed by elevated interest rates and higher energy prices.Asia's third-largest economy is expected to grow at 6.8 in the July-September quarter compared with a year earlier, according to a Reuters poll. India will release the quarterly gross domestic product figures at 1200 GMT on Thursday. India's is seen as the bright spot globally as some Western countries are flirting with the possibility of recession, while China, the world's second-largest economy, has slowed down.The poll's consensus forecast is higher than Reserve Bank of India's projection of 6.5 for the quarter, but lower than the 7.8 grow...
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China’s economic development from the divergence of Xi to the vision of Deng
30Nov By Mike TrudellNo Comments
China, World

China’s economic development from the divergence of Xi to the vision of Deng

Had Deng Xiaoping not sought and received advice from Japan and Singapore in his creation of ‘socialism with Japanese and Singaporean characteristics’, China’s economic miracle would have been less miraculous. China’s current economic woes stem largely from Xi Jinping’s abandonment of this paradigm. When Mao Zedong died in 1976, China was the second poorest among 140 countries. Deng Xiaoping proclaimed a remedy of ‘reform and opening up’ to foreign countries, drawing from previous Asian success stories. During an October 1978 trip to Japan, Deng met with business leaders, toured a Nissan auto plant and saw China’s future. ‘We are a backward country, and we need to learn from Japan’, he told a press conference in Tokyo. His first official foreign economic advisor was Saburo Okita, on...
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China’s industry and service sector is contracting as a recovery roadblock
30Nov By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China, World

China’s industry and service sector is contracting as a recovery roadblock

A gauge of non-manufacturing activity — which measures the construction and services sectors — unexpectedly eased to 50.2, barely clearing the 50 mark above which indicates expansion. An underlying measure of services activity fell to 49.3, the first contraction for that gauge this year. Activity in China’s manufacturing and services sectors shrank in November, adding to expectations for additional government support for the economic recovery as it struggles to regain steam. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 49.4, the second straight month of contraction, according to a Thursday statement from the National Bureau of Statistics. While economists expected a decline in the index, the number was lower than estimates. A gauge of non-manufacturing activity — whi...
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China’s Xi travels to Shanghai, a financial center
30Nov By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
China, World

China’s Xi travels to Shanghai, a financial center

China President Xi Jinping visited Shanghai, where he went to several venues and learned about the city's efforts to strengthen its competitiveness as an international financial centre, Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. Xi made the trip on Tuesday and Wednesday and he inspected the Shanghai Futures Exchange, an exhibition on Shanghai's sci-tech innovations and a government-subsidized rental housing community, the report said. He was seen with other government leaders, including Cai Qi, the head of the powerful Secretariat of the Communist Party of China Central Committee that oversees day-to-day affairs of the CPC. Vice Premier He Lifeng, Shanghai's Communist party secretary Chen Jining and Mayor Gong Zheng also accompanied his visit. A video posted by state television...
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At-level debate on the “flight of capital” from India and how to stop it by the finance ministry
29Nov By Michael SmithNo Comments
Asia, World

At-level debate on the “flight of capital” from India and how to stop it by the finance ministry

The issue of how to control and curb the flow of money leaving India seems to feature prominently in the minds of the Modi government’s officials of late, with the latest sign being deliberations at the Ministry of Finance on the “flight of capital” of high net-worth individuals (HNIs) out of the country, ThePrint has learnt. The government had earlier this year announced a hike on tax collected at source (TCS) on international transactions, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday voiced concern over the trend of Indians going abroad to get married. The matter of flight of capital of HNIs was discussed at the Chintan Shivir of the ministries of finance and corporate affairs, held in August at Kevadia in Gujarat. ThePrint has accessed the minutes of the meeting, which reveal, ap...
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After surging to become the best-performing currency in the world, the Pakistani rupee has collapsed. What took place?
29Nov By Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia, World

After surging to become the best-performing currency in the world, the Pakistani rupee has collapsed. What took place?

The Pakistani rupee has fallen 20% against the dollar this year, Bloomberg reported. That's after spiking in October, as demand for the rupee surged on a clampdown on illicit dollar transactions. But due to Pakistan's floundering economy, the rupee is the worst performing Asian currency this year. The Pakistani rupee has plunged about 20% against the dollar this year, putting it on track to end 2023 as Asia's worst-performing currency, Bloomberg reported on Monday. But if you rewind just a month, the currency was briefly the top performer in global markets. What happened? The rupee soared 8% in October to 275 per dollar after hitting a record low in September because of the Pakistani government's response to illicit dollar transactions, according to the Indian lender HDFC S...
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29Nov By Michael SmithNo Comments
Asia, World

Is Pakistan able to become independent of the US dollar?

The Pakistani rupee is expected to end the year on a historic low — as Asia’s worst-performing currency — having shed almost 20 per cent of its value against the US dollar. Even with the authorities clamping down on profiteering, smuggling and banning the imports of ‘luxury goods’, the currency isn’t expected to fare any better next year. Amid all this, one idea that has been gaining traction in policy circles, not just in Pakistan but among other regional players too, is the need to lessen the dependency on the US dollar. But what does this mean for Pakistan? And is it even doable? The buzzwordDe-dollarisation is no longer a financial buzzword; it is a strategic move by nations to diminish their reliance on the United States dollar (USD) in global trade, transactions, and reserves....
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ETFs are booming in China as investors wait for stock market declines.
29Nov By Walter ParezNo Comments
China, World

ETFs are booming in China as investors wait for stock market declines.

Chinese stock investors are ploughing money into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year at the fastest pace on record as they choose to play a languid stock market passively and wait for it to trough. The trend has also caught on as active fund managers in China struggle to make money and as Beijing uses ETFs to support stock markets and channel funding into strategic sectors such as technology and green energy. ETFs, which are funds that typically track an index, have garnered more than 400 billion yuan ($55.97 billion) this year in what would be record annual net inflows, according to mutual fund house China Asset Management Co (ChinaAMC), which has the biggest market share in the products. "When the market falls, many investors would use ETFs to bet on a bottom," said Xu Meng,...
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Ex-PM Imran Khan is questioned in a corruption investigation by Pakistan’s top anti-graft commission.
27Nov By Michael SmithNo Comments
Asia, World

Ex-PM Imran Khan is questioned in a corruption investigation by Pakistan’s top anti-graft commission.

Pakistan’s incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan was interrogated in jail by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog in a multibillion rupee corruption case, according to a media report on Monday. A National Accountability Bureau (NAB) team visited the 71-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief in the Adiala Jail on Sunday, a senior official of the anti-graft watchdog told the Dawn newspaper. The former premier has been incarcerated in the high-security jail in Rawalpindi since September 26 in various cases. The NAB team interrogated Khan for over two hours in connection with the charges he faces in the GBP 190 million (Rs 50 billion) Al-Qadir Trust corruption case, the report said. The Al-Qadir Trust case is about the settlement of 190 million pounds, about Rs 50 bi...
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The disparity between India and China’s trade figures from January to October of this year increased to $15 billion.
27Nov By Brian ThompsonNo Comments
China, World

The disparity between India and China’s trade figures from January to October of this year increased to $15 billion.

The magnitude of the discrepancy in the India-China official trade numbers as per data sets released separately by New Delhi and Beijing has widened further this year, amid rising instances of under-invoicing and potentially higher losses to the Indian exchequer despite efforts by tax authorities to plug loopholes. The disparity between official figures on exports to India released by China and the imports from China reported by India jumped over 20 percent to $15.47 billion during the first 10 months of 2023, as against $12.75 billion in the corresponding period last year. Under-invoicing of imported goods involves marking the stated value of imports below the actual value paid to the foreign exporter, thereby reducing the import tax outgo. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry in ...
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