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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan’s economy shrank slightly more than initially thought in the April-June quarter, official data released Tuesday showed, deepening a contraction that was already the worst in the nation’s modern history. The world’s third-largest economy shrank 7.9 percent in the second quarter of this year from the previous quarter, more than the initial 7.8 percent in the preliminary data, the Cabinet Office said. The downward revision comes with corporate investment weaker than […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia has entered its first recession since 1991 after the economy shrank 7 percent in the second quarter, official figures showed Wednesday, as the country reels from the coronavirus pandemic. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said it was the fastest quarterly contraction on record and ends a three-decade run of economic growth that was undented even by the global financial crisis. The bureau’s head of national accounts, Michael Smedes, said the […]
BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Thailand’s economy suffered its worst contraction since the Asian financial crisis more than two decades ago, data showed Monday, as the coronavirus shattered the country’s crucial tourism industry. The kingdom has largely escaped the worst of the disease — registering 3,300 cases and 58 deaths despite being the first country outside China to register an infection in January. But pandemic-spurred lockdowns brought the economy to a staggering halt, shrinking 12.2 percent […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — Malaysia’s economy suffered its worst contraction in more than 20 years during the second quarter, hit by a collapse in global trade and tough curbs to contain the coronavirus, the central bank said Friday. The economy shrank 17.1 percent on-year in April-June — the first since the global financial crisis in 2009 and the deepest since the Asian financial turmoil 11 years before that — putting it on course […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia’s economy contracted in the second quarter for the first time in more than two decades as it was slammed by coronavirus restrictions, with warnings that the recovery could be among the weakest in Southeast Asia. Output in the region’s biggest economy slumped 5.3 percent on-year in April-June, the statistics agency said. That marked Indonesia’s first contraction since the first quarter of 1999 during the Asian financial crisis nd puts it […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Singapore’s economy, a closely watched barometer for the rest of Asia’s export-driven countries, grew just 0.7 percent last year as the US-China trade war hammered global markets. The city-state has traditionally been the first among Asia’s economies to be affected during a downturn, and the country narrowly escaped tipping into recession in the third quarter. The trade ministry said in a statement Thursday that based on advance estimates, the economy […]
HONG KONG, China (AFP) — Asian markets slipped on Monday as data showed China’s economy growing at its weakest pace in nearly three decades, hit by the US trade war, while investors debate the depth of an expected Federal Reserve interest rate cut. The world’s number-two economy expanded 6.2 percent in April-June, the worst reading since the early 1990s but in line with forecasts and within the government’s target range. The reading highlights the negative […]
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Growth in export-reliant Singapore suffered a surprise sharp contraction in the second quarter, official data showed Friday, sending a stark warning that US-China trade tensions are hurting the global economy. The city-state’s gross domestic product shrank an annualized 3.4 percent, sharply down from 3.8 percent growth in the first three months of the year and well off forecasts of a slight expansion. On a year-on-year basis, it expanded just 0.1 percent, […]
by Eva Xiao and Ryan McMorrow BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s premier warned Tuesday that the country faces a “tough struggle” as he unveiled tax cuts to prop up a stuttering economy while increasing military spending to nearly $180 billion. The slowdown and US trade war have become major challenges for President Xi Jinping, a year after becoming the country’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong with the abolition of term limits and etching of […]
SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) — Australia’s economic growth ground to a near halt in the second-half of 2018, official data showed Wednesday, thrusting the issue to the front and center of an already contentious general election campaign. The figures released by Australia’s statistics agency showed growth for October to December at 0.2 percent, after a 0.3 percent reading in the previous three months. Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison has based his re-election campaign on stewardship of […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China lowered its economic growth target on Tuesday as the country struggles with a crackdown on debt, a slowing global economy and a trade war with the United States. The 6.0 to 6.5 percent estimate for 2019 was released in a report for the opening session of the annual National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament. The government had set a target of around 6.5 percent in 2018 and eventually recorded official […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — The International Monetary Fund on Sunday warned governments to gear up for a possible economic storm as growth undershoots expectations. “The bottom-line — we see an economy that is growing more slowly than we had anticipated,” IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde told the World Government Summit in Dubai. Last month, the IMF lowered its global economic growth forecast for this year from 3.7 percent to 3.5 percent. Lagarde cited […]
