China Financial News

Global oil-demand growth is still forecast to slow to under a million barrels a day this year and next, with a continued slowdown in Chinese consumption weighing on the outlook, the International Energy Agency said. The Paris-based organization estimates that global demand will grow by 970,000 barrels a day this year and by 953,000 barrels a day the next—marginally lower than previous estimates of 974,000 and 979,000 barrels a day.

EMBARGOED TO 1910 SG (1210 LONDON) ON TUES AUG 13 2024

Global oil markets are poised to swing from a deficit to a surplus next quarter should OPEC+ proceed with plans to boost supplies, data from the International Energy Agency showed. Oil inventories are currently depleting as a result of peak summer driving demand, but should stabilize in the final quarter of the year, the Paris-based agency said in a report. That would likely tip into an overhang if the OPEC+ cartel presses ahead with provisional plans to bring back idled output starting in October, the report indicated. Oil consumption in China, the biggest importer, fell for a third month in June, the IEA said.

₹30,000 a month, which is far higher than what new employees get on average in cities. The prospect of stable employment is an added incentive. Yet, such a scramble for government employment is also a symptom of the lack of quality jobs in an economy that has otherwise had a good run since the pandemic.

A few grams of gold can elevate or depress a nation’s morale and stature. But first; why should any nation spend money on sports, especially one whose population substantially relies on subsidies? Nations invest in sports for three strategic reasons. The first is global positioning.

AFTER A FORTNIGHT featuring 329 competitions, the battle for Olympic supremacy came down to the last event on the final day of the Paris games. When America’s women’s basketball team beat France’s in the final on August 11th, they also helped their country equal China’s tally of 40 golds at these games. As a result, America retained its position at the summit of the official medal table—which ranks countries based on the number of golds they win—thanks to a greater haul of silvers (44 compared with China’s 27).

Foreign investors pulled out a record amount of money from China in the last quarter. Direct investment liabilities in its balance-of-payments dropped almost $15 billion in April-June, Bloomberg reported, citing data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Matthew Knoot from Nashville, Tennessee has been indicted under federal charges for allegedly aiding North Korea’s (DPRK) ballistic weapons programs in a massive IT jobs fraud scheme, a new U.S. Department of Justice press release reveals.

Citigroup is taking a significant step to pare down its wealth management division with a plan to sell off its trust administration and fiduciary services business.

India needs to raise its game quickly and look beyond production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes to establish itself as a global manufacturing powerhouse and create millions of new jobs, say experts. Time, they say, is ripe for the next wave of big-bang policy measures from the government to ensure that India's efforts to bring back local manufacturing in a big way pays off. Some suggested steps include creating world-class, export-oriented industrial hubs (where India is a laggard), ringing in favourable tax treaties with the country's top trading partners, bolstering logistics infrastructure (including connectivity with ports), encouraging sector-specific skill development, targeting high-volume local production of capital goods and investing in smart manufacturing facilities. These enablers, they say, are critical to boost India's value proposition and getting the biggest global players to invest top dollars in mega manufacturing capacities in critical sectors such as automobiles, renewable energy, telecoms equipment, electronics and batteries — more so in a changing geopolitical scenario when global companies are increasingly looking to cut their dependence on China and eying India as an alternate manufacturing hub.

Olympics reading the US, China, Japan, Australia, France, the Netherlands, Britain, South Korea, Italy and Germany, one is bound to ask: why do some countries fare better than others? Discussions usually attribute wins and losses to individual abilities, training and dedication. These factors are undoubtedly crucial. But there could be other determinants like economic prosperity. In each of the last three Summer and Winter Olympic Games, the top 10 medal-winning countries have been high-income countries based on World Bank's income-level classifications, with the exception of China (upper-middle income) in Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and OAR (Olympic Athletes from Russia — upper-middle income) in PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics. However, research has found a range of determinants beyond economic prosperity — team size, growth rate, expenditure on health, population, etc — to have a significant impact. We investigated the association between the total medal count for each country at the Beijing 2022 Olympics and their GDP per capita (PPP). A moderate positive relationship is observed with a correlation coefficient of 0.62.

But India has made a strong comeback in Sri Lanka, wresting significant advantage from China. And going by the grammar and tone of S Jaishankar's just-concluded visit to Maldives, Muizzu, too, seems to be course-correcting. So, there's more than what meets the eye — a fresh dynamic that reflects changing geopolitical and economic realities. Take the Maldives. In May, IMF warned the country against a ballooning Chinese debt folio. A month later, Fitch downgraded its rating on grounds of 'increased risks associated with the country's worsening external financing and liquidity metrics'. It assessed that weakening foreign-reserve buffers and rising external government debt 'increase the challenges for the new government to meet its substantial upcoming external debt-servicing obligations and keep the currency peg to the US dollar'.

Foreign investors pulled a record amount of money from China last quarter, likely reflecting deep pessimism about the world’s second-largest economy.

Olympic gold medals are worth more than ever at this year’s Paris games, with the raw materials that go into them having the potential to fetch about $900 each.

₹5686, up 9% over last year. The company has over 10,000 rooms across its 107 hotels.

shipping industry worldwide. As per BIMCO’s Manpower study, which is published every 5 years (the last being published in 2021) India ranked as the 5th largest manpower supplier in Shipping globally. In 2021 together with Philippines, Russian Federation, Indonesia, China & India supplied bulk of the global workforce in shipping. These 5 countries collectively accounted for 44% of global supply of seafarers. India accounted for 2,50,071 active seafarers of which 1,51,840 were Ratings & 98,231 were officers. Chinese seafarers catermainly to their own national flag and / or coastal ships. The reason for Chinese being limited to their national industry is obviously due to their language barrier.

Siemens and Honeywell. The consumer division, which generates a third of sales, makes all manner of devices that can connect with 5G. It has begun releasing fancy smartphones again, but also makes watches, televisions and the systems that control many Chinese electric vehicles (evs).

Key for the Federal Reserve will be U.S. consumer prices on Wednesday where economists look for rises of 0.2% in both the headline and core, with the annual core slowing a tick to 3.2%.

Fabricio Bloisi, the newly appointed CEO of Dutch technology investment firm Prosus and its parent Naspers, said he will continue to back early-to-late stage companies in India despite the $500 million write-off incurred due to the collapse of its once high-flying portfolio firm, Byju’s. He added that the valuation reset in the technology world is typical of the funding cycles for the sector and doesn't deter long-term investors from taking bets on India. Prosus doesn’t “live by cycles,” he said in an interview on his first India visit since taking over the chief executive role from interim CEO Ervin Tu. “I founded a startup 20 years ago… I don't get nervous about valuations… it’s part of life,” Bloisi told ET. “In 2001, 2008, everyone thought it was the worst time… Prosus is not a company that lives by these waves,” he said.

Allied Blenders & Distillers (ABD), which owns the Officer's Choice whisky brand, is in talks with vodka giant Russian Standard and Bangkok-based Thai Beverage (ThaiBev) to market and distribute their products in India, two executives privy to the development said. The talks, if fructify, will help ABD to widen its product portfolio from largely whisky to a host of spirit segments such as vodka and scotch, while the two global companies will get an entry into the world's biggest alcohol consuming country with a strong partner which has robust distribution and manufacturing capabilities, the executives said. ThaiBev's global portfolio through its arm International Beverage includes scotch brands Old Pulteney, Speyburn, Balblair, Reid vodka, Phraya rum and Source gin. The company is owned by Thai-Chinese billionaire businessman Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi and is listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange. Russian Standard is the largest vodka brand, owned by billionaire Roustam Tariko.

Paris Olympics 2024 but the United States of America topped the medals table finishing above the Asian giant only by virtue of their 44 silvers. China, who were the last nation apart from the U.S. to top the standings when they did it on home soil at the 2008 Beijing Games, managed only 27 silvers. The US also won most total medals with 126 to China's 91.