newsmart – Business

koreatimes.co.kr | 1 hrs. 20 min. ago

Foreign currency deposits rise to fresh record high in September

Foreign currency deposits in Korea rose to a fresh record high in September, driven by a sharp increase in dollar savings, central bank data showed Wednesday. Outstanding foreign currency-denominated deposits held by residents stood at $154.7 billion at the end of September, up $14 billion from a month earlier, according to findings by the Bank of Korea (BOK).

It marked the highest level since the BOK began compiling the data in June 2012. The reading has increased every month since April. Residents include Korean citizens, foreigners who have lived in the country for more than six months and foreign companies. The data excludes interbank deposits.

By currency, U.S. dollar-denominated reserves increased by $12.99 billion to $132.9 billion, marking the highest balance since June 2012. Euro-denominated savings also gained $0.37 billion to $9.53 billion, and Japanese yen deposits increased $0.55 billion to $9.49 billion. Corporate foreign currency deposits rose $13.1 billion to $136.6 billion, while individual holdings increased $0.98 billion to $18.11 billion.

The BOK said the sharp rise in fo

smh.com.au | 3 hrs. 40 min. ago

Inflation jumps to 4.3 per cent, fuelling prospect of Cup Day rate rise

The highest monthly jump since March puts intense pressure on the Reserve Bank to deliver another interest rate increase when it meets next Tuesday.

newsbeep.com | 5 hrs. 52 min. ago

Why the Reserve Bank is about to do something relatively rare

The Reserve Bank is probably about to do something that it doesn’t often – hike interest rates during…

rferl.org | 17 hrs. 49 min. ago

Amid Legal Uncertainty, US Lawmakers Warn Banks, Ports Over Russian Diesel Imports

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers have warned American banks, port authorities and fuel-industry groups against facilitating imports of Russian diesel, raising the prospect of congressional investigations and legal action over President Donald Trump’s decision to ease restrictions on Russian fuel.

theguardian.com | 18 hrs. 24 min. ago

Why won't MPs tax the rich? We asked them – and their answers gave us hope

Faiza Shaheen | Even most Reform voters are in favour of a tax on the super-wealthy. Yet the first budget of the Burnham era looks set to dodge the issueIn John Healey’s first budget this week, we will finally get a sense of the economic policies that will deliver Andy Burnham’s pledge to end neoliberalism.

Or will we? Capital gains tax equalised with income tax? Ruled out. A genuine wealth tax on those sitting on over £10m? Off the table. Even the briefed increase in the banking surcharge only takes us back to where it was until the Conservatives cut it in 2023. We can cross our fingers for trailed policies on supporting high streets, financial devolution and longer-term investment, but there is still more than a whiff of trickle-down economics in the air.Poll after poll shows that the British public overwhelmingly supports wealth taxes on the super-rich – including three in five Reform-leaning voters.

We know that wealth inequality – with the richest 50 families in the UK possessing more wealth than half of the UK population – is weakening our economy, eroding our social fabric and undermining our democracy. Just last year, Burnham, then mayor of Greater Manchester, explicitly acknowledged that we have “overtaxed labour and undertaxed wealth”.

So what on earth is going on?Faiza Shaheen is executive director of Tax Justice UK Continue reading...

livemint.com | 18 hrs. 26 min. ago

₹21 share jumps to ₹488 in 16 months, but ITAT rejects woman's ₹88 lakh capital gains claim. Here's why

A woman's ₹4.41 lakh share investment generated ₹92 lakh in sale proceeds, but the Mumbai ITAT rejected her capital gains exemption claim and upheld additions of nearly ₹95 lakh. Here's why bank statements and demat records failed to establish her case.

ft.com | 18 hrs. 26 min. ago

Analysts’ views: forecasters have grown more hawkish in October

Consensus for 2027 shifted higher for the Bank of England and Bank of Japan; it has also grown at the margins for the Federal Reserve and ECB

koreatimes.co.kr | 19 hrs. 42 min. ago

Chip boom fails to lift spending as private consumption falls

Korea's economy is growing on the back of a semiconductor export boom, but consumers aren't feeling the benefits. Private consumption fell 0.2 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter, marking its first decline since the second quarter of 2023, according to preliminary data on third quarter economic growth from the Bank of Korea (BOK), Tuesday.

Private spending growth had already slowed from 0.6 percent in the first quarter to 0.4 percent in the second before turning negative in the third. Spending declined for both goods, including cars and home appliances, and services, such as financial and dining services. The decline came even as the economy expanded 1 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter, exceeding the central bank's forecast of 0.3 percent.

Weak private spending stood in contrast to stronger headline growth driven by robust semiconductor exports. While the export boom has lifted overall economic growth, its benefits have yet to result in a stronger recovery in domestic consumption. The BOK attributed the decline in private consumption partly to a drop

livemint.com | 19 hrs. 56 min. ago

Banks raise home loan rates after RBI repo rate hike: Want to move back to lower-interest loan? Know this hidden cost

Following the RBI repo rate hike and banks’ lending rate revisions, home loan borrowers may look to secure lower interest rates with their existing lender. However, switching to a cheaper loan may come with hidden charges. Here’s what borrowers should consider before making a move.

theguardian.com | 20 hrs. 30 min. ago

HSBC profits surge 32%, sparking fresh calls for bank taxes in the budget – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsUK shop price inflation ‘highest since 2024’ as retailers struggle to limit price risesThe City is not impressed with HSBC’s financial results, having expected even higher profits.Shares in HSBC are down 6.7% in early trading, and appears to be pulling the rest of the banking sector down too.“You don’t usually get fireworks from HSBC results, and these are no exception.

There are signs of some improvement overall, and a boost to the buyback is welcome, but it’s clear why the market wasn’t really inspired by these numbers.HSBC seems to be doing ok, but ok doesn’t really cut it in a world where inflation is back on the menu and growth may start to slow.

At least it’s not exactly rolling in profits this time around, providing some useful air cover ahead of a UK budget that will may include another raid on banks.” Continue reading...

koreatimes.co.kr | 22 hrs. 36 min. ago

Consumer sentiment drops in Oct. on stock market correction, Mideast tensions

Consumer sentiment fell in October due mainly to a stock market correction and prolonged Middle East tensions, the central bank said Tuesday. The composite consumer sentiment index (CCSI) stood at 105.4 this month, down 1.2 points from September, according to a survey by the Bank of Korea (BOK).

A reading above 100 indicates that optimists outnumber pessimists, while a figure below 100 suggests the opposite. "Pessimistic outlooks increased as the stock market correction and extended military tensions in the Middle East weighed heavily on consumer sentiment," the BOK said. The subindex for people's assessment of current economic conditions came in at 82 in October, down 1 point from a month earlier.

The index for people's outlook for future economic conditions also fell 2 points to 88 over the same period. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) dropped 15.7 percent in the first three weeks of October on renewed concerns about the future of large-scale artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure investment.

The BOK survey was conducted among 2,500 households from Oct. 13-20.

ft.com | 23 hrs. 5 min. ago

Bank of Japan to remain on quarterly tightening path

Read the BoJ’s October forecast from the FT’s Monetary Policy Radar team

koreatimes.co.kr | 1 days ago

GNI per capita 'almost certain' to reach $40,000 in 2026: finance ministry

Korea is "almost certain" to reach a gross national income (GNI) per capita of $40,000 this year, the finance ministry said Tuesday, as Asia's No. 4 economy grew 1 percent in the third quarter from the previous three-month period, driven by strong exports and investment.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy made the assessment following the release of advance third-quarter data from the Bank of Korea (BOK), which would mark a new milestone after the country's per capita GNI, a gauge of the population's purchasing power, first surpassed the $30,000 mark in 2014. "Korea maintained solid growth despite a high base effect from the first half, raising the possibility of growth in the mid-3 percent range this year," the finance ministry said.

Finance Minister Lee Hyoung-il said this month Korea's economic growth for 2026 could range from 3.4 percent to 3.6 percent. "The GNI per capita is almost certain to hit $40,000 for the first time ever," it added. The International Monetary Fund also recently projected Korea's per capita GNI would reach the $40,000 level in 2026 and $50,000 in 2028. The fina

koreatimes.co.kr | 1 days ago

Korea's economy grows 1% in Q3 on chip exports, beating forecasts

Korea's economy expanded 1 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter, extending its stronger-than-expected recovery on the back of booming semiconductor exports, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said Tuesday. Preliminary data from the central bank showed that real gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1 percent in the July-September period, exceeding the BOK's own projection of 0.3 percent for the quarter.

Facilities investment rose 4.1 percent, mainly on increased investment in machinery, including semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Investment in intellectual property products grew 2.3 percent as spending on research and development and software increased. Exports grew 2.3 percent, driven mainly by semiconductors and machinery and electrical equipment.

Imports rose 2.4 percent, led by increases in crude oil and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The stronger-than-expected growth puts the economy on a firmer footing to meet the BOK's growth forecast of 3.3 percent for this year, released in August. The country's quarterly growth rebounded sharply from a 0.1 percent contraction in

cnbc.com | 1 days ago

Bank of Japan is expected to hold rates this week — but stay hawkish: CNBC survey

All survey respondents said they expect the BOJ to set the stage for a rate hike in December or January, as inflation and wages continue to rise.

axios.com | 1 days ago

Economic policy vets see risks in AI overreliance

Harvard economist Jason Furman told Axios that if he were to return to his old job as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers today, he would rely on AI tools over staff economists for much of the council's day-to-day analytical work.The big picture: Unsurprisingly, this made some waves in the online discourse, particularly the loose-knit community formerly known as Econ Twitter.Many veterans of the economic policy trenches see real risks in future policymakers becoming overly reliant on AI — or at a minimum think that Furman is underestimating the importance of human economists in advising the nation's leaders.What they're saying: "CEA work, at least in my experience, is highly bespoke as you're explaining the data flow (and much else) to very busy people who don't want only market-shop analysis," Jared Bernstein, the CEA chair under President Biden, wrote on Substack."Yes, they want and need that — what will the markets make of this CPI, jobs, GDP, etc. report — but more so they want to know how this report fits into our narrative, our agenda, the president's trip today to Iowa."He adds that within a White House, "the human skill of reading-the-room is paramount.

I'm far from an AI expert, but my sense is it sucks at that and probably always will, a conclusion that derives in no small part from listening to its creators!"Zoom in: Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve economist, raised an issue that we've often heard from senior people in fields like consulting and investment banking: If you get rid of junior positions, where will future senior leaders come from?Furman's staff "went on to found the Yale Budget Lab, run Treasury economic policy and a Fed institute, serve in later [administrations], and publish research on trade, environment, and taxes.

That's what '20 staff' become," she wrote on X. "No model does that."Bloomberg chief U.S. economist Anna Wong argues that the "ability to now not depend on anyone, as a senior person, is very, very empowering. Now, with just the idea, a senior person can go far."Zoom out: "Entering into sci fi speculation," Wong wrote on X, "as humans [we're] not about to replace the aging experts due to low pipeline of young human experts, AI themselves, through the training over the years, became the one spawning the ideas.""That seems like a disaster waiting to happen that current social policy needs to address."Yes, but: Casey Mulligan, who served in President Trump's first-term CEA and now as chief economist at the Department of Health and Human Services, said that the implications of AI for human labor in policymaking are not so obvious."I built AI tools at two federal offices," Mulligan wrote on X. "Able to do economic research better and more quickly, we needed more economists rather than fewer due to the added demand for what we do.

This pattern is also evident in the small business sector."This concept — that labor-saving tools can actually increase demand for labor — is known as Jevons Paradox.The bottom line: "Be the labor-augmenting technological change you want to see in the world," wrote Stanford economist Neale Mahoney."It's on us olders to build organizations where people and AI complement each other, and to prepare the youngers for a world with better and better AI," he adds.

axios.com | 1 days ago

Exclusive: Democrats lay groundwork to probe Trump's diesel deal

Top Democrats poised for powerful roles next year are demanding that major banks and ports preserve any records they have tied to potential imports or other deals involving Russian diesel.Why it matters: Probing President Trump's agreement with Moscow will be a priority if Democrats regain control of either or both chambers of Congress.The new demand shows that inquiries will extend beyond the White House and into C-suites.

Driving the news: "[A]ny importation of Russian diesel into the U.S. raises significant legal questions and may be subject to legal action, as well as congressional investigations," a new letter obtained by Axios states.It's signed by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).They're in line to lead the powerful Foreign Relations, Banking, Finance and Judiciary Committees, respectively, if Democrats regain the Senate.

Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.), who's in line for the Foreign Affairs Committee gavel if House control changes, also signed. It's led by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the top Foreign Relations Democrat who is not seeking reelection. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is also retiring, signed as well.State of play: The Wall Street recipients of Saturday's letter are J.P.

Morgan, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.The same letter went to port authorities for the ports of Houston, Beaumont, and Corpus Christi, Texas, and New York/New Jersey.Catch up quick: Earlier this month Trump claimed an agreement to bring escalating Russian exports to global and U.S. markets, and the Treasury Department waived sanctions to help enable it.Friction point: The lawmakers and other critics say it runs afoul of a bipartisan 2022 law barring imports of Russian oil, gas, and petroleum products."The potential arrangement to import Russian diesel also raises significant national security concerns, given that it would finance Russia's brutal and illegal war against Ukraine," the letter states.

Yes, but: The Treasury Department has repeatedly claimed the agreement is legal.The big picture: The new letter urges the banks and ports not to enable "purchase, transportation, importation, unloading, storage, financing, or distribution" of Russian diesel in the U.S.It also goes further, urging the parties not to facilitate any transactions for Russian diesel to other markets under the recent sanctions waiver.

Zoom in: Citing "anticipation of further congressional oversight," it calls on recipients to preserve a wide range of potential records and communications related to "proposed or actual" transactions.Think contracts, shipping documents, vessel records and plenty more. The demand extends to any communications with suppliers, intermediaries and U.S. government officials.

The lawmakers want confirmation by Wednesday that records are being preserved, plus details of any potential or actual Russian diesel transition.What we're watching: It's unclear how much Russian diesel, if any, will reach U.S. shores.Reports Friday in S&P Global, Reuters and elsewhere identify a tanker that initially signaled a New York destination, while the shipping intelligence firm TankerTrackers on Friday said three tankers had signaled U.S. destinations.But ships' planned destinations frequently change for one reason or another.Sign up here for Axios' Future of Energy newsletter.

timesofisrael.com | 1 days ago

Netanyahu’s crypto bet signals a dangerous readiness to accept economic isolation

Instead of working to avert bank sanctions, PM proposes a bypass that risks rattling investors, sparking capital flight, and imperiling the high-tech sector the economy relies on

koreatimes.co.kr | 1 days ago

Currency rally fuels hope for exchange rate below 1,300 won per dollar

The Korean won has strengthened sharply against the U.S. dollar in recent months, raising expectations that the won-dollar exchange rate could fall below 1,300 won per dollar and enter the 1,200 won range, market watchers said Monday. On Seoul's foreign exchange market, the exchange rate closed at 1,323.1 won per dollar, down 1.5 won from the previous session.

The exchange rate has fallen by more than 200 won from its monthly average of 1,528 won in June, as strong semiconductor exports have helped offset dollar demand from foreign investors selling Korean stocks. The won's recovery is also reflected in its nominal effective exchange rate (NEER), which measures the currency's value against those of its major trading partners without adjusting for inflation.

According to the Bank for International Settlements, the won's NEER index rose to 94.83 as of last Tuesday, up from 91.99 at the end of September. This marks the highest level since Oct. 9, 2024, when the index was 94.91. The NEER, which uses 2020 as its base year with a value of 100, fell to 81.99 in June.

At the time, the won-dollar

newsbeep.com | 1 days ago

RBA warns retirement wave will test Australian pension funds

(Oct 26): Australia’s central bank has warned the nation’s A$4.8 trillion (US$3.4 trillion or RM13.8 trillion) pension industry…