NEWSWORTHY
Regional banks' profit woes could damage financial system, Japan's central banker warns
Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda warned Monday that declining profits at regional banks could hurt the economy by potentially destabilizing the financial system. Regional banks' core profitability has continued to fall due to prolonged low interest rates, the shrinking population and a falling number ...
Bank of Japan's hoard of assets now bigger than the economy
The Bank of Japan's massive asset purchase program has taken it into uncharted territory, with its ballooning holdings now larger than the country's annual economic output. Its holding reached a staggering ¥553.6 trillion ($4.9 trillion), figures released Tuesday show, compared with nominal gross domestic product ...
Natural disasters add to growing economic headwinds as GDP contracts in third quarter
Natural disasters this summer combined with global trade frictions were behind the economy’s sluggish third-quarter performance, making GDP fall at an annualized rate of 1.2 percent, government data showed.
Abe orders Cabinet to mitigate impact of coming consumption tax hike
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered his Cabinet ministers Monday to make sure domestic demand continues to expand ahead of the consumption tax hike planned for next October. "While closely monitoring the economic situation at home and abroad, we will respond properly to sustain the economic ...
To what extent will Japan's 2014 downturn repeat with the new tax hike?
The wallets of Japanese residents may get a little lighter next year, as the prices of most goods and services are set to rise under a new consumption tax system starting in October 2019. Under this new system, consumers may have at least some reprieve, ...
Bank of Japan downgrades economic growth and inflation forecast as its 2% goal remains out of reach
Speaking at a news conference, BOJ Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda denied that the revisions represented a large shift in the bank’s outlook.
Egypt arrests author, publisher over book critical of president's economic policies
Egypt has arrested an economist and his publisher over a book that challenged President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's economic policies, a lawyer said Tuesday, the latest in a wave of detentions in recent years targeting all forms of dissent. Prize-winning economist Abdel-Khaleq Farouq and his publisher, Ibrahim ...
U.S. Treasury chief Steve Mnuchin dismisses risk of contagion from China's economic slowdown
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin dismissed concerns that China's weakest economic growth since the global financial crisis could spill into other emerging markets and destabilise U.S. financial markets. China is trying to navigate through multiple challenges after its trade war with the United States sparked ...
The reduced tax rate is part of a package of measures meant to ensure the tax increase does not put a damper on private consumption.
Households boosted spending at fastest pace in three years in August on back of summer bonuses
Japanese households increased their spending at the fastest rate in three years in August as consumers made more costly purchases, government data showed Friday. Spending by households with two or more people rose 2.8 percent from a year earlier, after adjusting for inflation, to ¥292,481, ...
Fed raises benchmark interest rate for third time amid strong U.S. economy
With the U.S. economy still strong, the Federal Reserve raised the benchmark interest rate on Wednesday for the third time this year but showed no indication it would be more aggressive in efforts to head off inflation. However, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell cautioned trade tensions ...
Maduro heads to China in bid to bolster Venezuela's collapsing economy
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro departed Wednesday for China in search of agreements to bolster the oil-exporting country's collapsing economy. Maduro said the trip was "very necessary, very opportune and full of great expectations." "We are leaving under better conditions, having activated a program of economic recovery, ...
