World

Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a TV interview that negotiations with the administration of US President Joe Biden over the US debt ceiling will resume this evening after a temporary pause earlier in the day rattled financial markets. The two sides have little time to agree on a deal to raise the federal government’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit or risk a catastrophic default. The Department of the Treasury has warned that the government could be unable to pay all its bills by June 1. “We’ll be back in the room tonight,” McCarthy said in an interview on Fox Business on Friday. The White House has yet to comment. While it falls to Congress to adjust the government’s spending limits, Republicans in the House of Representatives have used their majority as leverage to d...

Due to the potential for increased costs and less competition, a federal court in the United States has ordered that two major airlines dissolve their regional alliance in the nation's northeast within 30 days. The US Justice Department has won after Friday's ruling involving American Airlines and JetBlue Airways, which it had sued to prevent from forming a "unprecedented domestic alliance" in 2021. Spirit Airlines will be bought by JetBlue for $3.8 billion.Leo Sorokin, the district judge for Massachusetts, criticized the agreement in his decision, saying it "diminishes JetBlue's status as an independent, low-cost player in the market." He also shared the Justice Department's worries that the alliance will limit rival airline competition. In his judgement, Sorokin said that the t...

Up until a few weeks ago, investors' bets on the nation's economic revival after the relaxation of pandemic restrictions had made Chinese equities among the best-performing in the world over the preceding six months. However, CNN estimates show that since April 18, when China disclosed data on its first-quarter economic production, the value of equities of Chinese firms throughout the globe has decreased by nearly $540 billion. Due to China's uncertain economic situation, escalating geopolitical tensions, and Beijing's crackdown on foreign consulting businesses, investors reduced their exposure to the country. Since April 18, the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index has decreased by more than 5%. The Hang Seng (HSI) Index for Hong Kong has fallen 5% as well. Additionally, the Shenzhen C...

A more favorable comparison for real estate and other statistics recorded for the first four months of this year is now available because to revisions made by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to certain of its 2022 economic data. According to NBS statistics issued on Tuesday, sales of new residences by area fell by 0.4% to 376.4 million square meters in the first four months of this year compared to the same time in 2016, while sales value increased by 8.8% to 3.98 trillion yuan.

The Chinese president made his position known on May 14 when he spoke against a "street stall economy" in the Xiongan New Area, a metropolis being developed south of Beijing to relieve the congestion and pressure in the 22 million-person capital city. The capital city is not a "hodgepodge," but rather first and foremost a political hub. It cannot run "factories in alleys" and participate in the "street stall economy," Xi reportedly remarked in a speech originally published by the official state news agency Xinhua. This is the first time Xi has publicly criticized recent local government initiatives to restore the economy via a "street stall economy," CNN said on Thursday. Xi's remarks from last week are unusual since they mark the first time he has done so. In China, the phrase "...

South Asia, battered by three years of upheaval from the COVID-19 pandemic and spillovers from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, faces a combination of good and bad news for its economies.  On the positive side, global energy and fertilizer prices are down, both tourism and business services continue to recover strongly, and the reopening of China’s economy is relaxing supply bottlenecks. However, rising interest rates and risks in the banking sector in the United States and Europe have increased uncertainties in South Asia’s outlook, given their significant impact on balance of payments, exchange rates, and financial markets  Therefore, growth in South Asia is expected to slow down in 2023, according to our latest South Asia Economic Focus (SAEF) , Expanding ...

Asia-Pacific markets were mixed as investors digested economic data from Japan and Australia. Quad leaders also canceled a planned meeting in Sydney next week as U.S. President Joe Biden cut his Asia trip short to return to the U.S. for talks on the debt ceiling. Hong Kong’s stocks saw a sharp sell-off in its final hours of trade, with Hang Seng index trading nearly 2% lower in Wednesday’s afternoon session. Healthcare, real estate, and consumer cyclical stocks led declines, Refinitiv data showed. Investors further digested China’s new home prices that fell 0.2% year-on-year in April. Mainland China stocks also fell, with the Shanghai Composite ticking 0.21% lower, ending at 3,284.23 and the Shenzhen Component seeing marginal declines to close at 11,...

China’s economic data for April broadly missed expectations as the economy continued to show an uneven path of recovery from the impact of its stringent Covid restrictions. Industrial production for April rose by 5.6% year-on-year, compared to the 10.9% expected by economists surveyed in a Reuters poll. The figure was up 3.9% in March following a muted start to the year. Retail sales rose by 18.4% – lower than economists’ forecast a surge of 21%. Fixed asset investment rose by 4.7%, against expectations of 5.5%. The reading rose 5.1% the previous month. “China is in the stage of recovering, compared to last year, the numbers are positive as we just saw, but is the recovery good enough for the market, is the recovery good enough to meet investors’ expectations – that’s the...