Australia: Consumer prices rose 0.6% QoQ in the 2Q10 from the previous three months, the Bureau of Statistics said in. Prices increased 3.1% YoY. (Source: Bloomberg)
Malaysia: Miti taking proactive measures to attract FDIs
The drop in foreign investments into Malaysia is not as bad as revealed by the Unctad World Investment Report (WIR) 2010 and changes are under way to ensure the country competes to attract high value-added investments. International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said net investments in the first quarter rebounded to USD1.41bn and exceeded that of the whole of last year and he had told the Cabinet that the ministry would be taking proactive measures to encourage mo re foreign and domestic investment. (StarBiz)
Malaysia: Consumer confidence turns more optimistic
Consumer confidence in Malaysia inched up to 99 index points in the second quarter from 98 points in the first quarter of this year, according to the latest Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Survey. In a statement, Nielsen said the latest consumer confidence index gain in Malaysia also represented an 18-point surge from an all-time low in the first quarter last year. Consumer Confidence Index levels above and below a baseline of 100 indicate degrees of optimism and pessimism respectively. (StarBiz)
New Zealand: Raises benchmark rate for second month. "Further removal of monetary policy stimulus is appropriate," central bank Governor Alan Bollard said in a statement released in Wellington after boosting the official cash rate by a quarter percentage point to 3%. (Source: Bloomberg)
Japan: Slower production may build case for stimulus extension
Japanese industrial production probably grew at the slowest pace in more than a year last quarter, adding pressure on the government to extend consumer incentives as export growth cools. Factory output rose 0.2% in June from May, according to the median estimate of 26 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of a Trade Ministry report to be released in Tokyo. That would cap the smallest quarterly gain since production fell in the first three months of 2009. (Bloomberg)
Japan: Refining hits 10-week high at oil plants
Oil refining in Japan, the world’s third-largest consumer of crude, rose to a 10-week high as producers resume operations after maintenance shutdowns. The nation’s refiners were using more than 75% of capacity in the week ended 17 July, the highest rate since 8 May, according to data from the Petroleum Association of Japan. That compares with this year’s low of less than 62% in the week ended 19 June. (Bloomberg)
EU: ECB says banks tightened credit standards further
European banks continued to tighten credit standards for companies and households in the second quarter as the sovereign debt crisis impaired their access to funding, the European Central Bank said. “The downward trend in the net tightening of credit standards on loans to enterprises, which came to a halt in the first quarter of 2010, was reversed in the second quarter, increasing from 3% to 11%,” the Frankfurt-based central bank said in its quarterly Bank Lending Survey. (Bloomberg)
S. Korea: Current-account surplus widened to a one-year high in June as the global recovery supported demand for the country's cars and semiconductors. The windfall was USD 5.04b, from a revised USD 3.82b in May, the Bank of Korea said. The surplus was the biggest since June 2009. (Source: Bloomberg)
UK: King forecasts no early return to ‘normal’ rate level
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said there may be a “considerable” way to go before UK interest rates return to “normal” as policy makers debate when to start withdrawing emergency stimulus from the economy. “There will come a point when we will certainly need to ease off the accelerator and return Bank Rate to more normal levels,” King told lawmakers in London. “I look forward to that time because it will probably be a signal that there is a smoother drive ahead, with the economic outlook improving in a durable way. But I fear there is some considerable distance to travel before we can begin to use the word ‘normal’.” (Bloomberg)
US: Durables show investment picking up
Business investment in the US picked up in the second quarter, helping sustain the economic recovery, June data on durable goods showed. Orders for non-military capital equipment excluding aircraft climbed 0.6% last month after jumping 4.6% in May, more than previously reported, figures from the Commerce Department showed in Washington. Sales of such gear, used in calculating gross domestic product, also rose. (Bloomberg)
U.S: Fed's Beige Book says economic recovery slowed in some areas over the past two months, dragged down by commercial real estate and the expiration of a tax credit for homebuyers. "Economic activity has continued to increase, on balance, since the previous survey," the central bank said in its Beige Book business survey, while noting that two of the Fed's 12 districts reported the economy "held steady" and two said the pace of expansion slowed. (Source: Bloomberg)
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