China has emerged a winner against crashing commodity prices and recorded a benefit of $460 billion this year. Out of this windfall, $320 came from cheaper oil prices alone and the remaining $140 billion from other commodities like energy, metal, and agricultural items.
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India elbowed out Thailand to take the position of world’s largest rice exporter
India is now the world's largest exporter of rice, with 10.23 million tons of rice exported in 2015. The country outranked the former leader, Thailand whose export numbers have fallen to 9.8 million tons this year, which also recorded the lowest rice prices in the last ten years. It seems the falling prices are also tied to the global oil crisis that has hit the rice importers, thereby affecting their purchasing power.
Global Innovation: China, India, and Thailand Are Among Countries With Lesser Support for Innovation
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) concluded the study based on 27 factors that bring both positive and negative impact towards global innovation. The study involved 56 countries, whereas China stood at the 44th rank, Thailand the 53rd, followed by India. ITIF also noted that supporting global innovation is crucial for countries' economic growth.
China Factories Are Getting Abandoned, Leaving Countless Workers Laid Off
Many Chinese factories are being abandoned due to the downturn in the country. This has caused millions of workers unemployed, and many of the remaining workers should have their salaries cut.
People's Bank of China Inject 340 billion yuan into the financial system
China’s central bank, the People's Bank of China is putting the largest amount of cash into the financial system in nearly three years which is around 340 billion yuan. The move was done as the bank is preparing for lots of cash out as it is nearing the Lunar New Year.
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The statement came from Baidu's senior vice president Wang Jing. He believes that Baidu has some advantage over other car makers, especially local knowledge. The company has already invested a lot in the development of AI, that could help the development of autonomous cars.
Roger's walkie-talkie style voice messaging app that launched in 2015 gets a financial backing of $1 million from Social Capital. The new feature was created by ex-Spotify employees, Ricardo Vice Santos and Andreas Blixt, who have done complete justice to the phrase 'selling old wine in new bottle'. In the current scenario where voice messaging is no longer a novelty, Roger hopes to tap the market outside Asia where people are still stuck with texting, and win them with its simple, three-button structure.
GM with its main Chinese partner have opened a Cadillac plant in Shanghai on Thursday, 21 Jan 2016 to take advantage of the potential growth in the overcrowded luxury market of China. Cadillac plant has capacity to produce 160,000 vehicles annually. Cadillac believe the luxury car market offer a lot margin opportunity notwithstanding pressure in pricing. Shares of GM have been reported trading on NYSE higher by more than 1 percent on Thursday.
Capital outflows from developing markets were higher than it was anticipated last year, according to a report by Institute of International Finance. The reason behind this oceanic change in emerging markets cash flow is China, which dragged out 676 billion US dollar.
The timeframe to this plan is still unknown, but the central bank claims that the process has been going on since 2014. China has stated some benefits for having a digital currency in their financial system, including transparency, digital track-recording, as well as reducing transaction costs. Bitcoin, a global digital currency, gained popularity in China in 2013 but has also brought some controversies about the risks.
Foxconn has put forth a highly tempting offer of over $5 billion in front of the almost-bankrupt Sharp Corp, which well exceeds its current valuation at $1.8 billion. The other potential buyer, Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, who was already very confident, is not so sure of a win right now. Foxconn's bid amount not only surpasses Innovation's $2.5 billion, the Taiwanese firm has also offered to absorb all of Sharp's debts and not make any top management replacements. While the board does not want their Japanese seller to fall under any kind of foreign control, the decision needs to be based purely on deal economics and not political considerations.
The survey revealed that one of the top concerns defining most U.S companies' tough times doing business in China is uncertain regulations that they perceived as unwelcoming to foreign companies. The slowing of China's economic growth also remains a concern, along with rising labor costs, censorship, and air pollution. However, China is still most foreign countries' investment priority among other markets.
Amidst intense smog, China still came out with a 10% decrease in air pollution in 2015. The numbers indicate a direct fall in the consumption of coal. However, despite the small improvement, the situation is still pretty grim as the country, which is home to a host of coal power plants, has now taken the top spot for emitting greenhouse gases. The 'red-alert' situation this winter should be a wake-up call for the government to now take drastic measures to curb the sources of air pollutants.
Venture capitalist poured a total of $37 billion worth of funds to start-ups in China in 2015, making it the biggest challenger to the leader in the Tech industry, which is the US.
