JAKARTA: Indonesia’s anti-monopoly agency (KPPU) ordered seven cooking oil companies on Friday (May 26) to pay fines of up to US$2.78 million each for restricting sales amid scarce supplies last year. KPPU launched an investigation into the companies’ conduct last year after surging prices of cooking oil forced the IndonesianContinue Reading
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is confident of meeting its September deadline on completing debt restructuring talks with creditors, a top official said on Friday (May 26), as the debt-laden country works to emerge from its worst financial crisis in decades. Sri Lanka, which defaulted on its foreign debt for the firstContinue Reading
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s economy will probably grow more slowly in 2023 than previously forecast, the government’s statistics office said on Friday (May 26), as weakening global demand weighs heavily on its key technology exports. The island’s gross domestic product (GDP) is now expected to expand 2.04 per cent in 2023 fromContinue Reading
Resident Sanjeev Sen Gupta said he would check with a store to see if he could get rid of his notes by buying some jewellery.
“It totally depends on the understanding between the businessman and the customer. I am sure the jewellery shop owner will think about whether he should accept them,” he added.
Meanwhile, some businesses are hoping to cash in on the situation by encouraging shoppers to use up their notes by purchasing goods or services.
Another resident, Ms Sangeeta Sehgal, said: “The businesses are giving us options. They are telling us to go to their gyms and to go to their shops.
“I am also getting these messages on WhatsApp telling me that I can buy all kinds of clothes using 2,000-rupee notes. So, they have now used this to boost their sales, be it jewellers or any other businesses. So a lot of us are spending our 2,000-rupees notes in the market this way.”
As people shop to avoid the hassle of going to a bank, this has reportedly led to an increase in sales for many businesses, said analysts.
This could benefit gold merchants and real estate companies, they added.
BEIJING: Beijing’s restrictions on American chipmaker Micron in retaliation to sweeping US chip curbs marks a major step up in its response to Washington’s pressure and could open the door for further measures in the geopolitical standoff, analysts say. But they warned President Xi Jinping’s ability to raise the stakesContinue Reading
Micron has said it is communicating with Chinese authorities about the decision. Meanwhile, chief financial officer Mark Murphy said it estimates the impact is “in the low single digits percentage of the company’s total revenue at the low end, and high single digits percentage of total revenue at the highContinue Reading
HONG KONG: Cathay Pacific Airways apologised on Tuesday (May 23) after a passenger accused its flight attendants of discriminating against non-English speakers in an online post that went viral on Chinese social media. Cathay said the experience of passengers travelling on its CX987 flight from the southwestern Chinese city ofContinue Reading
BANGKOK: Thailand’s unemployment rate hit a three-year low in the first quarter, the state planning agency said on Monday (May 22), declining to 1.05 per cent from 1.15 per cent in the last three months of 2022 as recovery in the crucial tourism industry strengthened. Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy grew faster thanContinue Reading
MUMBAI: India will withdraw its highest denomination currency note from circulation, the central bank said on Friday (May 19). The 2,000-rupee note, introduced into circulation in 2016, will remain legal tender but citizens have been asked to deposit or exchange these notes by Sep 30, 2023. The decision is reminiscentContinue Reading
Unemployment among China’s urban 16- to 24-year-olds reached a record high of 20 per cent in April, as the services sector was slow to absorb millions of rural migrants flocking to cities. Overall urban unemployment slipped to 5.2 per cent in April, from 5.3 per cent in March. Industrial productionContinue Reading