logo
Rising rates could affect Japan's spending plans, PM Ishiba says

Rising rates could affect Japan's spending plans, PM Ishiba says

Reuters4 hours ago

TOKYO, June 9 (Reuters) - Japan must be aware that rising interest rates would push up the government's debt-financing costs and affect its spending plans, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday.
"Japan is shifting to a phase where interest rates rise as a trend," Ishiba told parliament.
"Japan's debt-to-gross domestic product ratio is high. When interest rates rise, the cost of funding government debt increases. That could weigh on spending," he said, calling on the need to ensure the government maintains public and market trust in its finances.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

ECB close to being done with rate cuts, Kazimir says
ECB close to being done with rate cuts, Kazimir says

Reuters

time18 minutes ago

  • Reuters

ECB close to being done with rate cuts, Kazimir says

FRANKFURT, June 9 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank is nearly done with interest rate cuts and should watch data through the summer months to determine whether a little more policy fine-tuning may be needed, Slovak policymaker Peter Kazimir said on Monday. The ECB cut rates for the eighth time last Thursday and signalled that it may now pause after it fastest policy easing cycle since the 2008/2009 global financial crisis. The ECB's deposit rate now stands at 2% and investors price in just one more cut, to 1.75%, towards the end of the year "As things stand now, I think we're nearly done with, if not already at the end of, the easing cycle," Kazimir said in an opinion piece. While economic growth could turn out weaker than expected, Kazimir also said it would be a mistake to ignore risks that inflation, the ECB's primary focus, could turn out higher. "Incoming data throughout the summer will provide a clearer picture and guide our decisions on whether further fine-tuning is needed," Kazimir added.

Rednote joins wave of Chinese firms releasing open-source AI models
Rednote joins wave of Chinese firms releasing open-source AI models

Reuters

timean hour ago

  • Reuters

Rednote joins wave of Chinese firms releasing open-source AI models

BEIJING, June 9 (Reuters) - China's Rednote, one of the country's most popular social media platforms, has released an open-source large language model, joining a wave of Chinese tech firms making their artificial intelligence models freely available. The approach contrasts with many U.S. tech giants like OpenAI and Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, which have kept their most advanced models proprietary, though some American firms including Meta (META.O), opens new tab have also released open-source models. Open sourcing allows Chinese companies to demonstrate their technological capabilities, build developer communities and spread influence globally at a time when the U.S. has sought to stymie China's tech progress with export restrictions on advanced semiconductors. Rednote's model, called is available for download on developer platform Hugging Face. A company technical paper describing it was uploaded on Friday. In coding tasks, the model performs comparably to Alibaba's Qwen 2.5 series, though it trails more advanced models such as DeepSeek-V3, the technical paper said. RedNote, also known by its Chinese name Xiaohongshu, is an Instagram-like platform where users share photos, videos, text posts and live streams. The platform gained international attention earlier this year when some U.S. users flocked to the app amid concerns over a potential TikTok ban. The company has invested in large language model development since 2023, not long after OpenAI's release of ChatGPT in late 2022. It has accelerated its AI efforts in recent months, launching Diandian, an AI-powered search application that helps users find content on Xiaohongshu's main platform. Other companies that are pursuing an open-source approach include Alibaba ( opens new tab which launched Qwen 3, an upgraded version of its model in April. Earlier this year, startup DeepSeek released its low-cost R1 model as open-source software, shaking up the global AI industry due to its competitive performance despite being developed at a fraction of the cost of Western rivals.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store