ASIA: The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday the recent jump in COVID-19 cases in India posed downside risks to the Fund’s April forecast for 12.5% growth in India’s economic output in fiscal years 2021 and 2022. The IMF will revisit that forecast when it issued a fresh World Economic Outlook in July, IMF spokesman […]

ASIA: China has “indefinitely” suspended key economic dialogue with Australia, the latest in a growing diplomatic rift between both countries. The relations between two countries have been on the decline since Australia called for a probe into the origins of the virus and banned Huawei from building its 5G network. In a statement on Thursday, […]

ASIA: U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Wednesday she expects to engage “in the near term” with Chinese officials to assess their implementation of the “Phase 1” trade deal between the two countries, with the outcome to influence the fate of Washington’s punitive tariffs on Beijing. Tai told that she respects the need for […]

QUESTION: Do Americans have to be concerned about having money in foreign exchanges in places like London or other European countries if they impose capital controls? Is this as big a risk for Americans and you wrote it is for Europeans? EM ANSWER: Yes. They will require you to prove that you are not fronting […]

ASIA: Cai Fang, a member of China’s central bank’s monetary policy committee, said China’s population is set to peak in just four years and a significant downturn in consumer demand will mark the milestone. Cai, who joined the central bank’s advisory body last month after retiring from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the […]

ASIA: China’s economy likely grew at record pace of 19% in the first quarter, rebounding from a pandemic slump early last year as demand recovered at home and abroad and as policy support for ailing smaller firms continued, a Reuters poll showed. Reuters poll suggests that the world’s second-largest economy has continued to gain momentum, […]

ASIA: Investors are putting billions of dollars more into U.S. stock funds than Chinese ones, according to data from fund research firm EPFR Global. U.S. and China stock funds are the two regions that have attracted the most inflows from international investors over the past two quarters, Cameron Brandt, director of research at EPFR said. […]

ASIA: International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Gita Gopinath has said its 2021 GDP numbers for India were locked on March 5, around the same time the country started seeing an upsurge in Covid-19 cases and that there could be a downward risk if the country goes for a nationwide lockdown. The IMF this week […]

ASIA: According to a study, some 75% of the world’s bitcoin mining is done in China. The reason given for this in the report is cheap electricity and relatively easy access to manufacturers who make specialized hardware. As a result, the nation’s bitcoin carbon footprint is as big as one of its ten largest cities, […]

ASIA: China’s factory activity in March expanded at the slowest pace in almost a year on softer overall domestic demand, but underlying economic conditions remained positive even as input and output inflationary pressures intensified for manufacturers. The Caixin/Markit Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 50.6 last month — the lowest level since April 2020 […]