Reuters Asia Business

By Farah Master HONG KONG (Reuters) – For many of China’s manufacturers of baby and children’s products, painful reverberations from last year’s historic decline in the country’s population are already upon them. Domestic sales are shrinking and the scramble is on to develop new streams of revenue, whether that be diversifying into products for adults …

Chinese baby product firms seek to age up, sell more abroad as population falls Read More »

(Reuters) – Pakistan has told the International Monetary Fund it will not implement a fuel subsidy programme as the two sides negotiate a long-delayed $1.1 billion bailout for the country, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in March proposed charging affluent consumers more for fuel, with the money raised used to subsidise …

Pakistan tells IMF it will scrap fuel subsidy plan – Bloomberg News Read More »

By Winni Zhou and Tom Westbrook SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China’s increasingly urgent efforts to tip its mountain of savings into the economy are running up against depositors shy of all but the safest investments, in the latest sign that weak confidence is holding back post-pandemic spending and growth. The latest move — prodding the “big …

Analysis-China’s deposit pile stands in the way of recovery Read More »

By Daniel Leussink TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Nissan Motor Co on Thursday said it expects profit to rise 38% this year on a better outlook for sales, a rosier prospect for the automaker after years of setbacks that included a strained alliance with partner Renault SA. The two car companies are now retooling their decades-old automaking …

Nissan expects 38% full-year profit rise on stronger sales outlook Read More »

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese banks extended 718.8 billion yuan ($103.99 billion) in new yuan loans in April, tumbling from March and sharply missing analysts’ estimates. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast new yuan loans would drop to 1.4 trillion yuan last month, versus 3.89 trillion yuan in March. Broad M2 money supply grew 12.4% in …

China April new bank loans tumble to 718.8 billion yuan, far below forecasts Read More »

By Leika Kihara NIIGATA, Japan (Reuters) – Calm has returned to the global financial system after the recent failure of several U.S. banks, but Group of Seven (G7) finance leaders will communicate closely to respond to any renewed instability, Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kazuo Ueda said on Thursday. Ueda also said there was no …

BOJ’s Ueda: G7 finance chiefs to debate financial system risks Read More »

By Sam Nussey and Kiyoshi Takenaka TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp on Friday posted a sharply narrower annual loss after a capital raise using its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd helped cushion investment loss at its Vision Fund investing arm. SoftBank reported a net loss of 970 billion yen ($7.18 billion) for the …

SoftBank books narrower loss after Alibaba stake sell-down Read More »

By Melanie Burton MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Shares in Australian-listed lithium miners jumped on Thursday after a $10.6 billion merger in the sector raised expectations for more consolidation among producers of the key metal in electric vehicle batteries. The tie up between Allkem Ltd and Livent announced on Wednesday will create the world’s third-biggest producer of lithium …

Lithium miners surge as Allkem-Livent tie up fuels M&A hopes Read More »

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Honda Motor Co on Thursday forecast a 19.1% rise in operating profit for this business year, after it missed analysts’ estimates in the fourth quarter. Japan’s second-biggest automaker forecast full-year operating profit rising to 1.0 trillion yen ($7.40 billion) compared with a 985.62 billion yen average profit expected by 21 analysts. …

Honda sees full-year profit rising 19% after missing forecasts in Q4 Read More »