Heightened political tensions have overtaken the eurozone debt crisis and US fiscal shock as the biggest threats to the developing economies in Asia, according the Asian Development Bank (ADB). While “austerity fatigue” in the euro area and “unresolved fiscal drag” in the US remain significant risks to developing Asian economies, escalating border disputes in the region pose the largest menace …

WASHINGTON – The United States on Friday approved Japan’s entry into negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a critical step for Tokyo’s inclusion in a regional trade pact that underpins the Obama administration’s efforts to boost exports to Asia. Acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said in a statement that the U.S. and Japan have agreed on robust actions in the …

Based on advance estimates from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Singapore economy contracted by 0.6 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter of 2013. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy contracted by 1.4 per cent. SINGAPORE: The Singapore economy contracted by 0.6 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the first quarter of 2013, according …

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stock markets powered higher Thursday after a U.S. communications company posted a surprise jump in earnings that led to big gains in technology stocks and new highs on Wall Street. Markets took additional encouragement from the release of minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s March meeting, which showed a majority of policymakers in favor of continuing …

Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest says Australia will be left behind if efforts aren’t made to make Sydney a strategic trading centre for Chinese currency. Australia and China formalised a deal this week to allow direct conversion between Australian dollars and Chinese yuan, also called renminbi. The deal makes the Australian dollar only the third currency globally, after the US dollar …

Vietnam’s GDP growth is forecast at 5.2 percent in 2013, picking up to 5.6 percent in 2014 if progress is made in strengthening the banking sector and recovery in major industrial economies gathers momentum in 2014, the Asian Development Bank says in a report released Tuesday. The prediction is made based on grounds that GDP grew by 4.9 percent in …

(Reuters) – Carlyle Group LP has hired a former UBS banker to launch an Indonesia office, people with direct knowledge of the matter said, becoming the first major private equity firm to set up shop on its own in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Carlyle (CG.O) has tapped Rajiv Louis, a banker with a decade of dealmaking experience in Indonesia, to …

BOAO — Billionaire investor George Soros said on Monday China had a “couple of years” to control risks from nontraditional financing whose expansion had parallels with the cause of the global financial crisis. “The rapid growth of shadow banking has some disturbing similarities with the subprime mortgage market in the US that caused the financial crisis of 2007-08,” Mr Soros …

Asian stocks rose, with the benchmark regional equities gauge heading for its longest winning streak in seven weeks, as investors speculated stimulus measures will boost economic growth and increase profits. BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s largest miner, climbed 1.7 percent to advance for a fourth day in Sydney, its longest winning streak in more than two months. Mitsubishi UFJ …