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
HONG KONG: Cathay Pacific Airways on Friday (Sep 23) said it plans to add more than 200 pairs of passenger flights in October to both regional and long-haul destinations. The announcement came after Hong Kong government said to scrap its controversial COVID-19 hotel quarantine policy for all arrivals from SepContinue Reading
SEOUL: Southern Korea’s central financial institution said on Friday (Sep 23) it had been setting up a currency exchange arrangement with the National Pension Service to divert some of the fund’s foreign currency needs, within a bid to put the floor under the rapidly weakening won. The Bank of KoreaContinue Reading
The particular dollar, which has increased to multi-decade highs against its major peers as well as growing currencies, held its strength. Traders are maintaining a close eye upon developments following the Japanese finance ministry’s involvement to support the yen , after it hit a new 24-year low of 146 againstContinue Reading