Tag - economy

 
 

ECONOMY

Toshinori Yashiki, deputy director-general at the Financial Services Agency, urged lenders to pay particular attention to highly-leveraged borrowers.
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2024
Japan regulator will probe risks to banks from higher rates
The Bank of Japan is expected to make its first rate hike since 2007 within a few months, raising the possibility that borrowers will struggle with higher interest payments.
BUSINESS
Jan 24, 2024
Japanese firms and unions kick off wage talks as markets bet on bigger pay hikes
Japan's big firms are expected to offer their unions wage hikes of 3.85% on average this year, the highest wage increase in 31 years.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 24, 2024
Kishida pitches Japan's ‘golden opportunity’ at Goldman event
Japan's government will demonstrate the nation’s transition to a new economic stage by mobilizing all policy tools, the prime minister said in his video address.
Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group, during a panel session at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 17
BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2024
World Bank chief eyes 'bigger' institution to tackle climate crisis
Ajay Banga said the bank is working to widen the way it looks at problems and increase collaborations with other institutions.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2024
BOJ stands pat on policy as quake's economic impact remains unclear
Observers are watching for when the BOJ will start exiting negative rates, amid growing expectations it will likely seek normalization this year.
Coming out of the pandemic, job vacancies were historically high in the U.S. because firms needed workers and could not find them.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2024
This year will mark the end of the post-pandemic economy
The trade-off between bringing down inflation and harming growth will come back with a vengeance in the post-pandemic economy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 23, 2024
With meetings, Japan leader amplifies call for wage hikes at small firms
Dissatisfaction over falling real wages has been one of the factors undermining the prime minister's support rate, which remained under 30% in a series of recent polls.
According to the the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, international economic activity is expected to slow amid changing trade patterns.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 23, 2024
From 'hyperglobalization' to 'thin globalism'
How geopolitics, pandemics, and economic tensions are transforming global trade.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 22, 2024
Japan's Nikkei scales 34-year peak on Wall Street record
The S&P 500 posted its first record-high close in two years, as AI fever drove big gains for chip shares and other heavyweight tech stocks.
The rupture of one of the world's busiest shipping routes has exposed the vulnerability of China's export-reliant economy to supply snarls and external demand shocks.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 22, 2024
Red Sea crisis pressures China's exporters as shipping delays mount
Further Red Sea disruptions would pile pressure on a struggling economy already contending with a property crisis and weak consumer demand.
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2024
Japan’s baseline forecasts show government missing budget goal
The primary balance is projected to be around minus 0.4% in fiscal year 2025.
Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a rally in advance of the New Hampshire presidential primary election in Rochester, New Hampshire, on Sunday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jan 22, 2024
Trump’s 2016 win shook markets. Traders won’t get fooled again.
Wall Street is already starting to game out the impact of Trump’s possible return to the White House.
The risks are particularly evident in Asia, home to some of the world’s worst-performing major currencies against the greenback.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 19, 2024
Dollar dominance is triggering intervention fears across markets
The greenback's recent spike is a reality check to investors betting on dollar weakness and for the authorities hoping for a respite.
Doubts about China’s official investment statistics — which measure spending on things like housing, factories and infrastructure — have been fueled by frequent revisions in recent years, and the latest data implies an unusually large adjustment.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 19, 2024
Did China’s economy really grow 5.2% in 2023? Not all agree
Doubts over Chinese data, particularly on investment, have resulted in alternative calculations that put its GDP growth last year at as low as 1.5%.
Japan's core inflation stayed above the central bank's 2% target in December but slowed for a second straight month, reinforcing expectations it will be in no hurry to phase out its massive monetary stimulus.
BUSINESS
Jan 19, 2024
Japan’s slowing inflation supports case for BOJ to wait longer
Growth in consumer prices excluding fresh food slowed to 2.3% in December from a year earlier.
A signboard in Tokyo shows the closing numbers on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Jan. 11. Tokyo's Nikkei index closed above 35,000 for the first time in nearly 34 years on that day.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 18, 2024
Japan can guilt-trip its stocks past bubble-era highs
Tokyo’s equity market is achingly close to overcoming its bubble-era highs.
Japan's core machinery orders, a highly volatile data series regarded as a leading indicator of capital spending in the coming six to nine months, fell more than expected in November.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jan 18, 2024
Japan's core machinery orders fell more than forecast in November
Capital spending is one of the key drivers for Japan's economy and a major indicator of business confidence.
Noriyuki Sato, head of asset management at Mizuho Financial Group, says the bank plans to ramp up its expansion into private markets.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 18, 2024
Mizuho considers U.S. deal to supercharge private markets growth
The lender’s $460 billion money-management arm is considering buying a stake in a U.S. or European firm specializing in alternative investments.
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2024
Japan’s economy gets boost from 25 million visitors in 2023
A weak yen has helped boost tourists’ spending power, making Japan a much more affordable and attractive destination.
Farmers protest against the government's planned cuts to agricultural sector subsides in Brandenburg, Germany, on Jan. 10.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 17, 2024
Why Germany is rich but Germans are poor and angry
Germany's polarization peaks as the country's divided society faces economic turmoil.

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb