Taiwan to hike defence spending by nearly 23% to US$31.1b, or over 3% of GDP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNA
11 minutes ago
- CNA
Rice price inflation eases in Japan
TOKYO: Rice prices in Japan soared 90.7 per cent in July year-on-year, official data showed on Friday (Aug 22), but the rate of increase slowed from previous month,s offering some relief for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Overall, Japan's core inflation rate eased to 3.1 per cent from 3.3 per cent in June, the data from the internal affairs ministry showed. But the rate remains above the Bank of Japan's (BoJ) 2 per cent target, cementing expectations that it will hike interest rates in October. The reading, which excludes volatile fresh food prices, was slightly above market expectations of 3 per cent. Excluding energy and also fresh food, consumer prices rose 3.4 per cent, the same rate as in June. The BoJ has been reluctant to raise borrowing costs, seeing above-target inflation as caused by temporary factors. Earlier this month US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent added to pressure on the BoJ to hike rates, saying the bank was "behind the curve" on inflation. "Our base case is a 25-basis-point rate hike at the October meeting," said Taro Kimura at Bloomberg Economics before inflation data was announced. He had predicted a reading of 3 per cent. THIN ICE Ishiba has been on thin ice since the disastrous upper house elections in July that saw his ruling coalition lose its majority. This came only a few months after his administration became a minority government in the more powerful lower house too. One of the main sources of voter anger has been inflation, and in particular the surging cost of rice. In June the price of the staple grain was 100.2 per cent higher than a year earlier. In May the rate was 101.7 per cent. Factors include a very hot summer in 2023, panic-buying after a warning of an imminent "megaquake" in 2024, alleged hoarding by some traders, and a surge in rice-hungry tourists. Ishiba appointed a new farm minister and his government has released rice from emergency stocks in an effort to bring prices down. Earlier this month it announced a change in its decades-old policy of encouraging farmers to grow crops other than rice. US President Donald Trump also wants with the United States. TRADE DEAL Last week, data showed that Japan's economy, the world's fourth-biggest, grew at an annualised pace of 1 per cent in the second quarter. The reading suggested the economy was suffering less than expected from US tariffs imposed earlier this year. But other data released Wednesday showed exports to the United States plunging 10.1 per cent in July, with those of cars down 28.4 per cent. Trump initially imposed across-the-board tariffs of 10 per cent on Japan, as well as levies of 27.5 per cent on cars. Japan's automobile industry, which includes giants like Toyota and Honda, accounts for around 8 per cent of the country's jobs. Japan last month secured a trade deal that cut threatened 25 per cent "reciprocal" tariffs to 15 per cent. The rate on Japanese cars was also cut to 15 per cent, although to Tokyo's consternation, this has yet to take effect.
Straits Times
41 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Boeing in talks to sell as many as 500 planes to China: Sources
Boeing is heading closer toward finalising a deal with China to sell as many as 500 aircraft, according to people familiar with the matter, a transaction that would end a sales drought that stretches back to US President Donald Trump's last visit in 2017. The two sides are still hammering out terms of the complex aircraft sale, including the types and volume of jet models and delivery timetables, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters. The mega sale to China, years in the making, is contingent on the two nations defusing the trade hostilities that hark back to Mr Trump's first term in office – and could still fall apart, they said. Chinese officials have already started consulting domestic airlines about how many Boeing aircraft they'll need, the people said. The transaction taking shape is similar in scope to the order for as many as 500 jets that China's central planners have struck with Airbus, but haven't yet announced, they added. The Boeing order is expected to be the centerpiece of a trade agreement that would benefit both Mr Trump and China's President Xi Jinping, the culmination of long-running and sometimes contentious negotiations. The nation's leaders were close to a similar announcement in 2023, but then-President Joe Biden and Xi left a San Francisco summit without consummating an aircraft sale. Complicating matters for Boeing is a leadership void in China. Mr Alvin Liu, its top executive in China and a fluent Mandarin-speaker with extensive government contacts, left the company in recent weeks. Carol Shen has been named interim president of Boeing China, said people familiar with the matter. Boeing declined to comment on any potential deal or management changes. Shares of the US planemaker advanced less than 1 per cent in New York on Aug 21 following Bloomberg's report, as most members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined. The stock had risen 27 per cent this year amid a turnaround under Chief executive officer Kelly Ortberg. Aircraft orders for Boeing have figured large in US diplomacy since Trump returned to the White House in January, with nations touting new, tentative and existing deals for airplanes, which are as expensive as skyscrapers, to narrow trade imbalances with the US. The US and China have engaged in several rounds of talks since de-escalating tit-for-tat tariffs that soared to as high as 145 per cent, but have yet to reach a final trade deal. Earlier in the summer, Mr Xi, in a phone call, invited Mr Trump to China at an unspecified date. One opportunity for the pair to meet is in late October, ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea. For China, the deal would secure aircraft delivery slots that are hard to come by at both Boeing and Airbus, which are largely sold out into the 2030s. The world's second-largest aviation market is expected to more than double its commercial fleet to 9,755 airplanes over the next 20 years, by Boeing's estimation, far more than China's homegrown planemaker Comac could manufacture. While Boeing slots are scarce, the company likely has some flexibility in its delivery schedule to accommodate strategic customers, Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu said in a research note. The country's top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, recently sought input from Chinese carriers about how many jets they want, one of the people said. Talks centred on the 737 Max series of aircraft, Boeing's popular single-aisle jet, in a sign Beijing is laying the groundwork for a major order. Boeing's last Chinese deal was unveiled in November 2017 during Mr Trump's first state visit to China. The deal amounted to orders and commitments for 300 single-aisle and twin-aisle planes valued at US$37 billion (S$47.7 billion) at the time. The next year, Boeing's China deliveries peaked, when a quarter of its jets ended up in the mainland. Airbus has dominated sales and deliveries to China since 2019, when the nation's regulators were the first to ground the 737 Max after two fatal accidents. Boeing has notched only 30 orders with Chinese carriers and leasing companies since the start of 2019, according to the company's website. In an interview with Bloomberg in January, CEO Ortberg was optimistic that years of talks with Beijing would finally pay off. 'We certainly hope that there's an opportunity for some additional orders in the next year with China,' he said. BLOOMBERG
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Japan MOF preparing to raise long-term rate estimate in FY2026 budget request, Yomiuri reports
TOKYO :Japan's Ministry of Finance is preparing to raise its assumed interest rate for long-term government bonds at 2.6 per cent for fiscal 2026/27 budget requests, the highest level in 17 years, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Friday. The country's assumed bond interest rate was 2.1 per cent during the fiscal 2025 budget request phase before being adjusted to 2.0 per cent in the final budget. The increase for the next budget would lead to higher debt servicing costs, the report also said without citing sources.
