The European Union signed a free trade agreement with New Zealand on Monday that the two sides expect will increase bilateral trade by up to 30% within a decade, the Associated Press reported. New Zealand will gain up to 1.8 billion New Zealand dollars ($1.1 billion; €1 billion) in exports to the 27-country bloc every year, a government statement said. The European Union signed a free trade agreement with New Zealand on Monday that the two sides expect will increase bilateral trade by up to 30% within a decade.
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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
- Micronesia
- Mongolia
- Myanmar
- Nepal
- New Zealand
- North Korea
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- Philippines
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Turkey
- Uzbekistan
- Vanuatu
- Vietnam
Hong Kong's move to raise the maximum mortgages available to some homebuyers, its first relaxation in curbs on home purchases adopted in 2009, boosted shopping interest over the weekend but did little for transaction volumes, property agents said, Reuters reported. One of the world's most expensive property markets, the Asian financial hub raised its cap on the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio on Friday to 60% to 70% from 50%, for properties worth up to HK$30 million ($3.8 million).
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Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen appealed to China’s No. 2 leader to not let frustration over U.S. curbs on access to processor chips and other technology disrupt economic cooperation during a visit Friday aimed at improving strained relations, the Associated Press reported. Meeting with Premier Li Qiang, Yellen said Washington and Beijing have a duty to cooperate on issues that affect the world. She appealed for “regular channels of communication” at a time when relations are at their lowest in decades due to disputes over technology, security and other irritants.
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Sri Lanka’s Parliament has said that it has appointed a committee to probe into the country’s financial bankruptcy and submit recommendations on the matter, The Siasat Daily reported. Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena announced in Parliament on Thursday that the committee would be chaired by lawmaker of Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Sagara Kariyawasam, Xinhua news agency reported. Abeywardena said there are many allegations about the cause of Sri Lanka’s bankruptcy in 2022, and the committee is entrusted with investigating these allegations.
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China’s inflation remained close to zero in May, sparking concerns on a falling spiral in prices and prompting the central bank to come out to downplay worries on the economic outlook, Bloomberg News reported. The consumer price index rose 0.2% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday, in line with forecasts and up from 0.1% in April. Producer prices declined 4.6% on the back of lower commodity prices and weak domestic and foreign demand.
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Chinese banks are facing increasing risks from rising non-performing loans (NPLs) and diminishing returns, making them a lightning rod for investors' worries about the world's second-largest economy, Reuters reported. Concerns about their exposure to local government financing vehicles (LGFVs), the investment firms that fund mainly infrastructure projects for local governments, and the crisis-hit property sector have pummelled their shares this week, dragging them to their steepest drops in about eight years.
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Chinese electric vehicle startup Singulato Motors is now facing bankruptcy proceedings initiated by a group of creditors, Pingwest reported. Singulato had been exposed for widespread unpaid wages and insolvency, leading to court-ordered enforcement. Established in 2014, Singulato received investments from local governments such as Tongling in Anhui, Zhuzhou in Hunan, and Suzhou in Jiangsu. Zhou Hongyi, founder and CEO of Qihoo 360, is also a major investor in Singulato. In total, the EV startup raised a funding amount of 17 billion yuan throughout its history.
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Washington and Beijing are talking again. The test now is whether they can settle into a new normal that avoids upending the global economy — or fall back into a cycle of acrimony and retaliation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen heads to China on Thursday through Sunday to meet with senior government officials, her department said. The trip comes as tensions over trade, technology and Taiwan prompt both countries to reconsider the deep commercial and investment ties that have defined the relationship for decades.
Cracks are showing in a pillar of China’s debt market: local-government financing vehicles (LGFVs), the Washington Post reported. Created to fund such things as roads, airports and power infrastructure, they rarely generate enough returns to cover their obligations. That means most rely on injections of municipal funds to stay solvent. With many local authorities facing cash-flow problems due to a real estate crisis, there are growing concerns about this $9 trillion debt market — prompting the country’s biggest state banks to take steps to avert a credit crunch.
A pair of central bank decisions next week will shape the outlook for a wobbly global economy that the World Bank warns in a downbeat new assessment is battling stubbornly high inflation amid the pandemic’s aftermath and the war in Ukraine, the Washington Post reported. The gloomy forecast arrives days after one threat to global growth was eliminated when President Biden signed legislation Saturday to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avert a potentially catastrophic government default.