China Sets up Leading Group to Reform WMPs, Interbank Businesses

China Sets up Leading Group to Reform WMPs, Interbank Businesses

01-16 18:13 Caijing

The CSRC has already asked local agencies to bring with their own reform packages in the first quarter

China’s banking regulator has created a leading group to reform the system’s wealth management products and interbank business, reported by online news portal Sina, citing an authority. Read more of this post

China Broad Credit Grows By Record RMB17.3 Trillion In 2013; FX Reserves Increase By Record $508 Billion

China Broad Credit Grows By Record RMB17.3 Trillion In 2013; FX Reserves Increase By Record $508 Billion

Tyler Durden on 01/15/2014 12:12 -0500

So much for China’s mission to gradually deleverage in 2013. Despite two near-taper episodes, one in June and one in December, which send short-term lending rates soaring, the PBOC party line has been that the Chinese banking system is slowly but surely issuing less debt as it already has an epic debt overhang, much of which is turning sour at an accelerated pace. One needs to look nowhere else than the country’s declining GDP to visualize the declining marginal utility of every dollar in newly credit loans. And yet following last night’s release of Chinese lending data we found that in 2013, the broadest measure of Chinese credit issuance, the so-called aggregated financing, just hit a record high of 17.3 trillion. So much for the deleveraging myth. Read more of this post

Beijing says it wants to change its ways on big financial issues, but making that happen is proving tough

China’s Best Intentions, Mixed Results

Changing Its Ways on Big Financial Issues Is Proving Tough for Beijing

AARON BACK

Jan. 15, 2014 4:26 a.m. ET

Chinese policy makers excel at promising all the right things. Implementation is another matter. Take the reform-minded People’s Bank of China, which has pledged to rein in credit growth and interfere less with the yuan exchange rate. In 2013, progress was mixed on both counts. Read more of this post

KCCI: S. Korea economy mired in tepid growth, ‘new sandwich crisis,’ frame of confrontation

KCCI: S. Korea economy mired in tepid growth, ‘new sandwich crisis,’ frame of confrontation

Kim Eun-pyo

2014.01.16 17:47:34

“This year will be a watershed that will determine the fate of the South Korean economy, yet the society’s members are stuck in the frame of confrontation.”
This is the key message of the report titled “three hurdles and five tasks facing Korea’s economy,” a publication issued by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI)’s economic research division Thursday as the first achievement of its new chairman Park Yon-man’s ambitious project. The report picked the trap of anemic growth, ‘new sandwich crisis’ and confrontation among different economic players as the Korean economy’s three hindrances that must be overcome.  Read more of this post

This will be a crunch year for the Japanese economy

January 15, 2014 5:45 pm

This will be a crunch year for the Japanese economy

By David Pilling

Experimenting with a bold and radical monetary policy will have profound consequences for the rest of Asia

For many years, the only economic story that has really mattered in Asia has been China. The motor of regional growth for a decade or more, it has year after year been the single most critical factor in determining the temperature of the Asian – even the global – economy. But this year, China is in for a run for its money. For the first time in as long as almost anyone can remember, there is perhaps even more interest in how Japan’s economy will fare. Read more of this post

Singh Raids Banks to Curb Deficit as Loans Sour: Corporate India

Singh Raids Banks to Curb Deficit as Loans Sour: Corporate India

India’s state-run banks are paying dividends to help Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meet his budget deficit goal even as they struggle with narrowing risk buffers and bad loans amid decade-low economic growth. Read more of this post

Reserve Bank of India moves to enhance mobile payments market

January 16, 2014 2:31 pm

Reserve Bank of India moves to enhance mobile payments market

By James Crabtree in Mumbai

Indian telecom groups such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are set to be given greater freedom to take on the country’s banks by offering enhanced mobile payment services, as part of forthcoming rule changes from the Reserve Bank of India. Read more of this post

Investors concerned that India anti-graft party policies can slow economy

Investors concerned that India anti-graft party policies can slow economy

By Madeeha Mujawar
POSTED: 16 Jan 2014 23:56
The emergence of a new political party in India – the Aam Aadmi (AAP), or Common Man’s Party – is cause for some concern among investors. Its socially popular policies, they said, could hasten the country’s economic slowdown.

MUMBAI: The emergence of a new political party in India – the Aam Aadmi (AAP), or Common Man’s Party – is cause for some concern among investors. Its socially popular policies, they said, could hasten the country’s economic slowdown. Read more of this post

India’s Rahul Gandhi faces his own tryst with destiny

India’s Rahul Gandhi faces his own tryst with destiny

3:42am EST

By Sanjeev Miglani and Sruthi Gottipati

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – After years in the shadows as a reluctant heir-apparent, India’s Rahul Gandhi is set for his own tryst with destiny, to lead the ruling Congress party in elections due by May that it has only a slim chance of winning. Read more of this post

India risks squandering advantage as it faces urban jobs crunch

January 15, 2014 10:16 am

India risks squandering advantage as it faces urban jobs crunch

By Amy Kazmin in New Delhi

Slow growth threatens creation of work in the cities

Not long ago, Indian policy makers, and other slick marketers, touted the South Asian country’s youthful population as a national asset, which would propel faster economic growth with the energies of 1m young people entering the workforce every month for the next 20 years. Read more of this post

Hershey takes on Ferrero’s Nutella spread

Hershey takes on Ferrero’s Nutella spread

NEW YORK — Americans apparently like smearing their foods with chocolatey spreads.

1 HOUR 11 MIN AGO

NEW YORK — Americans apparently like smearing their foods with chocolatey spreads. Hershey yesterday (Jan 15) said it was introducing a line of chocolate spreads, including a hazelnut variety reminiscent of Nutella, a spread made by the Italian company Ferrero. Read more of this post

Fed turns sour on banks’ physical commodities trading; Any restrictions on banks’ activities would benefit energy companies

January 16, 2014 8:52 am

Fed turns sour on banks’ physical commodities trading

By Gregory Meyer in New York

Any restrictions on banks’ activities would benefit energy companies

Asurprise outcome of the Deepwater Horizon disaster may be to eliminate competition for BP’s formidable energy trading business. Read more of this post

Asia’s Newest Revolutions Are Just Beginning

Asia’s Newest Revolutions Are Just Beginning

Asia’s urban migration is bringing about an “explosive transformation,” the Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid writes in “How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia,” “the supportive, stifling, stabilizing bonds of extended relationships weakening and giving way, leaving in their wake insecurity, anxiety, productivity and potential.” Read more of this post

Will an Integrated ASEAN Region Challenge China?

Will an Integrated ASEAN Region Challenge China?

Jan 15, 2014

China’s status as the global darling for foreign investment and trade is facing some competition these days from Southeast Asian nations that, while small, are forming an increasingly important economic bloc. Though the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, comprises a market of 610 million people — less than half the size of China’s — the bloc’s more affluent consumers are looking increasingly attractive, especially to Japanese companies wary of risks stemming from escalating territorial disputes with Beijing. Read more of this post

Who Lost Thailand?

YURIKO KOIKE

JAN 15, 2014

Who Lost Thailand?

TOKYO – Thailand, Southeast Asia’s most developed and sophisticated economy, is teetering on the edge of the political abyss. Yet most of the rest of Asia appears to be averting its eyes from the country’s ongoing and increasingly anarchic unrest. That indifference is not only foolish; it is dangerous. Asia’s democracies now risk confronting the same harsh question that the United States faced when Mao Zedong marched into Beijing, and again when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted the Shah in Iran. Who, they will have to ask, lost Thailand? Read more of this post

Thai PM Says Election Best Way to End Crisis

Thai PM Says Election Best Way to End Crisis

By Thanaporn Promyamyai on 7:56 pm January 15, 2014.
Bangkok. Thailand’s prime minister urged anti-government protesters Wednesday to vent their anger against her at the ballot box, insisting that elections were the best way to solve the country’s deepening political crisis. Read more of this post

Thai graft body to probe rice subsidies, adding to PM’s woes

Thai graft body to probe rice subsidies, adding to PM’s woes

5:52am EST

By Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat

BANGKOK (Reuters) – A Thai anti-corruption agency said on Thursday it would investigate a money-guzzling rice subsidy program that has fuelled opposition to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, as protesters marched through the capital demanding she resign. Read more of this post

Thai Farmers Begin Deserting Government Over Late Rice Payments

Thai Farmers Begin Deserting Government Over Late Rice Payments

Thailand’s Flagship Rice Subsidy Is Running Out Of Cash

JAKE MAXWELL WATTS, ISABELLA STEGER and WILAWAN WATCHARASAKWET

Updated Jan. 15, 2014 1:10 p.m. ET

Thailand’s flagship rice subsidy is running out of cash and backfiring at a critical time for Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose political future hinges on support from farmers and other rural voters as her rivals intensify their campaign to remove her from office. Read more of this post

Riot-Hit Singapore Insists Migrant Workers Treated Respectfully

Riot-Hit Singapore Insists Migrant Workers Treated Respectfully

By Agence France-Presse on 4:06 pm January 15, 2014.
Singapore. Singapore on Wednesday denied that a riot last month by some 400 South Asian migrant workers in the city-state was triggered by discontent over their wages and living conditions. Read more of this post

Turkey Seeks Way Out of Judicial Crisis

Turkey Seeks Way Out of Judicial Crisis

By Agence France-Presse on 5:41 pm January 15, 2014.
Turkey’s government was pursuing efforts Wednesday to defuse a row over its plans to exert more control over the judiciary, a move that has stoked concerns about the independence of the country’s institutions in the wake of a damaging corruption scandal. Read more of this post

Richest Coffee Deal in Asia Seen at Super Group: Real M&A

Richest Coffee Deal in Asia Seen at Super Group: Real M&A

Super Group Ltd. (SUPER) may be the best takeover option for beverage companies anxious to corner a piece of Asia’s expanding instant-coffee market, as long as they’re willing to pay up. Read more of this post