Japan stands to lose 1.8 trillion yen ($16 billion) if the Olympics were cancelled, but that would pale in comparison to the economic hit from emergency curbs if the Summer Games turned into a super-spreader event, a top economist estimated, Reuters reported. Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute and a former Bank of Japan board member, said that the first nationwide state of emergency last spring had caused an estimated 6.4 trillion yen loss. Further losses have resulted from the second and presently third running state of emergency.
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
Read more
China's market regulator has begun an investigation into suspected anti-competitive practices by KE Holdings, the country's biggest housing broker whose top backer is Tencent Holdings, Reuters reported. The investigation is the latest into China's big so-called "platform" companies that match sellers and buyers, several of which have been accused by regulators of exploiting consumers.
Read more
A Singapore court has approved a freeze on up to $3.5 billion of assets of the family behind collapsed Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd, boosting the prospect of debt recovery from the former oil trading empire that counts some of the world’s biggest banks among its creditors, Reuters reported. Hin Leong was wound up in March after failing in a year-long effort to restructure more than $3 billion in debts after the COVID-19-led oil crash laid bare huge losses.
Read more
Pakistan is closing in on a deal with bilateral creditors that would tie debt relief to the achievement of biodiversity goals, government officials said, Bloomberg News reported. The South Asian nation is working with lender countries on a debt-for-nature swap program, which would see debt relief in return for binding commitments to achieve conservation targets. An official letter of intent could be announced as soon as World Environment Day on June 5, which Pakistan is hosting this year.
Read more
China’s efforts to restrain cryptocurrency trading and mining are adding to the wild moves in bitcoin and other markets, the Wall Street Journal reported. Already down hard from records set this year, bitcoin and other digital currencies sold off sharply last week after Chinese authorities renewed pressure on the country’s banks and payment companies to curb cryptocurrency-related transactions. Markets stumbled again after a powerful superregulator chaired by Vice Premier Liu He pledged to crack down on bitcoin mining and trading.
China’s repo market shows just how risky China Huarong Asset Management Co.’s bonds are perceived to be within the mainland, despite being majority-owned by the finance ministry, Bloomberg News reported. Borrowers putting up a Huarong Securities 2023 bond for collateral now get just 40% of the note’s face value as cash, down from 91% at the start of April, according to China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp. data. The decline in effective value illustrates the stunning loss of confidence in a company that’s crucial to China’s banking system.
Read more
The Tokyo Olympics, postponed in 2020 during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, are facing increasing hurdles in putting on a 2021 show, CNN.com reported. The latest troubling sign for the Summer Games came on Monday when the State Department advised U.S. citizens against traveling to Japan because of a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases. The "Level 4: Do Not Travel" advisory is the highest cautionary level in the department's hierarchy of warnings.
It's been more than a year since Americans have paid tourist calls to the nation. Japan has been closed to U.S.
Read more
Promoters, managing directors and chairmen, who stand as personal guarantors to corporate loans, can also be proceeded against before the company law tribunal if their firms are unable to repay debts, ruled the Indian Supreme Court on Friday as it declared “legal and valid” a November 15, 2019, notification issued by the Union government under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the Hindustan Times reported. “It is held that the impugned notification was issued within the power granted by Parliament, and in valid exercise of it.
Read more
PT Garuda Indonesia needs to completely restructure its business, potentially reducing the number of planes it operates to less than half its main fleet as the airline seeks to survive the crisis wrought by the pandemic, its president told staff last week, Bloomberg News reported. “We have to go through a comprehensive restructuring, a total one,” President Director Irfan Setiaputra said in an address to staff on May 19, according to a recording heard by Bloomberg.
Read more
Even by the standards of a record-breaking global credit binge, China’s corporate bond tab stands out: $1.3 trillion of domestic debt payable in the next 12 months, Bloomberg News reported. That’s 30% more than what U.S. companies owe, 63% more than in all of Europe and enough money to buy Tesla Inc. twice over. What’s more, it’s all coming due at a time when Chinese borrowers are defaulting on onshore debt at an unprecedented pace. The combination has investors bracing for another turbulent stretch for the world’s second-largest credit market.
Read more