Economy Financial News

By Mike Dolan

(Reuters) — China has instructed heavily indebted local governments to delay or halt some state-funded infrastructure projects, three people with knowledge of the situation said, as Beijing struggles to contain debt risks even as it tries to stimulate the economy.

By Summer Zhen and Samuel Shen

BANGKOK (Reuters) — Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Friday his government will move ahead with its flagship $14.3-billion 'digital wallet' handout scheme, though it may be delayed.

PM Modi gets emotional discussing PMAY-Urban houses completion in Maharashtra PM Modi is in Maharashtra's Solapur today where he laid he foundation stone of 8 AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) projects worth around ₹2,000 crore in the state. He kickstarted the distribution of 1st and 2nd installments to 10,000 beneficiaries of PM-SVANIDHI in the state during the programme.

Investing.com — The U.S. dollar edged lower in early European trading Friday, but was on track for a second consecutive weekly gain on renewed doubts over early rate cuts by the Federal Reserve, while weak retail sales hit sterling.

Investing.com — European stock markets rose Friday, continuing the tech-inspired global rally as investors shake off the negative sentiment from earlier in the week. 

Union Budget 2024: India is making strides on global platforms ranging from local production boost to attracting foreign companies to shifting supply chains from rival China as it harbors dreams of becoming the third largest economy. The women of modern India have largely breached the patriarchal walls and are joining the workforce at a moment when Bharat is also seeing a paradigm developmental shift. Read our full Budget 2024 coverage here In today’s Narendra Modi-government-led India, the Nehruvian philosophy of asserting the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women is still true and perhaps it will forever be valid. World Bank data shows India’s female labour force participation rate was 19.2% in 2021, contributing 17% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is relatively low for a nation dreaming of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2025. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated that achieving gender equality in India, meaning equal participation of women in the labor force as men, could potentially elevate India's GDP by 27%. According to the World Bank, Indian women contribute to the economy at 17% of GDP, which is less than half of the global average. If approximately 50% of women could join the workforce, India might increase its growth by 1.5 percentage points, reaching 9% annually.

Rahul Jain, President and Head of Nuvama Wealth believes that reviving the rural economy, which has slowed down due to deficient monsoon, will be the government's focus in the Interim Budget 2024. He also expects more sectors to fall in the ambit of PLI. In an interview with Mint, Jain also shared his views on markets and the sectors he is positive about.

Campbell Wilson, CEO, Air India, says “this is the beginning of a new fleet, new on-board products, new entertainment systems. This is the first A350; but as we get the other six and then start refitting all of our existing wide-body aircraft, people will see it more frequently.” On Air India getting the first A350 in its fleet Campbell Wilson: Well this reveal of the new Air India is a fresh start. This is our first A350, Airbus’s most modern jetliner. It is Air India’s first new aircraft with the new liveries, the new interiors, the new colour scheme and new amenities, new inflight entertainment system and it signals the next phase of their transformation.

The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in more than a year, underscoring the resilience of the labor market amid elevated interest rates

Investing.com-- CITIC Securities Co Ltd (SS:600030), China’s biggest brokerage, restricted short-selling for some clients amid growing, outsized losses in local stock markets, Bloomberg reported on Friday citing people with knowledge of the matter.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) — Malaysia's economy likely grew 3.4% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2023, slightly faster than the previous three-month period, official advance estimates showed on Friday.

By Samuel Shen, Casey Hall and Ellen Zhang

By Jamie McGeever

By Tom Westbrook

This week’s inflation “setback” was not great news for anyone hoping for a Bank of Canada rate cut sooner rather than later.

Canadians are grappling with “payment shock” and Americans are not, and that will put the two countries’ economies on diverging paths to start 2024, according to the chief executive of Canada’s largest bank.

President Joe Biden has unveiled $82 million for North Carolina to help connect an additional 16,000 households and businesses to high-speed internet

OpenAI is expanding beyond nifty products like ChatGPT and has announced that it is following through with its pledge to distribute AI’s benefits to all of humanity. Just kidding! It’s actually launched a ‘store’ to monetize its language model technology and share that wealth with other businesses. And it’s using an incentive structure that has a history of unpleasant side effects on, yes, humanity.

Another tumultuous year has confirmed that the global economy is at a turning point. We face four big challenges: a climate transition, good-jobs problem, an economic-development crisis and the search for a newer, healthier form of globalization. To address each, we must leave behind established modes of thinking and seek creative workable solutions, while recognizing that these efforts will be necessarily uncoordinated and experimental.