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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 …

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 …

Rising private consumption and stronger intraregional trade will boost Asia’s developing economies over the next two years, according to the Asian Development Bank. In its Asian development outlook 2013, published today, the Bank forecast growth of 6.6% this year for the 45 countries it categorises as ‘developing Asia’. This compares with 6.1% in 2012/13. It adds that stronger external demand and …

On a wide range of economic pointers, Southeast Asia is gaining fast For 15 years, since the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 and 1998, the young tigers of Southeast Asia have been looked upon with suspicion by most investors while they struggled to rebuild their foreign currency reserves, signed currency swaps, strengthened their banking systems and made other reforms. In …

A once-great newspaper market disappears A milestone of a dubious kind was passed in Australia recently when it was discovered that the number of public relations practitioners had for the first time exceeded the number of journalists actually working as reporters and editors. The trend has only deepened with more redundancies of journalists and offshoring of jobs at the country’s …

Asia-Pacific, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, South Korea 1. Myanmar opens new market opportunities Perhaps one of the biggest changes for Asia’s M&A market in 2013 is the significant increase expected in inbound investment into Myanmar. The suspension of certain international sanctions, along with the passing of the new Foreign Investment Law, which was brought into force in November …