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Singapore / Bloomberg Singapore said it will adopt an expansionary fiscal budget to boost growth, reducing pressure on the central bank to provide more support for the economy weeks before its next policy decision. Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat, presenting his first budget to Parliament, pledged support for companies that are facing labour constraints and a faltering global outlook, promised ...

Taipei / Bloomberg Taiwan cut its benchmark rate for a third consecutive quarter as an export slump showed no signs of recovering and has begun weighing on the labor market. The central bank lowered the benchmark discount rate by another 12.5 basis points to 1.5 percent, it said in a statement Thursday in Taipei. Twenty-five of 26 economists surveyed by ...

TOKYO / Reuters Some Japanese firms, facing the possibility of negative interest rates on their deposits, would consider stuffing their cash in a safe rather than pay to keep it in the bank, a Reuters poll found, in what would be an unintended and unwelcome side-effect to the country’s new monetary policy. While the bulk of companies in the Reuters ...

Kathmandu / AFP Nepal has secured a deal for China to supply it with fuel, as the energy-starved Himalayan nation seeks to deepen ties with Beijing and reduce its reliance on India. The agreement was signed during a visit by Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli to Beijing, following months of frosty relations with New Delhi, traditionally the sole supplier ...

Bandar Seri Begawan / DPA The Bruneian government will continue to ensure job security of locals in the oil and gas sector amid the gloomy global economic situation, said Minister of Energy and Industry at the Prime Minister’s Office Col. (Rtd) Mohammad Yasmin Umar. In his closing remarks at the 12th Legislative Council (LegCo) session yesterday (March 23), Mohammad Yasmin ...

Hanoi / AFP Vietnam’s inflation rate rose sharply in the first quarter of 2016 according to official figures released Thursday, a turnaround for the communist country which saw inflation dwindle to zero last year. Year-on-year consumer price inflation was 1.25 percent in the first quarter, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said in a statement posted on its website, a sharp ...

New Delhi / Bloomberg India is proposing stringent new rules to crack down on waste from discarded electronics that will require those who make and sell the units to be responsible for collecting old devices that otherwise would end up in landfills. The rules are aimed at preventing toxic chemicals included in electronics from leaching into the environment. For the ...

DUBAI / WAM Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was briefed on the engineering designs and the general plan of the One Central mixed use project, which is being implemented by the Dubai World Trade Centre Authority (DTCA) in the Central Business District in Dubai at a ...

ABU DHABI / WAM HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, and Chairman of Dubai Aviation City Corporation, on Wednesday signed a contract agreement with Al Jaber LEGT Engineering and Contracting LLC(ALEC), paving the way for the Passenger Terminal Building expansion at Al Maktoum International ...

ABU DHABI / WAM The UAE’s non-oil trade with Australia stood at US$2 billion in the first nine months of 2015, making Australia one of its major strategic trading partners, Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, said during a meeting with Australian Ambassador to the UAE, Arthur Spyrou, on Wednesday. He said there were 48 Australian companies, 60 ...