CNA938 Rewind - Why Chinese brands are expanding in Indonesia
CNA938 Rewind
Researchers at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute say newcomer food and beverage brands from China are surging in some Southeast Asian markets like Indonesia. Andrea Heng and Susan Ng speak with Nirgunan Thiruchelvam, Head of Consumer and Internet, Aletheia Capital, to examine the appeal of the country and wider region, and how it fits into China's economic recovery story.
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CNA
42 minutes ago
- CNA
Analysis:BOJ's inflation warning leaves room for another rate hike this year
TOKYO :The Bank of Japan may take a long pause before raising interest rates again, but it has still left scope for action this year by signaling caution over broadening price pressures that could sow the seeds of too-high inflation. While investor focus at this week's BOJ policy meeting centered on its dovish decision to slow the pace of its bond stimulus withdrawal, the bank provided plenty of arguments for why it should persist with rate hikes. Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Tuesday the BOJ's near-term focus was on downside risks to Japan's economy with the hit from U.S. tariffs seen intensifying in the second half of this year, suggesting the bank was in no rush to resume rate hikes. But he said there were not just downside but upside risks to prices, adding the BOJ should not rule out the chance of rising food prices leading to sustained, broader-based inflation. "Coupled with already rising food prices, oil price moves caused by tensions in Iran and Israel, if they persist, could risk affecting inflation expectations and underlying inflation," he told reporters after the BOJ's widely-expected decision to keep rates steady. "So we must scrutinise developments carefully." Those remarks came amid an escalating Middle East conflict that has caused crude oil prices to surge. Mizuho Securities expects the recent rise in fuel costs to push up core consumer inflation by up to 0.2 per cent point around autumn this year, and possibly heighten inflation expectations of households faced with higher gasoline and utility bills. That would add to already rising rice and food prices, which lifted headline inflation to 3.6 per cent in April - well above the BOJ's 2 per cent target. Such price pressures might lead to an upgrade in the BOJ's price forecasts at its next quarterly outlook due on July 31, when the board takes a fresh look at whether cost-push pressures are moderating as they predict. "We expect the BOJ to revise up its price forecasts at the July outlook report, laying the path for a rate hike in October," said JP Morgan Securities economist Ayako Fujita. In current forecasts made on May 1, the BOJ expects core consumer inflation to hit 2.2 per cent in the year ending in March 2026 before slowing to 1.7 per cent the following year. The estimates are based on the assumption that crude oil prices are broadly flat throughout the projection period and the effects of rising food prices wane. MIXED READINGS U.S. trade policy uncertainty has complicated the BOJ's efforts to wean the economy off a decade-long stimulus, with initial plans to hike in July dashed by President Donald Trump's April tariff announcement. Some BOJ watchers saw Ueda's comments this week as surprisingly dovish and ruling out the chance of near-term rate hikes. Former BOJ board member Takahide Kiuchi said even if the BOJ resumes rate hikes, the next one will likely be around year-end or early next year, which would give the bank time to grasp the economic impact of Trump's tariffs. Even so, the BOJ has recently escalated its warning about the second-round effects of supply shocks as it grows wary of being caught behind the curve in addressing the risk of too-high inflation. In the May 1 outlook report, the BOJ said rising rice and food prices could affect underlying inflation by changing public perceptions on future price moves. In the strongest warning to date on price pressures, Ueda said last month that Japan was experiencing "another round of supply shocks" in the form of food price rises that could demand a policy response. "Given that underlying inflation is closer to 2 per cent than a few years ago, we need to be careful about how food price inflation will impact underlying inflation," he said, pointing to the danger of looking through the impact of raw material prices. The BOJ is paying particular attention to how rising food prices could affect households' inflation expectations. The doubling of the price of rice, a Japanese staple, has drawn intense public attention. "Price hikes are no longer scaring away consumers, which may be a sign households' inflation expectations are already heightening," a source familiar with the BOJ's thinking. "If headline inflation stays around 4 per cent, some in the BOJ might shift more in favour of rate hikes," another source said. For now, the BOJ will likely stick to communication that leaves itself room to stand pat for as long as needed - or hike swiftly if uncertainty over U.S. trade policy clears up. That will likely keep market players guessing on the next rate-hike timing. Analysts at ING expect the BOJ to hold off raising rates until early 2026 if Japan's tariff negotiations with the U.S. drag on longer than expected. But they add the timing could be pushed forward if underlying inflationary pressures build. "The earlier price gains of rice and food have been passed on to services prices and other manufactured prices. We also see a gradual pick-up in rents over the next few months," ING said.
CNA
an hour ago
- CNA
Tokyo Gas expects no direct impact on LNG buying from Iran-Israel conflict
TOKYO :Japan's biggest city-gas supplier, Tokyo Gas, sees no direct impact on its liquefied natural gas (LNG) procurement from the Iran-Israel conflict, a company executive said on Wednesday. "Since we don't import LNG from Qatar or UAE, our LNG procurement is not directly affected at this time," Nobuhiro Sugesawa, senior managing executive officer, told Reuters on the sidelines of the Japan Energy Summit conference. "But we are monitoring the situation with the utmost interest," he said, noting that escalating tensions in the Middle East could drive up LNG prices and disrupt global supply. The Iran-Israel air war entered a sixth day on Wednesday with concerns the conflict could widen as U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for Iran's "unconditional surrender", despite the U.S. not being actively involved in the fighting. Sugesawa said the utility may boost procurement from the United States, which currently accounts for about 10 per cent of its total supply, as it is viewed as an attractive source of supply. JERA, Japan's biggest power generator, last week announced that it had agreed to source U.S. LNG from four different providers. Regarding the Alaska LNG project, Sugesawa said Tokyo Gas is interested, noting its historical significance as the company's first-ever LNG imports came from Alaska more than 50 years ago. However, he added that the company would need to assess specific conditions, including economic feasibility, before moving forward. The company mainly buys LNG from Australia, along with Malaysia and Russia.
Independent Singapore
2 hours ago
- Independent Singapore
Singapore's mainstream media: More trusted than followed online
Singapore's mainstream media commands high public trust—but that trust doesn't always translate into online readership. That's one of the key findings of the Digital News Report 2025 on Singapore by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University. The report shows that local outlets Channel NewsAsia (CNA) and The Straits Times (ST) are more trusted than their international counterparts. CNA enjoys a trust level of 74%, and The Straits Times is slightly higher at 75%. In contrast, the BBC and CNN are both trusted by 65% of respondents. Yet this strong trust in local media is not reflected in their online reach. CNA's weekly online reach stands at 47%, while The Straits Times trails at 41%. Offline reach One possible explanation for this gap is that both outlets are available offline. CNA's offline reach, thanks to its TV channel and radio station, is 33%—the same as The Straits Times , which is also available in print. CNA 'reaches over 850,000 viewers in Singapore every week and at least 8.1 million affluent viewers in the region every month', says its parent, Mediacorp. The Straits Times' circulation figures are not available on the website of SPH Media, a not-for-profit entity that publishes the newspaper. CNA may be better positioned than The Straits Times . While fewer people are watching TV news, newspaper readership has declined even more sharply. Just 18% of Singaporeans rely on print in 2025, down from 53% in 2017. Over the same period, the TV news audience shrank from 57% to 43%. News consumption via social media also dipped slightly—from 61% to 54%. But online news consumption overall has remained steady at 85%. The vast majority now get their news online—and for free. Only 16% pay for digital news. That may help explain CNA's slight edge online. CNA's digital content is entirely free, whereas The Straits Times follows a freemium model: some articles are free, but the rest sit behind a paywall. The 180-year-old newspaper—Singapore's flagship English daily—has even fallen behind the 12-year-old Mothership in online traffic. Mothership , which is also free, has a weekly online reach of 46%, almost on par with CNA and ahead of The Straits Times . However, it doesn't command the same level of public trust. At 54%, its trust rating lags far behind the mid-70s scored by CNA and The Straits Times . BBC and CNN Singaporeans clearly trust the national mainstream media more than the global networks. Trust in BBC News and CNN remains in the respectable mid-60s, but their reach is far lower. CNN's weekly offline reach is just 16%, and the BBC's is even lower at 12%. Their weekly online reach is similarly modest—15% for CNN, 13% for the BBC. See also Human rights NGO to analyse GE2020's effect on Singaporean youth The Reuters Institute report also highlights the dominance of English-language media in Singapore. Chinese-language newspapers such as Lianhe Zaobao and Shin Min Daily have weekly offline reach figures of just 8% and 6%, respectively. The Malay-language Berita Harian reaches only 4%. Social media The report shows WhatsApp is the leader among the social, messaging, and video networks, used by 33% for news and 79% for all purposes. It is followed by YouTube, used by 32% for news and 72% for all purposes. Facebook is third, used by 31% for news and 58% for all purposes. The corresponding figures are 24% and 54% for Instagram, 18% and 37% for TikTok, and 17% and 42% for Telegram. The report says: 'Audiences who say they use YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok for news all grew slightly, while the percentage who use WhatsApp and Facebook for news remain stable.' The biggest shift in the news landscape has been in how news is consumed. The smartphone now reigns supreme. Its use for news has risen from 72% in 2017 to 78% in 2022. Meanwhile, news consumption via computers dropped from 52% to 39%, and tablet use fell from 21% to 17%. See also MOT Minister Khaw says non transparency can prevent undue panic This mobile-first shift is reshaping how news is presented. CNA, for instance, is deploying AI-generated news summaries—known as FASTs—to cater to mobile and social media users. According to the Reuters Institute report, 7% of respondents have already used AI chatbots for news. That may well be the next frontier: 'Hello, Gemini, tell me the news today. And please—pretty please—don't hallucinate.' Featured image by Pexels (for illustration purposes only)
