Aurelia Butler

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s cabinet is expected to approve the plan as early as Jan. 16, the report said.The cabinet earlier on Tuesday approved 4.74 billion yen in spending from fiscal 2023/24 reserves for such aid as water, food, diapers and heaters, Minister of Finance Shunichi Suzuki said.The magnitude 7.6 earthquake that hit the Noto peninsula on Japan’s west coast on New Year’s Day killed more than 200 people, making it the deadliest since the 2016 quake in Kumamoto on the southern island of Kyushu.($1 = 144.4200 yen) More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senate Republicans said on Tuesday that a short-term funding measure will be needed to avert a partial federal government shutdown beginning in 10 days – a notion Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson could have trouble swallowing.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that lawmakers will “obviously” need a short-term continuing resolution, or “CR,” to allow bipartisan negotiators from both chambers time to agree on full-year 2024 spending bills and for Congress to enact the legislation. “We’re going to have to pass a CR,” McConnell said. “We need to prevent a government shutdown.”A short-term CR could put top House of Representatives Republican Johnson in a precarious position, after he pledged last year to oppose further short-term CRs, absent real progress on full-year funding and substantial policy reforms. His office was not immediately available for comment on Tuesday.Schumer and Johnson on Sunday agreed to $1.59 trillion in discretionary spending for fiscal 2024, which began on Oct. 1.Earlier on Tuesday, Senator John Thune, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, told reporters that lawmakers would most likely need a CR that lasts until sometime in March.Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer declined to answer a reporter’s question about the potential for a CR. House and Senate appropriations committees have been unable to agree on the 12 annual bills needed to fund the government for fiscal 2024, because of disagreements over the total amount of money to be spent. Under the current arrangement, funding will expire on Jan. 19 for federal programs involving transportation, housing, agriculture, energy, veterans and military construction. Funding for other parts of the government, including defense, will continue through Feb. 2. The Schumer-Johnson deal is opposed by hardline Republicans in both the House and Senate, who wanted less spending and are pushing for policy changes, including restrictions on the U.S.-Mexico border.McConnell attributed any opposition to a short-term CR in the House to a misunderstanding of the time-consuming parliamentary procedures the Senate must follow. “The simplest things take a week in the Senate. So, I think frequently the House doesn’t understand how long it takes to get something through the Senate,” the Kentucky Republican said. More

(Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets.Australian inflation tops the Asian-Pacific economic calendar on Wednesday with the latest Chinese lending figures potentially due for release too, as investors also grapple with mixed news from the Asian tech sector. Wall Street’s lackluster performance on Tuesday is unlikely to provide much impetus – the Nasdaq closed flat while the Dow and S&P 500 slipped into the red – so perhaps the key regional indicators will give markets some early direction.Australia’s weighted annual consumer price inflation rate is expected to have fallen sharply in November to 4.4% from 4.9%. This would be the lowest in almost two years, and would follow an even steeper fall the month before to 4.9% from 5.6%.Aussie swaps markets are indicating around 50 basis points of rate cuts from the central bank this year, with the first quarter-point cut coming by August. A weaker-than-expected CPI report could well increase these policy easing expectations.New bank loans in China, meanwhile, likely rose in December, bringing 2023 lending to a new record high as the central bank keeps policy accommodative to support a shaky economic recovery.Figures this week are expected to show that Chinese banks issued 1.40 trillion yuan in net new yuan loans last month, up from 1.09 trillion yuan in November. If these numbers are borne out, total new lending in 2023 would hit 22.98 trillion yuan, beating the previous record of 21.31 trillion yuan in 2022.But China’s economy and markets are still underperforming and struggling to convince foreign investors that 2024 will witness a meaningful recovery. Rising tensions with Taiwan, which goes to the polls on Saturday, won’t help either. Taiwan on Tuesday reported a stronger-than-expected rise in exports in December thanks to a near 50% surge in sales to the United States. But China remained a weak spot – Taiwan’s exports to China fell 6.4%.Later on Wednesday Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest chipmaker, unveils its latest monthly sales figures. Asian tech has got off to a particularly rocky start this year, with the MSCI Asia IT index down 4.5% since the turn of the year and the Asia ex-Japan equivalent down 5%. That compares to the Nasdaq’s 1% year-to-date slip. Sentiment will have been dented further by Samsung (KS:005930), which reported a likely 35% drop in fourth-quarter operating profit on Tuesday, much worse than analysts expected.If there has been little New Year cheer across major U.S. and global stock markets, it has been in even shorter supply in Asia. The MSCI Asia & Pacific ex-Japan share is down 3.5% so far this year, compared with a decline of around 1% for the MSCI World index and S&P 500.Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Wednesday:- South Korea unemployment (December)- Australia CPI inflation (November)- China lending (December) (By Jamie McGeever) More

In its latest semiannual Global Economic Prospects report, the World Bank highlighted several factors contributing to the subdued economic outlook. Advanced economies are expected to see growth of merely around 1.2%, while emerging markets and developing nations are predicted to experience growth rates below 4%. This is a marked shift from past trends where emerging economies often exhibited more robust growth figures.One of the key focal points of the report is China, which is projected to encounter a considerable slowdown in its economic expansion compared to last year’s performance. The World Bank pointed to several challenges facing the Asian giant, including a decline in consumer spending, structural issues such as an ageing population and high levels of debt.The broader implications of these projections are significant, with the World Bank suggesting that the global economy could be entering a “decade of missed opportunities.” This period may be characterized by the weakest growth since the 1990s for most countries, due in part to the persistent recovery efforts from the pandemic and increased frequency and intensity of natural disasters driven by climate change.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More