Reuters Asia Business

By Kentaro Sugiyama TOKYO (Reuters) -The head of Japan’s leading business lobby said on Monday the central bank was highly likely to normalise its ultra-loose monetary policy in the near future amid heightening momentum for wage hikes. “There is greater momentum for wage hikes at this year’s spring wage negotiations compared with last year,” Masakazu …

Japan’s business lobby head sees near-term chance of BOJ policy shift Read More »

By Satoshi Sugiyama TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s economy avoided a technical recession, revised government data showed on Monday, even though the upward change in the fourth quarter was weaker than expected and highlighted concerns about the sluggish economic recovery. Japan’s revised gross domestic product (GDP) expanded at an annualised clip of 0.4% in the October-December period …

Japan Q4 GDP revised up to slight expansion, economy avoids recession Read More »

By Katya Golubkova and Yuka Obayashi TOKYO (Reuters) – SSE Pacifico, the Japanese unit of UK energy group SSE, aims to develop 6 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind farms in the country, the company’s head said, as SSE looks to Japan as a focus overseas market and a regional hub. Japan is aiming to become …

SSE’s Japan unit aims to develop 6GW offshore wind farms Read More »

BEIJING (Reuters) – Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC) said on Sunday its cranes do not pose a cybersecurity threat, after U.S. congressional committees questioned the Chinese state-owned company’s work on cranes bound for the United States. The House of Representatives security panels, scrutinising ZPMC’s installation of Swiss engineering group ABB’s equipment onto U.S.-bound ship-to-shore cranes, …

Shanghai Zhenhua denies posing cybersecurity risk to US ports Read More »

By Lewis Jackson SYDNEY (Reuters) – China will complete a review into years-long tariffs on Australian wine by the end of March and is also reviewing its restrictions on lobster imports, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said on Sunday. Farrell said he was hopeful China would lift the tariffs of up to 218% on Australian …

Good progress on Chinese wine, lobster trade barriers, says Australia trade minister Read More »

BEIJING (Reuters) -China will improve home sales in a “forceful” and “orderly” way, Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Ni Hong said on Saturday, as weak demand in the country’s beleaguered residential property market persists. The property sector has lurched from one crisis to another since 2021 after a regulatory crackdown on high leverage among …

China says it will improve home sales in ‘forceful’, ‘orderly’ way Read More »

By Ellen Zhang, Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo BEIJING (Reuters) – China still faces structural employment issues and overall pressure on jobs has not eased, the human resources minister said on Saturday, as the slowing economy braces for another record number of college graduates in 2024. The job market has seen a good start this …

China warns overall pressure on employment yet to ease Read More »

By Siyi Liu and Colleen Howe BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s lithium industry would benefit from a stabilisation of prices of the battery metal, which is set for a long-term uptrend, said the chairman of Ganfeng Lithium, a major Chinese supplier of the battery metal. Lithium demand from producers of power batteries, energy storage and others …

China’s lithium market set for long-term uptrend, says Ganfeng Lithium Read More »