Singapore will seek to reduce its reliance on foreign workers and, instead, try to improve the productivity of its own workforce in an effort to restructure its economy, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam announced on Friday. FOREIGN WORKER QUOTA CUT In the first budget speech since a watershed general election in May last year, Tharman announced that …
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SINGAPORE — How do you stump up the money for a $22 billion aircraft deal? The answer in the case of Indonesia’s Lion Air, which finalized a record order with Boeing this week, is typical of many mega-aircraft deals: with a little help from the taxpayer. The U.S. government is offering loan guarantees to help the low-cost carrier buy 230 …
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Extending the gaining streak for the seventh week in a row, the BSE benchmark Sensex gained nearly 541 points to end the week at over six-month high of 18,289.35 on hopes of cut in key policy rates by RBI after fall in overall inflation coupled with furious capital inflows. On the global front, the European Central Bank (ECB) and European officials …
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China is set to surpass India as the world’s top gold consumer this year, the World Gold Council (WGC) predicted. The demand for gold in China, the world’s largest producer, rose by 20% to 769.8 tonnes last year, driven by surging demand for jewelry and investment, while consumption in India, the world’s largest consumer, tumbled 7% to 933.4 tonnes as a result …
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For years, people have wondered what happens when China stops buying U.S. Treasury bonds. Once China refuses to finance our massive deficits, the thought goes, interest rates will surge, and the Treasury might have a hard time selling bonds (ask Greece what it’s like). And if China actually began selling its Treasury bonds… that could bring about something far worse. …
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India’s largest commodities exchange sets the price range for an initial offering of up to $134 million. The deal will kick off with the anchor tranche on Tuesday. Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) yesterday said it aims to raise between Rs5.53 billion and Rs6.63 billion ($111 million to $134 million) from India’s first initial public offering this year. All …
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China cut the amount of cash that banks must set aside as reserves for the second time in three months to spur lending as Europe’s debt crisis and a cooling property market threaten economic growth. Reserve ratios will fall 50 basis points, effective Feb. 24, the People’s Bank of China said on its website yesterday evening. The level for the nation’s largest lenders will decline to 20.5 percent, …
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A lecture by Victor C. Shih, political economist at Northwestern University and author of Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation, the first book to inquire about the linkages between elite politics and banking policies in China. Shih’s current research concerns Chinese banking policies, exchange rates, elite political dynamics and local government debt in China. (December 6, 2011)
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Asian stocks rose this week, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index equaling its longest streak of advances, as China pledged to do more to help Europe cope with the debt crisis and Japanboosted asset purchases. Cosco Pacific Ltd. (1199), the Hong Kong-listed operator of Greece’s Piraeus port, climbed 4.1 percent. Chipmakers outside Japan rallied after debt-laden Elpida Memory Inc. said it may not survive. Reliance …
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Soybean exporters in the U.S., the world’s top shipper, sold 2.923 million metric tons to China in the biggest one-day deal on record. Prices in Chicago rose to the highest in almost five months. The sale includes 2.75 million tons for delivery in the year that begins Sept. 1 and 173,000 tons prior to Aug. 31, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in …
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