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China’s activity data were just released. Both production (IP growth) and demand (investment and retail sales) data suggest China is on track for a soft landing. The market could gain more confidence in the resilience of the Chinese economy, and needs to put less hope on an imminent monetary policy easing (other than some possible measures to offset the RRR …

Asian currencies advanced for a third week after reports signaled a pickup in U.S. economic growth, spurring inflows into emerging-market assets. The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index (ADXY), which tracks the region’s 10 most-active currencies excluding the yen, added to this year’s rally after claims for jobless benefits among Americans held at a four-year low. The Federal Reserve said on Feb. 29 the economy …

NEW DELHI: India is likely to raise taxes on a number of manufactured items and expand the tax net in its budget to rein in its deficit and give space for the central bank to cut interest rates to support growth, a top government economic adviser said on Friday.  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has called on the government …

BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) — Chinese rating agency Dagong Global Rating Co. on Friday downgraded the local and foreign currency sovereign credit rating of Italy from A- to BBB with a negative outlook. The downgrade was a response to inevitable fiscal austerity and structural reforms that will negatively affect the growth of the debt-laden country, Dagong said. Meanwhile, an external …

BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) — China’s central bank said Friday that all companies qualified for foreign trade activities can conduct cross-border export settlement in yuan. The People’s Bank of China said in a statement on its website that China expanded cross-border trade settlement in yuan to cover all goods exporters in order to “meet market demand and make foreign trade …

BRASILIA – President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday accused the world’s rich countries of unleashing a “tsunami” of cheap money that hurts developing countries like Brazil. Rousseff complained that rich nations are responding to the global financial crisis with easy credit and low interest rates – and that cheap money makes its way to Brazil, which has high interest rates and …

BEIJING, March 1 (Xinhua) — A guideline to accelerate the transformation of the country’s foreign trade growth pattern was jointly issued on Thursday by 10 Chinese government agencies. The country aims to balance its foreign trade by increasing imports and optimizing the mix of its import tariffs, according to the publication on the Ministry of Commerce website. The guideline said …

HANGZHOU, March 1 (Xinhua) — China’s e-commerce continues its rapidly expansion as online sales turnover in 2011 surpassed 780 billion yuan (124 billion U.S. dollars), a year-on-year increase of 66 percent, according to a report released Thursday. The report shows that e-business has supported the country’s social development through reducing production costs, increasing employment opportunities and accelerating industrial transformation. The …

GOOD ECONOMIC NEWS:Improved PMI figures in India and China, and South Korea’s biggest increase in exports in six months, are positive signs for global growth prospects Bloomberg China’s manufacturing expanded at a faster pace last month and a gauge for India showed sustained growth, indicating that Asian economies are maintaining momentum even as the eurozone debt crisis caps exports. In …

BANGKOK -Asian stocks rose Friday as the U.S. jobs market showed new signs of improvement and global banks avoided a hit from Greece’s debt crisis. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.4 percent to 9,747.80 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 1 percent to 21,607.49. South Korea’s Kospi added 0.5 percent to 2,041.14. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was up 0.3 percent to …