Broad money (M3) expanded at a higher rate of 15.9% yoy in Feb (14.7% in Jan). Net financing to the private sector grew at a sustained pace of 13% yoy in Feb (13.5% in Jan) while total loan outstanding increased 11.9% yoy (12.1% in Jan). (Bank Negara Malaysia)
The job market outlook in Malaysia in 1Q12 has improved compared with the preceding quarter, with companies continuing to hire talents despite global economic uncertainties, said JobStreet.com Country Manager Chook Yuh Yng. According to its latest Job Outlook Index for 1Q12, she said 43% has forecasted job outlook to be slightly better while 29% said it would remain the same as 1Q11. She said eventhough the survey on national economy showed 31% of employees expected the economy to slow down, job advertisement numbers on JobStreet.com is still quite high. There are about 27,000 jobs available for Malaysians on JobStreet.com with 30,000 active hiring companies, she added. On hiring activities, Chook said 44% of the respondents would be hiring fewer people and replacing or filling essential positions only in the next 12 months. Another 25% will be maintaining the hiring rate while 23% said their companies will be expanding their businesses, hence hiring more people, she added. Currently, the highest hiring sectors are manufacturing, information communication and technology, construction/property, banking and financial services and wholesale and retail. (Bernama)
Based on Bursa Malaysia data compiled by Business Times (BT), it was revealed that foreigners were consistent net buyers since 17 Feb – during which foreign fund managers bought over RM13.72bn and sold RM9.34bn worth of stocks, which represented a net buying of about RM4.3bn. Last month, foreign fund managers were net buyers of more than RM3.4bn worth of stocks, making them the net buyers for the sixth consecutive month. (BT)
Singapore’s credit card bad debts rose to S$16.5m in Feb (S$16.1m in Jan), while credit card billings eased to S$2.9bn in Feb (S$3.0bn in Jan). Bank lending moderated to 27.6% yoy in Feb (28.4% in Jan), while M2 money supply growth declined to 9.5% yoy in Feb (9.9% in Jan). (Bloomberg)
Indonesia: Delays fuel price increase
Indonesia’s parliament has given the government conditional authority to raise fuel prices, after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democrat Party dropped its push for an increase in 1 Apr. Lawmakers voted 356 to 82 in favor of a proposal by the Democrats to allow an increase if the Indonesia Crude Price, or ICP, exceeds the budget assumption of USD105 a barrel by 15% over a six-month period, Speaker of the House Marzuki Alie said. Two opposition parties walked out on the proceedings. The deliberations took place as about 12,000 demonstrators clashed with police in front of the parliament building 30 March, and a police-estimated 81,000 rallied across the country in the biggest public protests since the government raised fuel prices in 2008. Soaring food and fuel costs in the world’s fourth-most- populous nation contributed to riots that led to the ousting in 1998 of the dictator Suharto, then Asia’s longest-reigning ruler. (Bloomberg)
China: Manufacturing gain masks exporters’ woes
A stronger reading for a Chinese manufacturing gauge failed to end predictions for policy loosening as analysts described the gain as seasonal and a separate survey showed exporters struggling. A Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to a one-year high of 53.1 in March, China’s logistics federation and the National Bureau of Statistics said. The gauge has a pattern of rising each March. Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to “fine-tune” economic policies as needed as weakness in export demand and a cooling housing market restrain an economy that probably grew at the slowest pace in almost three years in the first quarter. (Bloomberg)
China’s official purchasing managers index (PMI) rose to 53.1 from 51 in Feb, helped by an increase in new orders. (Bloomberg)
China’s MNI March Business Condition Survey fell to 54.81 from 58.87 previously, worse than economists‟ median forecast of a decline to 56.67. (Bloomberg)
Japan’s industrial production fell 1.2% mom in Feb (a revised +1.9% in Jan), confounding expectations for a 1.3% rise on the back of falling output of automobiles and semiconductor production equipment. (AFP)
Japan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 4.5% in Feb (4.6% in Jan), the first improvement in five months and less than the consensus expectation of 4.6%, with the number of people employed rising 290,000 or 0.5% mom to 62.88m. The job-to-applicant ratio rose to 0.75 (0.73 in Jan), higher than consensus expectations of 0.74. (Bloomberg, The Mainichi Daily News)
Japan’s inflation stood at 0.3% yoy in Feb (0.1% in Jan), exceeding economists‟ expectations of no change, whilst core consumer prices rose 0.1% yoy in Feb (-0.1% in Jan), the first gain in five months and is the exact opposite of economists‟ expectations of a 0.1% decline. (Bloomberg)
Japan’s vehicle production expanded 19.7% yoy in Feb, topping the 18.6% gain recorded in Jan. (Bloomberg)
Japan’s annualised housing starts rose to 0.917m in Feb (0.822m in Jan), exceeding the median estimate of 0.840m. Construction orders, however, fell 1.8% yoy in Feb in a reversal of Jan‟s 24.6% gain. (Bloomberg)
Japanese household spending rose 2.3% yoy in Feb in real terms to hit ¥267.895 (-2.3% in Jan), contrasting sharply with the median market forecast for a 0.2% fall. (Reuters)
Japan’s manufacturing output growth reached a five-month high in Mar, as evidenced by the Markit/JMMA Manufacturing PMI rising to 51.1 from Feb‟s 50.5 due to a continued rise in new business. (Markit Economics)
South Korea: Exports fall 1.4% on weakness in global demand
South Korea’s exports were less than analysts forecast in March, sliding 1.4% y-o-y on weakness in global demand. Imports fell 1.2%, leaving a trade surplus of USD2.3bn, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. Signs that Europe’s debt crisis is easing may improve the outlook for shipments from South Korea, where the economy grew at the slowest pace in two years in the fourth quarter. The Asian nation’s central bank refrained from altering borrowing costs for a ninth month in March as officials balanced price pressures from oil costs against risks posed by stresses in the euro region. (Bloomberg)
South Korean GDP in 4Q11 grew 0.3% qoq, moderating from 3Q11‟s 0.8% rise and is the slowest pace in two years, the Bank of Korea‟s revised figures show. On a yoy basis, the measure moderated to 3.3% from 3Q11‟s revised 3.6%. (AFP)
South Korean industrial production rose a seasonally adjusted 0.8% mom in Feb (a revised 3.2% in Jan), exceeding economists‟ projections of a 0.3% fall. On a yoy basis, the measure rose 14.4%, reversing a revised 2.1% contraction in Jan. (Bloomberg)
The South Korean trade surplus fell to US$2.33bn in Mar (US$2.48bn in Mar 2011) on the back of a sharp fall in exports to Europe and slowing sales to China. (AFP)
EU: Italian bonds drop for third week as boost from ECB loans Wanes
Italian bonds fell for a third week as the nation missed its target at a debt auction and the boost to demand for the securities from European Central Bank liquidity measures waned. Italy auctioned EUR8bn (USD10.6bn) of bonds and floating-rate securities on 29 March, missing its EUR8.25bn maximum target for the sale. Spain’s bonds rose for the first time in four weeks before it sells debt on 4 April. The ECB has lent more than EUR1trn to European financial institutions through its longer-term refinancing operations. (Bloomberg)
European finance ministers neared an agreement to run the temporary and permanent rescue funds in parallel until mid-2013, potentially raising the upper limit on emergency lending to €940bn. (Bloomberg)
Eurozone’s inflation estimate moderated to 2.6% yoy in Mar from 2.7% in Feb, the lowest since Aug but is still higher than the 2.5% expected by economists. (Bloomberg)
Greece has a chance to weather its crisis after the eurozone and private creditors agreed to restructure its debt, but has "a long way to go," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. (AFP)
US: Consumers boost spending as US confidence rises
Americans increased their spending by the most in seven months as an improving labor market boosted confidence, adding to evidence the world’s largest economy is gaining strength. Purchases climbed 0.8% in February, Commerce Department figures showed. The University of Michigan’s final index of consumer sentiment rose to 76.2, the highest since February 2011, from 75.3 last month. Employment gains are helping sustain the consumer spending that accounts for 70% of the economy, lifting sales at companies such as Nike Inc. Another report today showed business activity held near a 10-month high, indicating that the US economy is weathering rising fuel costs. (Bloomberg)
US President Barack Obama called for higher tax rates on wealthy Americans, saying the current system of tax breaks for top income earners was unfair as the taxes they pay are “one of the lowest rates in 50 years.” (AFP)
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final reading of the overall consumer sentiment index rose to 76.2 in Mar from 75.3 in Feb, the highest level since Feb 2011 and exceeding consensus expectations of a gain to 75.0. (Bloomberg, Reuters)
Unemployment rates dropped in almost all US states in Feb, data released by the Labor Department showed. (Reuters)
World: World Bank board said to plan decision on President 1st April
The World Bank plans to pick its new president on 16 Apr after interviewing the three candidates for the post the previous week, according to three officials at the lender’s board. Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is scheduled to meet the 25-person board 9 Apr, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the dates haven’t been made public. Former Colombian finance minister Jose Antonio Ocampo is to be interviewed on 10 Apr, followed by the US candidate, Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim on 11 Apr, the officials said. The new president will succeed Robert Zoellick, whose term ends 30 June. The US is the bank’s largest shareholder, and an American has always held the top job. The bank had previously said it would make a decision by 20 Apr. (Bloomberg)
The World Bank is interested in partnering the development bank proposed by the top five emerging economies known as the BRICS grouping, its president Robert Zoellick said, although he contended “it‟s not an easy sort of task.” (WSJ)
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