Thailand’s key economic stimulus — almost $14 billion in cash payments to its citizens — will need further study to ensure compliance with the nation’s fiscal discipline law, newly appointed Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said, Bloomberg News reported. The change in economic condition is prompting further assessment and reviews, Paetongtarn, 37, told reporters Sunday. She was responding to reports that her father Thaksin Shinawatra is demanding that the new government drop the Pheu Thai party’s flagship policy during the election campaign last year.
Read more
Asia Pacific
Resources Per Country
- Afghanistan
- Armenia
- Australia
- Azerbaijan
- Bangladesh
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- China
- Cook Islands
- Cyprus
- Fiji
- Georgia
- Hong Kong
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Laos
- Macau
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- New Zealand
- North Korea
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vietnam
Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard has sounded out Japan's Seven & i about a potential takeover, the two companies said on Monday, making the 7-Eleven owner the largest-ever Japanese target of a foreign buyout, Reuters reported. While the value of the offer has not been disclosed, the bid is the latest example of the growing interest in Japanese companies by Western investors, who have been drawn by the country's push for better governance.
Read more
A record number of businesses have been placed into administration in the past year, an inquiry has been told, with advocates saying inflationary pressures are affecting multiple industries, the Australian Associated Press reported. Officials from Australia's corporate watchdog told a parliamentary inquiry into the cost-of-living crisis that 11,053 businesses entered external administration in the 2023/24 financial year. ASIC commissioner Kate O'Rourke said while the proportion of businesses going into administration was not the highest, the past year had the most overall.
Read more
The Thai hotel industry is reeling from the collapse of two major European tour operators, I Travel and FTI Touristik GmbH, which has left 179 hotels out of pocket to the tune of 173 million baht, Thienprasit Chaiyapatranun, president of the Thai Hotels Association (THA) said on Friday, NationThailand.com reported. The association said that the fallout has predominantly impacted establishments in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, with losses estimated at 3 million baht for individual hotels.
Read more
Booktopia has been rescued by the owner of online camera store digiDirect, Shant Kradjian, who is adding 100 jobs back to the collapsed bookseller, the Sidney Morning Herald reported. The business and all its assets were transferred to Kradjian on Friday evening and the website has resumed trading. McGrathNicol administrator Keith Crawford said that he was incredibly pleased to close the sale and that the transition of Booktopia to another Australian e-commerce retailer was a great outcome for the business.
Read more
China's factory output slowed for a third straight month in July, showing that the recovery in the world's second-largest economy was losing steam, although the battered consumer sector perked up slightly as stimulus targeting households took effect, Reuters reported. A mixed batch of data on Thursday pointed to a patchy start to the second half for the $19 trillion economy and gave policymakers continued cause for concern following dismal export, prices and bank lending indicators earlier this month.
Japan's economy expanded by a much faster-than-expected annualized 3.1% in the second quarter, rebounding from a slump at the start of the year thanks to a strong rise in consumption and backing the case for another near-term interest rate hike, Reuters reported. The Bank of Japan had forecast that a solid economic recovery will help inflation sustainably hit its 2% target, and justify raising interest rates further after it hiked them last month in its continued quest to exit years of massive monetary stimulus.
While bankruptcy applications in Singapore were at an 18-year high in 2023, actual bankruptcy orders, and corporate insolvencies, were lower than the application numbers, and also below pre-COVID levels, Yahoo Finance reported. This was noted in a reply by Alvin Tan, Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) board member, in Parliament. There were 3,986 bankruptcy applications made by individuals or their creditors over unpaid debts of more than S$15,000 in 2023.
A recent string of dismal indicators have dulled expectations for China's economic performance in July, in an ominous sign for the rest of 2024 and pointing to the need for more stimulus measures beyond plastering over pain points in the world's second-largest economy, Reuters reported. Calls for more growth boosting measures for the $19 trillion economy have dogged officials after a widely expected post-pandemic recovery failed to materialize in 2023. Still, the government is targeting economic growth of around 5% this year. The latest data point to a rocky start to the second half.
India's Pipavav Shipyard is scheduled to resume its business operations under a new management team and after emerging from bankruptcy, Baird Maritime reported. The yard's first project after reopening will be the repair of an Indian Coast Guard vessel. Also, discussions with an undisclosed shipping company are ongoing with the aim of finalizing contracts for the construction of new large bulk carriers. Pipavav Shipyard is now majority co-owned by Mumbai-based Swan Energy through a special purpose vehicle (SPV), which acquired the shipyard.