Market players had expected Japan might find it difficult to secure US understanding for currency intervention, given Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s firm belief in market-determined exchange rates and the US commitment to battle inflation via monetary tightening, which has fuelled the dollar’s rise. While Japan’s intervention briefly halted the dollar’sContinue Reading
MANILA: Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Monday (Oct 10) signed into law a measure making cellphone SIM registration compulsory, in a key step towards fighting text scams, bank fraud and misinformation. The law will require users to furnish full names and identity documents before buying a SIM card, withContinue Reading
With faster download speeds and higher bandwidth, the next generation network is seen as essential for adopting emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics.Continue Reading
LONDON: Food giant Nestle plans to stop sourcing through subsidiaries of Astra Agro Lestari (AAL), a major Indonesian palm oil producer accused by environmental groups of land and human legal rights abuses. The move provides multinationals face increased reputational and lawful pressure from customers and governments to clean up theirContinue Reading
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s parliament on Thursday (Sep 29) approved President Joko Widodo’s 3,061.2 trillion rupiah (US$200.73 billion) budget for next year, with a fiscal deficit of 2.84 per cent of gross domestic product, the deputy house speaker Rachmat Gobel said. The 2023 budget aims to consolidate fiscal positions after the deficitContinue Reading
BEIJING: China will push forward the implementation of its economic policies in the fourth quarter to ensure economic operations within a reasonable range, state media quoted Premier Li Keqiang as saying on Wednesday (Sep 28). Li was quoted as saying that China’s economy has generally recovered, and stabilised in theContinue Reading
TOKYO: Bank of Japan (BOJ) board members agreed that the central bank must scrutinise how the yen’s recent sharp moves could affect inflation, minutes of the BOJ’s July policy meeting showed on Wednesday (Sep 28). One member said the downward pressure on the yen may ease as the global economicContinue Reading
TOKYO: Japan’s restart of more nuclear power plants would help ease Europe’s energy supply fears during the winter as more liquefied natural gas (LNG) will become available to the global market, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday (Sep 27). Europe is racing to prepare forContinue Reading
BANGKOK: Thailand’s government plans new borrowing of about 820 billion baht (US$21.64 billion) in the 2023 fiscal year starting Oct 1, mainly to finance a budget deficit, the finance ministry said on Tuesday (Sep 27), as it tries to bolster economic recovery. The borrowing is part of a wider debtContinue Reading
HANOI: Vietnam’s finance ministry on Friday (Sep 23) said it is proposing to the legislature cutting the special consumption tax and value-added tax on fuels to keep inflation under 4 per cent this year. The move will follow this week’s decision by the central bank to raise policy rates andContinue Reading