China’s factories ran at their slowest rate for 39 months in August while a double-digit rise in fixed asset investment showed that infrastructure spending remained key to economic growth.
Industrial output growth slowed to 8.9 percent year on year, the weakest since May 2009 and below market forecasts of a 9.1 percent rise, data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Sunday.
Fixed asset investment, which accounted for half of China’s net economic growth in the first-half of 2012, grew 20.2 percent between January and August compared to the year earlier period, a touch below expectations for a 20.4 percent expansion.
Retail sales rose 13.2 percent last month from a year ago, in line with forecasts in a Reuters poll, though the trend of spending so far in 2012 has been tracking slightly lower.
The data is likely to reinforce market expectations that China will further adjust policies soon to lift an economy mired in its softest period of growth in three years.
Posted by byu2012 on September 12, 2012
How big is the impact of the Internet’s potential on Asia, including the impact on development of the knowledge economy?
We all have a sense that the information and communications technology (ICT) industry has transformed social media, education and the way business is done. But we are not sure what is the best way to use the knowledge economy to propel our future growth.In 1973, American sociologist Daniel Bell predicted the arrival of the post-industrial society by 2000, with a world dominated by the service industry, high-value professional and technical employment, and innovation driven by scientific research.
In 2000, the number of global Internet users was only 360 million, rising to 2.3 trillion with an annual growth rate of 528 per cent between 2000-2011, of which 45 per cent reside in Asia. The highest penetration of Internet usage is in North America (78.6 per cent), whereas penetration in Asia is only 26.2 per cent, pointing towards huge potential for Asian growth.
According to Internet World Statistics, the top Internet country in Asia is China, with 513 million users, followed by India (121 million), Japan (101 million) and Indonesia (55 million). Within Asia, the highest penetration is South Korea (82.7 per cent), Japan (80 per cent), Singapore (77.2 per cent), Taiwan (70 per cent) and Hong Kong (68.7 per cent). China has 38.4 per cent Internet penetration.
Posted by byu2012 on September 5, 2012
BEIJING, Sept 3 (Reuters) – China’s vast manufacturing sector has been badly hit by slowing new orders, two complementary surveys showed, a sign that the pace of growth in the world’s second-largest economy will weaken well into the third quarter and possibly beyond.
The final reading of the HSBC China manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for August fell to a seasonally adjusted 47.6, its lowest level since March 2009, down from 49.3 in July and slightly below a flash reading of the index late last month.
It followed China’s official factory purchasing managers’ index (PMI) – one of the early indicators of the state of the economy – which fell to a lower-than-expected 49.2 in August, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Saturday.
It was the first time since November 2011 that the official PMI had fallen below 50, which separates expansion from contraction. Economists polled by Reuters last week had expected it to slip to 50 from 50.1 in July.
Posted by byu2012 on September 4, 2012
The Southeast Asian nation has the same potential for rapid growth as the region’s other economies, but realizing that promise will take years of reform.
On paper at least,Burma has all of the elements required to create another Asian economic miracle. With a population of 48 million, the country has a large pool of low-cost workers custom-made to attract the labor-intensive manufacturing that jump-started income growth from South Korea to Malaysia. Natural resources, from timber to minerals, could woo billions in foreign investment. And its strategic position nestled between China and India could turn Burma into a prime location for tapping into the mega-growth of those two Asian giants.
Translating that promise into real dollars isn’t going to be easy, however. Lots of nations possess the potential for economic greatness. The problem is that few are ever able to realize it. Burma has been a case study in that failure. For fifty years now, Burma has been one of Asia’s great disappointments. After World War II, it was one of the region’s richest nations; today, it has sunk to among its poorest. Behind the woes is crushingly awful economic management by a military dictatorship that brutalized and isolated the country. While its neighbors Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia joined the ranks of Asia’s “Tiger” economies, Burma wallowed in poverty, penalized by sanctions and impoverished by an unwillingness to reform politically or economically.
In recent months, though, a nascent democratic awakening has raised hopes among Asia’s business community that Burma could finally become the attractive place to invest it has always promised to be. The long-suffering pro-democracy opposition was permitted to contest parliamentary by-elections in April. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest and allowed to campaign for a seat in the legislature, which she won. That liberalization has convinced the U.S. and European Union to start lifting economic sanctions that had been imposed the country.
Posted by byu2012 on August 23, 2012
WHILE South Africa’s economy is directly exposed to lower Chinese’s growth through declining demand for minerals and metals, the indirect and less obvious implications pose graver threats still.
Whether China slows or stumbles, it will substantially adjust its policies and economic model in ways which will demonstrate that a new economic era has begun.
The deck is being reshuffled and the dealer has announced a new game. It’s not that SA has been dealt weak hands in the past but rather it has played them poorly.
A new round is beginning and careless play has left this country with too few chips to benefit from bluffing at the Brics table or heading up the African Union parlour. Rather the nation’s policy makers must rapidly grasp how the game has changed.
For many years China’s impressive growth rates have refuted analysts’ predictions of a coming downfall. With recent data making clear that the country’s growth is slowing, the gloomy scenarios now being concocted seem less far-fetched. Each of the world’s dynamic economies has its own unique characteristics but they have all used aggressive strategies to spur growth. China has proven the most resilient of major economies but now that the economies of North America and Europe which drive global consumption are slowing further, China’s export-reliant growth model will lose at least some of its vigour.
Posted by byu2012 on August 18, 2012
Asian stocks rose this week, with the benchmark index posting its longest weekly winning streak since March, after China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said there’s more room to adjust monetary policy and U.S. economic reports signaled strength in the world’s largest economy.
Fanuc Corp., a maker of industrial robots used in Chinese factories, gained 5.8 percent this week in Tokyo. Honda Motor Co., which depends on North America for more than 40 percent of its sales, climbed 5.8 percent. Nan Ya Printed Circuit Board Corp., a Taiwanese maker of computer hardware, surged 12 percent after a report the industry will grow. China Mobile Ltd., the world’s biggest phone company by subscribers, sank 7.8 percent in Hong Kong as profit growth slowed.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose for a third-straight week, gaining 0.2 percent to 120.74 in its longest winning streak since the five days ended March 2. Through yesterday, the Asia- Pacific benchmark has retreated more than 6 percent from a Feb. 29 high amid concern China’s economy is slowing and Europe’s debt crisis is deepening.
Posted by byu2012 on August 18, 2012
Kuala Lumpur. The Palm Oil Refiners Association of Malaysia and Malaysian Estate Owners’ Association — representing both upstream and downstream stakeholders — suggest that the government should lower the current 23 percent crude palm oil tax to 8 percent instead of increasing the duty-free CPO export quota.
This proposal is seen as a win-win solution to the present palm oil dilemma.
Recently, the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry announced the export of another two million metric tons of duty-free CPO by the end of next month — a move that many refiners see as throwing good money after bad. This is because this decision will result in the government forgoing some 4 billion rinngit ($1.2 billion) in tax collection by allowing the export of up to 5.5 million tons of duty-free CPO.
On Thursday, a refiner and the MEOA expressed their consensus to stem the losses and solve the current dilemma. As palm oil prices continued to fall in the last four months, the refiner said it was naive to assume that by pushing palm oil exports, stock levels would come down and this would prompt palm oil prices to jump.
“Stock management is one thing, but there’s also the strengthening of the US dollar,” said the refiner, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Posted by stekunan on August 13, 2012
Indonesia’s economy expanded a higher-than-expected 6.4% in the second quarter as robust domestic demand offset a decline in the international appetite for its exports.
In the three months ended June 30, Southeast Asia’s largest economy continued to rack up some of the strongest economic growth in the world, as the archipelago’s growing consumer class was relatively unaffected by global debt problems and slowdowns that are dousing demand in many developed countries.
he Central Statistics Agency said Indonesia’s gross domestic product climbed 6.4% from a year earlier and 2.8% from the previous quarter. The 6.4% figure for the quarter beat analyst forecasts, with most expecting growth for the three months to be around 6.1%.
“If any country in Asia was going to hold up well in the second quarter, I expected it would be Indonesia, given its strong domestic consumption,” said Kenneth Akintewe, a portfolio manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd.
Posted by stekunan on August 8, 2012
The central bank, Bank Indonesia, will likely hold its policy rate as the economic outlook remains bright, dismissing concerns of a pickup in inflation, analysts say.
“Bank Indonesia meets on Thursday and we expect rates to remain unchanged at 5.75 percent,” said Prakriti Sofat, economist at Barclays Capital in Singapore, in a note to clients on Monday. The central bank has kept its key rate in the last five months after cutting it by 25 basis points in February to maintain growth momentum at home and defend the country’s economy from the effects of a slowdown in Europe and the United States.
Bank Indonesia said in its July 12 statement that economic turbulence in Europe and weakening exports have put pressure on the rupiah. July’s pause was also aimed to support the currency, it said. The rupiah has lost 4.5 percent against the dollar this year.
Prakriti said further monetary easing “would weigh on the rupiah,” given relatively strong economic expansion in the second quarter and already accelerating inflation. She said inflation could reach the top end of Bank Indonesia’s forecast of 3 percent to 5 percent. Inflation accelerated in July at a 4.56 percent year-on-year rate, from June’s 4.53 percent.
Posted by stekunan on August 8, 2012
Sound Global became the first Chinese company to issue a debut high-yield dollar bond this year, to the surprise of rivals, who were expecting the deal to get pulled.
Demand for the $150 million five-year bond reached $340 million — hardly roaring — and it seemed as though the company struggled. Sound Global had held a non-deal roadshow a few months back, went silent and then returned with a second roadshow late July. On Monday night, it seized a window to tap the market, making it the first wastewater treatment company to issue a bond in Asia.
Earlier this year, a handful of Chinese high-yield issuers had unsuccessfully attempted to issue debut bonds. Car dealers China Zhengtong Auto and Baoxin Auto both attempted to print debut deals and came out with guidance, only to pull them back in May. China Tianrui Cement had mandated Deutsche Bank as sole bookrunner for a dollar bond, but after holding roadshows, did not make it to the market. It subsequently decided to issue a dim sum bond — but that, too, has not materialised.
Some suggest that Sound Global’s success is a sign that conditions have improved. “The criticisms that investors had for China Zhengtong Auto and Baoxin Auto — worries about the company being small, and potential corporate governance issues, hold true for Sound Global, so it’s surprising that the deal got done,” said one banker. “It makes you wonder, if those deals returned now, whether they may also get done. It’s all touch and go and issuers have to be prepared to seize opportunities as and when they appear.”
Posted by stekunan on August 8, 2012