Chinese factories boom while Japan’s are in reverse
2023-03-01
Firms are balancing reopening as Covid restrictions ease against rising costs of energy and higher wages.Continue Reading
Singapore banks continue to see double-digit increases in profits – can this be sustained?
2023-02-27
One analyst expects the growth in earnings to be “less significant” than last year due to growing funding and operating costs.Continue Reading
G20 finance meeting to end without consensus on war in Ukraine: Delegates
2023-02-25
Besides the G7 nations, the G20 bloc also includes such countries as Australia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. The delegates said the meeting was likely to end with a statement by the host summarising the discussions. “In the absence of a consensus, the option for India would be to issue aContinue Reading
G20 finance chiefs differ on debt, Russia-Ukraine war
2023-02-25
Besides the G7 nations, the G20 bloc also includes such countries as Australia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia. A senior G20 source said negotiations over the communique were difficult, with Russia and China blocking proposals by Western countries. The source and several other officials said barring a last-minute surprise, a consensusContinue Reading
Temasek among 18 firms and banks hit by US class action lawsuit for allegedly defrauding FTX customers
2023-02-24
SINGAPORE: Singapore’s state investment firm Temasek, along with 17 other banks, venture capitalists and accounting firms, is being sued for allegedly conspiring with cryptocurrency exchange FTX to defraud investors. The 83-page class action lawsuit was filed in Miami, Florida on Wednesday (Feb 22) by Connor O’Keefe, an FTX customer whoseContinue Reading
BOJ nominee tells Tokyo its Peter Pan days are over
2023-02-24
TOKYO – Kazuo Ueda used his big moment in the spotlight on Friday to assure Bank of Japan watchers he’s no Peter Pan. One of the cringiest moments of predecessor Haruhiko Kuroda’s 10 years as BOJ governor came in 2015, when he spelled out his strategy to reanimate Asia’s second-biggest economy. “I trust that many […]Continue Reading
‘Global security’ rules would bind world, not China
2023-02-24
On February 21, the government of the People’s Republic of China published what it called the “concept paper” for its much-ballyhooed (by PRC officials) Global Security Initiative. Publication of this concept paper is part of Beijing’s campaign, dating back to the early 2000s, to assuage foreign fears about China becoming a great power. It also serves […]Continue Reading
China to shift away from Big Four accounting firms
2023-02-23
China’s Ministry of Finance has reportedly asked state-owned enterprises to stop using the four biggest accounting firms due to data security concerns. Offshore subsidiaries will still be allowed to use the Big Four auditors but their parent companies will have to hire local Chinese or Hong Kong accountants when their current contracts expire, Bloomberg reported […]Continue Reading
How Putin has shrugged off Western sanctions
2023-02-22
The US and four dozen other countries have imposed punishing sanctions on Russia in reaction to its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The sanctions were unprecedented in their scope and severity for an economy of Russia’s size. The initial sanctions included the freezing of Russian assets abroad and a ban on the export […]Continue Reading
Singapore’s PayNow links up with India’s UPI for real-time cross-border payments
2023-02-21
SINGAPORE: Singapore and India on Tuesday (Feb 21) launched a real-time link to facilitate cross-border fund transfers between bank accounts or e-wallets, using mobile phones. This is possible through a tie-up between Singapore’s PayNow facility and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Customers of participating financial institutions can transfer funds using just their mobileContinue Reading