Aurelia Butler

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese policymakers last month unveiled a slew of support measures for the property sector, including a nod to local governments to buy “some” unsold apartments and turn them into affordable housing.Authorities hope that over time, improving access to affordable housing could provide utility to some of the excess construction undertaken in the boom years and that it may boost domestic consumption by lowering households’ needs for savings.Below are the key features of the policy, one of the three main vectors of China’s response to its property market downturn alongside urban renewal projects and public infrastructure upgrades.WHAT QUALIFIES AS AFFORDABLE HOUSING?There are three main types of affordable housing in China: public rental housing, government-subsidised rental housing and homes with shared ownership.WHO IS ELIGIBLE FOR IT?Public rental housing targets low-income families in urban areas, while government-subsidised rental housing is provided to new urban residents and young people.Homes with shared ownership target people with higher incomes who are still unable to afford a home. Some cities offer such housing through programmes to attract tech talent, teachers and medical staff.Cities have their own income threshold for eligibility. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?Guidelines on rent levels and apartment sizes vary depending on the jurisdiction. For instance, in the southern city of Changsha, home to 10.5 million, public housing rents have to be at least 30% lower than market rates. Most apartments cost 360 to 720 yuan ($50-$100) per month, depending on location, and they are smaller than 60 square metres (646 square feet) in size. In Shanghai’s cosmopolitan Yangpu district, a 50-64 square metre one-bedroom public rental apartment costs 3,899-5,491 yuan per month, around 20% lower than market rates.Government-subsidised rental housing usually comes at up to 90% of the market price in the area for apartments up to 70 square metres in size.A makeshift hospital in Beijing’s Chaoyang district was turned into government-subsidised rental housing last year, with the monthly rent set at 1,200 yuan, government-backed media The Paper reported.Local housing bureau guidelines say homes with shared ownership should cost less than commercial houses of the same quality and type in the surrounding areas. Bruce Pang, chief China economist at Jones Lang LaSalle estimates prices of shared ownership homes are 10%-20% lower than market prices, and home buyers usually own no less than 60% of the apartment, while local governments own 10%-40%.HOW IS IT FUNDED?Cities with more than 3 million people are expected to take the lead in developing affordable housing.Local governments have been providing most of the funding, but as the property crisis has dealt a blow to fiscal revenues, central authorities are stepping in.The finance ministry in November last year frontloaded 42.5 billion yuan ($5.87 billion) in subsidies for 2024 for urban affordable housing projects. The central bank said in January it increased the quota of pledged supplementary lending (PSL) funds by 500 billion yuan for affordable housing, urban renewal and infrastructure.It also launched in May a 300 billion yuan relending facility for affordable housing. Banks can use the funds to lend to state-owned enterprises to buy unsold apartments at “reasonable prices” and convert them into affordable homes.Authorities also hope a nascent real estate investment trusts industry can help raise social capital for affordable housing.WHAT ARE CHINA’S AFFORDABLE HOUSING TARGETS?The housing ministry said in the 14th five-year plan for 2021-2025 that its goal was to provide 8.7 million units of government-subsidised rental housing.By the end of 2023, two thirds of them had been delivered, according to official data.But affordable housing is only expected to grow in prominence in the future. Ratings agency S&P Global estimated that social housing accounted for 8% of primary sales in major cities in 2023 and could reach 20% in 2026.($1 = 7.2466 Chinese yuan) More

The measures, which cover the period from May to November, include tax deductions for companies organising conventions and seminars, he said. Additional measures were designed to increase domestic travel to secondary cities, including allowing income tax deductions for home stay and non-hotel accommodation expenses.Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said the measures would cost the government 1.5 billion baht ($41 million) in revenue, but said the benefits would be greater. ($1 = 36.57 baht) More

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The consumer price index (CPI) in May stood 2.7% higher than a year earlier, slower than a rise of 2.9% in April and a gain of 2.8% tipped in a Reuters survey of economists. It was the slowest annual increase since July. The index rose 0.1% on a monthly basis, according to Statistics Korea, after no change in April and compared with a 0.2% rise expected by economists.By product, prices of agricultural products fell 2.5% over the month, but petroleum products rose 0.3% and personal service prices gained 0.4%.”Inflation is expected to stabilise in the lower to mid-2% range in the second half,” Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok said, vowing to extend tariff cuts on food ingredients and refrain from raising public utility prices to stabilise inflation. The Bank of Korea (BOK) said consumer inflation would likely continue to ease gradually, as projected in May, but it needed to watch whether inflation converges on the central bank’s target of 2%.Last month, the central bank said inflation would likely be on a decelerating trend throughout the year despite stronger economic growth, because domestic demand was seen recovering only modestly.The BOK, which held interest rates steady for an 11th straight meeting in May, is expected to lower its policy rate by 50 basis points to 3.0% in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to a Reuters poll in May.Core CPI, excluding volatile food and energy items, rose 2.2% year-on-year, slowing from a 2.3% rise in the previous month and marking the slowest increase since December 2021. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – The dollar languished at its lowest since April against the euro and sterling on Tuesday as signs of a softening U.S. economy boosted the case for earlier Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.The U.S. currency wallowed near a two-week trough to the yen after data showed a second straight month of slowdown in manufacturing activity and an unexpected decline in construction spending.Following the data, fed funds futures increased the chances of a rate cut in September to around 59.1%, according to LSEG’s rate probability app.That compares with odds of around 55% on Friday, when data showed a stabilisation in consumer price pressures, helping knock the dollar to its first monthly loss of the year in May. Wagers were slightly below 50% earlier last week.A key test comes in the form of monthly U.S. payroll figures on Friday.”The persistent high-interest-rate policy of the Federal Reserve is under scrutiny as it continues to weigh on the U.S. economy,” James Kniveton, senior corporate FX dealer at Convera, wrote in a client note. “Analysts are closely monitoring the upcoming job data for indications of economic strain.” Currently, a first quarter-point rate increase is fully priced by the Fed’s November meeting, with a total of 41 basis points of tightening seen by year-end.November “is poised to be a tumultuous period for the U.S. dollar due to the confluence of a potentially decisive Federal Reserve meeting and the U.S. elections,” Kniveton said.The Fed’s next policy meeting concludes on June 12, when consumer price data is also due. Traders and analysts don’t see any risk of a policy change at that gathering, but officials will update their economic and interest-rate projections.The dollar index, which measures the currency against the euro, sterling, yen and three other major peers, eased 0.05% to 103.99, its lowest level since April 9.The euro added 0.11% to $1.09155, a level last seen on March 21.The European Central Bank has telegraphed that policy makers will cut rates at their meeting on Thursday, but a pick-up in inflation in data last week may give officials pause when considering when next to ease.Sterling rose 0.05% to $1.2814, its strongest since March 14.However, the dollar added 0.14% to 156.255 yen, clawing its way back from the overnight low of 155.95, its first time below 156 since May 21.The Bank of England and Bank of Japan also hold potentially pivotal policy meetings later this month.Elsewhere, the New Zealand dollar rose to $0.6194 for the first time since March 8. The Aussie traded flat at $0.66895, holding close to the two-week high of $0.6695 from overnight. More

The transaction was a purchase, made on 05/21/2024, with an estimated value between $15,001 and $50,000. The Treasury Bill was held in a Treasury Direct account, a U.S.-based investment vehicle.It’s important to note that the Treasury Bill is a short-term debt obligation backed by the U.S. government with a maturity of less than one year, commonly issued to finance the national debt.As a member of Congress, Yakym III is required to disclose all transactions as per the STOCK Act, which aims to prevent insider trading by government officials. The trade was officially reported on the same day it occurred, 05/21/2024.In light of the congressional trade report involving Rudy Yakym III’s transaction of a Treasury Bill with the ticker symbol (GS), it is pertinent to consider the current financial standing and market performance of Goldman Sachs, the institution behind the ticker. According to recent data from InvestingPro, Goldman Sachs boasts a robust market capitalization of $154.55 billion, reflecting its significant presence in the financial industry. The company’s Price/Earnings (P/E) ratio stands at 17.66, with an adjusted P/E ratio for the last twelve months as of Q1 2024 at 15.5, indicating how investors are valuing its earnings.An important InvestingPro Tip to note is that Goldman Sachs has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years, signaling a commitment to returning value to shareholders. Moreover, the company has maintained dividend payments for an impressive 26 consecutive years. This consistency is a testament to the firm’s financial stability and its ability to generate and distribute profits over an extended period. Additionally, the dividend yield as of the latest data point is 2.42%, which is an attractive feature for income-focused investors.The company’s performance metrics further reveal a 3-month price total return of 17.94%, and a 6-month price total return of 32.3%, highlighting a strong upward trajectory in its stock price. This is complemented by the fact that the company’s shares are currently trading near their 52-week high, at 96.5% of the peak value. Such a price performance may capture the attention of growth-oriented investors looking to capitalize on the firm’s momentum.For readers interested in a deeper dive into Goldman Sachs’ financial outlook, there are additional InvestingPro Tips available, which can be accessed at https://www.investing.com/pro/GS. Subscribers can use the coupon code PRONEWS24 to receive an additional 10% off a yearly or biyearly Pro and Pro+ subscription, unlocking a wealth of expert analysis and tips to inform their investment decisions.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Most people by now are familiar with the idea of “de-risking” or “decoupling” as the US and EU try to diversify from China in strategic industries. Less well known is a more subtle form of decoupling that is afflicting corporate China, particularly international businesses in the country — a lack of expatriates. Foreign companies in China are reporting that the number of expatriates who want to live and work in the world’s second-largest economy is still low compared with before the pandemic and there are few signs that it will fully recover soon.Why should international companies care? After all, “localisation” — appointing local staff in the place of expatriates — is advancing in China as geopolitics makes the environment more complicated and more businesses shift parts of their supply chains to other countries. Localisation also suits those multinationals that are selling into the Chinese domestic market and need to better tailor their products for local customers — the so-called “in-China-for-China” strategy. But having too few international employees can also have unintended consequences for foreign companies in China. Without employees going back and forth from headquarters, opportunities can be missed in communications gaps. Exhibit one of the latter is how many foreign automakers were caught out by the sudden rise of China’s electric-vehicle manufacturers during the pandemic.For multinationals, ensuring a constant to and fro of employees between headquarters and their operations in different countries is important for instilling a global corporate culture too.“In an environment where you don’t have this very regular exchange of personnel for long-term assignments between headquarters and China — going in both directions — then it’s really hard to preserve the corporate culture,” says Sean Stein, chair of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. “And once the corporate culture starts to weaken, gaps between HQ and China start to expand.”Executives also say that by increasing the number of people in corporate headquarters with meaningful China experience, companies can reduce “friction” in communications with their operations there. Precise data on expatriates in China is scarce. Chinese authorities have said the country issued permits for 711,000 foreign residents last year compared with 846,000 in 2020 — the most recent prior comparison available. The European Chamber of Commerce in China’s business confidence survey published in 2023 found that 16 per cent of respondents did not employ any foreign nationals at the time and that expatriates accounted for 10 per cent or fewer of staff for 78 per cent of them. This was slightly more severe than the survey published the previous year.Both surveys, however, reflected the worst effects of the pandemic. Executives report that things have picked up since then but there is no sign of a return to pre-Covid levels or even the heyday era before the pick-up in US-China trade tensions from 2018.Whereas high-flying executives would once have gladly done a stint in China, today the posting looks more troublesome. Apart from geopolitical concerns, there is the extreme corporate competition in the country. In its recent business climate survey, Amcham China found that one-third of respondents reported that their profit margins based on earnings before interest and tax in China were below their global average while only 19 per cent were above the global average.  Fixing the expat gap will be complex. Companies’ global headquarters will need to offer extra incentives both to high-performers outside China to do a stint in the country and to local staff in China to accept assignments outside.This is important partly because of the need to grasp promising opportunities but also compliance. In China, as anywhere, things can go badly off course when a global company loses close oversight of its subsidiaries. Expatriates will not by themselves solve this but they are one channel for instilling global compliance standards. After all, China’s corporate history is littered with foreign businesses caught up in disputes with their local partners, or embroiled in localised corruption cases. That is the kind of decoupling no company wants. [email protected] More

The layoffs will impact teams including Azure for Operators and Mission Engineering, according to the report. The Azure for Operators layoffs involve as many as 1,500 job cuts, it added, citing people familiar with the situation.”Organizational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business. We will continue to prioritize and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners,” a Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) spokesperson told Reuters.The cuts come after the company shed 1,900 jobs at Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) and Xbox in January this year. Tech firms including Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) also laid off several hundred employees in 2024.Microsoft’s Azure cloud is witnessing sharp growth due to the company’s heavy investment in AI and its access to the coveted technologies of ChatGPT maker OpenAI through their strategic partnership.Azure for Operations and Mission Engineering are a part of an organization called Strategic Missions and Technologies formed in 2021 tasked with quantum computing and space, the Business Insider reported.Separately, Microsoft has started restructuring its mixed reality organization but will continue to sell its augmented reality headset, the HoloLens 2, a spokesperson for the company told Reuters on Monday.Business Insider reported in 2022 that the company scrapped plans for HoloLens 3. More