Bamboo Innovator

Indonesian finance minister Basri Sees Rupiah Back to 2009 Levels After QE Taper

Basri Sees Rupiah Back to 2009 Levels After QE Taper

By Bloomberg on 5:10 pm November 8, 2013.

Chatib Basri said the rupiah and bond yields will return to levels seen in 2009 after the Federal Reserve cuts stimulus that has buoyed emerging-market assets. (GA Photo/Defrizal)

Indonesia’s rupiah and bond yields will return to levels seen in 2009 after the Federal Reserve cuts stimulus that has buoyed emerging-market assets, Finance Minister Chatib Basri said. The currency traded at an average of 10,396 per dollar in 2009, compared with 11,408 as of 1:15 p.m. in Jakarta, according to prices from local banks compiled by Bloomberg. Read more of this post

How the Holes in Indonesia’s Safety Nets Hamper Poverty Reduction

How the Holes in Indonesia’s Safety Nets Hamper Poverty Reduction

By IRIN News on 4:24 pm November 8, 2013.

Indonesia’s economy grew by roughly 6 percent in 2013, but its poverty reduction has nearly stalled with almost half the population living in poverty — and experts struggling to identify and serve the neediest among them. “It’s true that [social] targeting is not easy and it’s complicated,” Nina Sardjunani, the Indonesian government’s deputy development planning minister, told IRIN. Read more of this post

Luxury brands follow wealthy customers

November 8, 2013 9:04 pm

Luxury brands follow wealthy customers

By Rachel Sanderson

Call it the year of transition. A slowing in the Chinese luxury goods market, returning confidence among US buyers, the growing power of tourist shoppers and a relentless incursion from the digital world – from online shopping to smart watches – are all shaking up the industry of watches and jewellery. The cue for change came from Richemont, the industry’s bellwether. Johann Rupert, its billionaire tycoon owner, chose this year to take a sabbatical after a quarter of a century running the group whose other brands include Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. Read more of this post

Shanghai raised the minimum down payment required for buyers of a second home to 70 percent from 60 percent as house prices in China’s financial hub surge

Shanghai Raises Home Down-Payment Requirement as Prices Jump

Shanghai raised the minimum down payment required for buyers of a second home to 70 percent from 60 percent as house prices in China’s financial hub surge. Counties and municipal departments should take measures to ensure the city’s annual price-control target is met, according to a statement on the local housing bureau’s website. The city also tightened the qualifications required for non-local home buyers and will increase residential land supplies, according to the statement. Read more of this post

History Suggests China Plenum Reforms Will Be Limited

History Suggests China Plenum Reforms Will Be Limited

By Bill Powell on 4:04 pm November 8, 2013.

Shanghai. If history is any guide, the next wave of Chinese reform is likely to be smaller and slower than before. As President Xi Jinping and other Communist Party leaders gather at the weekend for a landmark conclave, foreign investors hoping that wide-ranging reforms will follow should consider that previous such meetings have shown a pattern of diminishing returns. Read more of this post

Chinese Industrialization and its Discontents

Chinese Industrialization and its Discontents

BARRY EICHENGREEN

NOV 8, 2013

TOKYO – As the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party convenes in Beijing, China stands at a crossroads. Its recent growth record is stupendous; no country in history can match it. But China’s economic imbalances are also stupendous. The country has sustained its output growth by investing fully one-half of GDP, though no country can productively invest more than a third of national income for an extended period. Household consumption accounts for only one-third of GDP, compared to two-thirds in a normal economy. Read more of this post

Chinese Attacks Ignite Terrorism Debate; Tiananmen Square, Central China Violence Provoke Different Set of Reactions; “The government ought to contemplate the source of these conflicts. That’s more important than arresting and executing

Chinese Attacks Ignite Terrorism Debate

Tiananmen Square, Central China Violence Provoke Different Set of Reactions

JOSH CHIN

Nov. 8, 2013 3:32 p.m. ET

BEIJING—Two deadly attacks in China in the weeks leading up to a much-anticipated leadership meeting have ignited debate around the thorny question of what China considers to be terrorism. State media said the culprit in the latest attack, in which homemade explosives detonated outside a Communist Party building in central China, was “dissatisfied with society.” Meanwhile, officials and state media have said a suicide attack last week at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square was the work of terrorists. Read more of this post

China Can’t Be a Global Innovation Leader Unless It Does These Three Things

China Can’t Be a Global Innovation Leader Unless It Does These Three Things

by Anil Gupta and Haiyan Wang  |   1:00 PM November 8, 2013

When the Chinese Communist Party’s central committee wraps up the Third Plenum on November 12, 2014, a shift from efficiency to innovation will likely be one of the major planks in its vision for China.  The government’s imperatives are clear: It wants to double incomes by 2020 in the face of a declining population of working-age; an appreciating currency, and, relative to other emerging economies, high and rising wages.  Promoting innovation is also one of the eight key reform priorities in the “383” plan being circulated by the State Council’s Development Research Center. Read more of this post

A Chinese City Seeks to Turn Migrants Into Urbanites; Tongling’s Recipe for Growth: Giving Rural Workers Urban Benefits

A Chinese City Seeks to Turn Migrants Into Urbanites

Tongling’s Recipe for Growth: Giving Rural Workers Urban Benefits

BOB DAVIS

Nov. 8, 2013 7:01 p.m. ET

TONGLING, China—Tongling, a copper-mining center since the Ming dynasty, is running low on ore. The Yangtze River city wants to turn itself into a manufacturing center, but it lacks a critical ingredient: a steady supply of factory workers. So it is doing what many places in China are unwilling to do. It is inviting migrants and their families to settle, giving them the same rights to education, health care and housing as locals, and even letting émigrés from China’s villages retain their exemption from China’s notorious one-child policy, so they can have a second child. Read more of this post

Pension lessons from Down Under

November 8, 2013 7:11 pm

Pension lessons from Down Under

By Josephine Cumbo

Australia may pack less punch on cricket pitches and rugby fields these days, but when it comes to pensions, Aussies still reign supreme. Their national “superannuation” scheme, known locally as “super”, is the envy of the world. As many countries, including the UK, beginto tackle their pension savings crisis, Australia can quite comfortably boast that nearly 12m of its 23m citizens have a workplace pension pot, and are on course for a decent retirement. Read more of this post

UN Says Meth Boom Sweeping Asia

UN Says Meth Boom Sweeping Asia

By Agence France-Presse on 1:48 pm November 8, 2013.
Bangkok. The United Nations on Friday sounded the alarm over record seizures of methamphetamine across much of Asia as the illegal drug floods streets and clubs. Last year 227 million methamphetamine pills were seized in East and Southeast Asia — up 59 percent from the year before and a more than seven-fold increase compared with 2008, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said. Read more of this post

Thai power producers rush into solar to ride on generous government incentives

Updated: Friday November 8, 2013 MYT 2:19:22 PM

Thai power producers rush into solar

BANGKOK: Riding on generous government incentives, Thailand’s energy firms are deepening a push into solar power to bolster their profits over the next few years and perk up lacklustre shares. Utility Electricity Generating Pcl (EGCO) and refiner Bangchak Petroleum Pcl are among a dozen listed Thai companies investing as much as US$2bil combined in solar projects over the next five years to provide power to South-East Asia’s second-largest economy. Read more of this post

How to spot a bubble about to burst; The ‘adjustment phase’ of QE could be painful

November 8, 2013 6:38 pm

How to spot a bubble about to burst

By Merryn Somerset Webb

The ‘adjustment phase’ of QE could be painful

How do we know when irrational exuberance has unduly escalated asset values? That, as my colleague Jonathan Eley is keen to remind us, is the question that Alan Greenspan was rhetorically asking in his famous December 1996 speech on stock markets. He wasn’t saying he necessarily saw the characteristics of a bubble, just wondering how we would all recognise them if we saw them. Read more of this post

Lost Kingdom: Myanmar’s Forgotten Royals

Lost Kingdom: Myanmar’s Forgotten Royals

By Kelly Macnamara on 12:23 pm November 8, 2013.
Yangon. In a modest Yangon apartment, the granddaughter of Myanmar’s last king lives poor and unrecognized by her neighbors — a far cry from the power and riches of her ancestor. Princess Hteik Su Phaya Gyi said the childhood days when her family had a bevy of servants and retained some of its royal status were now a distant memory. The British colonial regime dethroned her grandfather King Thibaw in 1885 and later the military junta, which ruled the country for decades, kept the family out of the public eye. Read more of this post

In New Myanmar, Junta’s ‘Evil Prince’ Wants to Offer His Help

In New Myanmar, Junta’s ‘Evil Prince’ Wants to Offer His Help

A Decade After He Ran Junta’s Spy Apparatus, He Wishes Someone Would Call

SHIBANI MAHTANI and MYO MYO

Nov. 8, 2013 8:03 p.m. ET

YANGON, Myanmar—When Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt was a leader in the junta that formerly ruled Myanmar, the spy apparatus that he ran was capable of punishing ordinary citizens for even uttering the word “democracy.” Now, nearly a decade after he was ousted in a power play and placed under house arrest, he wishes someone would just call. “I have so much experience, but no one has asked me for help as a consultant or strategist,” said Mr. Khin Nyunt, almost wistfully. “If anyone approaches me, I will give good advice, which will be in our country’s interest—I am not a politician, so I won’t be biased.” Read more of this post

With a number of Asian countries bracing for a potentially devastating asset bubble burst, Malaysia is also rolling up its sleeves if the Budget 2014 measures were to offer a glimpse of the Government’s foresights

Updated: Saturday November 9, 2013 MYT 6:27:39 AM

Restoring stability in the market

BY ANGIE NG

WITH a number of Asian countries bracing for a potentially devastating asset bubble burst, Malaysia is also rolling up its sleeves if the Budget 2014 measures were to offer a glimpse of the Government’s foresights. The measures are meant to deter speculators and promote a more stable market that is driven by real demand. Although generally applauded by various stakeholders for its noble intentions, there are also some apprehension as to the measures’ potential impact on the property market. Read more of this post

Reducing speculation in the property market; the comprehensive and wide-ranging nature of the Budget 2014 measures to rein in excessive speculation in the property market are bound to be impacted by the measures come Jan 1

Updated: Saturday November 9, 2013 MYT 10:18:01 AM

Reducing speculation in the property market

BY ANGIE NG

GIVEN the comprehensive and wide-ranging nature of the Budget 2014 measures to rein in excessive speculation in the property market, all the stakeholders, irrespective of whether one is looking to buy or sell or acting as market mediators, are bound to be impacted in one way or other by the measures come Jan 1, next year. The budget measures are among the most pervasive and some say “rather tough” on the market. Whether one is a potential house buyer, seller, developer or consultant, the multi-pronged measures have a good chance of influencing their decision making. Read more of this post