ASIA: According to the World Bank, India's economic growth is expected to slow down further to 6.3% in the financial year FY 2023/24. This is a downward revision of 0.3 percentage points from the previous estimate of 6.6%. The main reason for the slowdown is attributed to constrained private consumption caused by high inflation.
ASIA: China's industrial output and retail sales growth in April fell short of expectations, indicating a loss of momentum in the economy at the beginning of the second quarter. This has increased pressure on policymakers to support the post-COVID recovery. The data also revealed a further decline in property investment, raising concerns about the outlook
ASIA: China's consumer inflation fell to an 18-month low, rising by 0.7% year-on-year in March, slower than the 1.0% gain in February, indicating weak demand. The producer price index fell 2.5% year-on-year, the fastest decline since June 2020, falling for the sixth consecutive month. Food price inflation, a key driver of CPI, slowed to
ASIA: The major Asian stock markets had a green day today: NIKKEI 225 closed Shanghai increased 20.74 points or 0.64% to 3,255.65 Hang Seng increased 258.05 points or 1.36% to 19,258.76 ASX 200 increased 56.90 points or 0.82% to 6,955.40 Kospi increased 9.15 points or 0.38% to 2,388.35 SENSEX increased 445.73 points or 0.77%
ASIA: BlackRock Investment Institute raised U.S. short-term government bonds as well as Chinese and other emerging market stocks to "overweight" on Tuesday, saying investors were realizing that the U.S. Federal Reserve may have to become more aggressive in its campaign to subdue inflation. BlackRock also said it was going "overweight" on Chinese and other