June, 2021

• 24 June

  Asia’s gasoline demand recovery remains patchy

  

  Bloomberg The recovery in gasoline demand across Asia from virus-driven slumps remains patchy, offering a complex picture as improvements in nations such as India are partially offset by deteriorations elsewhere. While consumption has shown signs of picking up in the region’s third-largest economy, as well as in Thailand, it’s offset by slowing demand in Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia, Apple Mobility ...

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• 24 June

  Singapore’s millionaires count expected to surge 62% by 2025

  Bloomberg Singapore’s count of millionaires could increase by more than 60% over the five years from 2020 to 2025, according to Credit Suisse Group AG, part of a surge in millionaires expected in Asia as financial capitals emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. The city-state may have 437,000 millionaires by 2025 compared with 270,000 in 2020, according to the bank’s 2021 ...

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• 24 June

  HK’s Lalamove files confidentially for $1b US IPO

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s on-demand logistics and delivery firm Lalamove has filed confidentially for a US initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The company, also known as Huolala in China, is looking to raise at least $1 billion in the share sale, the people said. Details of the offering including the fundraising amount are still subject ...

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• 24 June

  Britain denies Russia’s claim warning shots fired at warship

  

  Bloomberg Russia said it used bombs and gunfire in “warning shots” to force a British Navy destroyer to leave waters it claims in the Black Sea, but the UK rejected that, saying it was likely a “gunnery exercise” that didn’t affect the ship’s planned voyage. The episode, which the Russian Defense Ministry said took place off Cape Fiolent, south of ...

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• 24 June

  Xi’s China is ‘dogged by insecurity,’ says Australian diplomat

  

  Bloomberg China has profoundly changed how it deals with the outside world under President Xi Jinping, a top Australian diplomat says, describing the Asian nation as “dogged by insecurity.” “The clock has been wound back in terms of the priority accorded to ideology, quashing voices of civil society, and erecting new barriers to external connections and the free flow of ...

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• 24 June

  Trudeau rips into China after tit-for-tat diplomacy at UN

  

  Bloomberg Justin Trudeau had harsh words for China after Beijing called for a United Nations probe into crimes against Indigenous children in Canada. The prime minister slammed the “systemic abuse and human rights violations” against Uyghur Muslims, as well as the situations in Hong Kong and Tibet. Chinese diplomats raised Canada’s treatment of its First Nations in an apparent response ...

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• 24 June

  Merkel isn’t about to back Green leader as next woman chancellor

  

  Bloomberg During one of Angela Merkel’s final appearances in German parliament on Wednesday, an opposition lawmaker tried to lure the chancellor into a trap. But as happened so often during her 16-year reign, she managed to sidestep it. “Ever since you became chancellor, young girls can imagine themselves as chancellor one day,” Ulle Schauws, of the Green party, told Merkel ...

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• 24 June

  Swedish PM gets chance to keep government afloat

  

  Bloomberg Swedish PM Stefan Lofven moved closer to resolving a political crisis that threatened to bring down his fragile ruling coalition in the biggest Nordic economy. After losing a confidence vote in parliament this week over easing rent controls, the 63-year-old Social Democrat leader has until midnight on Monday to forge a new deal that can save his government, or ...

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• 23 June

  Trump’s tariffs led to billions of losses, Fed research shows

  

  Bloomberg Starting in early 2020, a very unlikely anomaly started appearing in global trade data: China said it was selling more goods to the US than the US reported buying from China. That was a reversal of the normal pattern and a product of the two nations’ trade war — but not an intended consequence. Instead, it was likely due ...

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• 23 June

  Italy’s Draghi says faster growth will reduce debt burden

  

  Bloomberg Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi said that faster than expected growth will be key to cutting Italy’s debt burden, which has swelled during the pandemic as the government stepped in to support businesses. “Economic confidence is coming back,” Draghi said addressing lawmakers ahead of the June 24 and 25 European Union summit. “Data is pointing to a stronger than ...

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