World

An ideological split between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the country’s business and cultural elite has come to the fore after a hardline commentary by a known Maoist supporter received official blessing in state media. The widely distributed commentary, laden with Cold War jargon, calls for a “profound transformation” to make China strong enough to fight against the United States, a process some have dubbed Cultural Revolution 2.0. Political commentators said the article resembled the way revolutionary leader Mao Zedong initiated the Cultural Revolution with his “big-character posters” in 1966. They also said President and Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping would gain more political and economic power with this transformation while businessmen and officials who had benefi...

BEIJING: China's exports unexpectedly grew at a faster pace in August thanks to solid global demand, helping take some of the pressure off the world's second-biggest economy as it navigates its way through headwinds from several fronts. The Asian giant staged an impressive recovery from a coronavirus-battered slump, but economic momentum has weakened recently due to the Delta variant-driven COVID-19 outbreaks, high raw material prices, slowing factory activity, tighter measures to tame hot property prices and a campaign to reduce carbon emissions. Shipments from the world's biggest exporter in August rose 25.6 per cent year-on-year, picking up speed from a 19.3. per cent gain in July, customs data showed on Tuesday (Sep 7), pointing to some resilience in China's industrial sector. Analy...

The number of COVID-19 infections in Malaysia is surging, threatening to aggravate shortages of semiconductors and other components that have hammered automakers for months. The Southeast Asian country hasn’t historically had the kind of importance to technology supply chains that Taiwan, South Korea or Japan do. But in recent years, Malaysia has emerged as a major center for chip testing and packaging, with Infineon Technologies AG, NXP Semiconductors NV and STMicroelectronics NV among the key suppliers operating plants there. Now numbers of COVID-19 infections are soaring in the country, jeopardizing plans to lift lockdowns and restore full production capacity. The seven-day average for reported daily infections has pushed past 20,000, up from just over 5,000 in late June. Ford Motor ...

MANILA :The Philippine economy grew at its fastest annual pace in over three decades in the second quarter, rebounding from a COVID-induced slump a year ago, but tighter curbs are clouding the outlook, reinforcing an accommodative monetary stance. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 11.8per cent in the June quarter, the biggest year-on-year expansion since the fourth quarter of 1988, the statistics agency said on Tuesday. Philippine's economy exited a recession after five consecutive quarters of contraction. Economists in a Reuters poll had expected GDP to expand 10per cent year-on-year in the second quarter. The economy, however, contracted a seasonally adjusted 1.3per cent in the April-June period, after growing 0.3per cent in the previous quarter. The figures come ahead of the Bangko ...

A Singapore Airlines plane is parked beside Scoots passenger planes on the terminal tarmac at Changi International Airport in Singapore on March 15, 2021. Roslan Rahman | AFP | Getty Images SINGAPORE — Singapore is reopening its borders to more destinations, and some travelers from Hong Kong, Macao, Germany and Brunei will soon be able to enter without having to serve quarantine. The city-state announced the lifting of border restrictions for visitors from Hong Kong and Macao, who can apply for entry immediately and enter Singapore as soon as Aug. 26, according to Transport Minister S. Iswaran. Singapore will also be opening a so-called vaccinated travel lane with Germany and Brunei in September, the national aviation authority said. It means Singaporeans can travel to Germany and Brunei,...

Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket: Best Buy (BBY) – Best Buy shares rallied 4.3% in the premarket after the electronics retailer beat estimates on the top and bottom lines for the second quarter. Best Buy earned $2.98 per share, compared to a $1.85 a share. consensus estimate. Comparable-store sales rose a better-than-expected 19.6%. Palo Alto Networks (PANW) – Palo Alto Networks surged 11.9% in the premarket, after being estimates by 16 cents a share, with quarterly earnings of $1.60 per share. The cybersecurity company's revenue was also above estimates, and it issued an upbeat outlook as well. Camping World (CWH) – The maker of RVs and other recreational products announced it would double its quarterly dividend to 50 cents per share from 25 cents a share, pay...

At-risk communities in Asia are warning that they have "no hope" of coping with more climate catastrophes and some even fear "extinction" if the world does not act quicker, after the U.N. said global warming was close to being out of control. Climate experts are also concerned the effects could worsen inequalities in a region where many people rely on natural resources for their livelihoods, pushing more into poverty. The U.N. climate science panel on Monday warned in a major report that the average global temperature will likely cross the 1.5-degree Celsius warming threshold within the next 20 years — bringing stronger droughts, heat waves, floods and storms. Such devastating impacts are already being felt in the Asia-Pacific, the world's most disaster-prone region, which saw a record ...

The survey comes at a remarkable time given the experience of the past year and a half, said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate. "There have been a lot of epiphanies and reckonings that have occurred during the time with respect with how we're prioritizing ultimately our values, and of course how work fits into that." Some 55% of people in the workforce, meaning that they're currently working or actively looking for employment, said they are likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months, according to Bankrate's August jobseeker survey, published Monday . YouGov Plc conducted the survey of 2,452 adults for Bankrate from July 28 to July 30. The data confirms trends seen in the labor market recently. While millions remain unemployed, certain industries are struggling to ...

BEIJING :Earnings at China's industrial firms in July slowed for the fifth straight month, adding to growing evidence of a loss of momentum in the world's second-biggest economy and bolstering the case for maintaining policy support https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-policy-idUSKBN2F013X for a while longer. Elevated raw material prices and supply chain constraints from extreme weather as well as sporadic coronavirus cases dragged on earnings in the manufacturing sector, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday. Industrial firms' profits in July increased 16.4per cent on an annual basis - the slowest clip this year - to 703.67 billion yuan (US$108.51 billion), the NBS said. That compared to a 20per cent gain in June. China's economy has staged an i...

LONDON/TOKYO : Global factory activity lost momentum in August as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic-disrupted supply chains, raising concerns faltering manufacturing would add to economic woes caused by slumping consumption, surveys showed on Wednesday. Many firms reported logistical troubles, product shortages and a labour crunch which have made it a sellers' market of the goods factories need, driving up prices. While factory activity remained strong in the euro zone, IHS Markit's final manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 61.4 in August from July's 62.8, below an initial 61.5 "flash" estimate. "Despite the strong PMI figures, we think that lingering supply-side issues and related producer price pressures might take longer to resolve than previously expected, increasi...