South Korea raised its growth outlook for this year on Tuesday and vowed to maintain an expansionary fiscal policy that would support job creation. The government projected economic expansion of 3 percent in 2017, the fastest since growth of 3.3 percent seen in 2014. The finance ministry’s latest outlook revised growth up from an earlier […]

As Asia markets open Tuesday, traders will be keeping an eye on the dollar, which appeared to firm after floundering for the past week amid greater uncertainty over the White House’s ability to pass key policy proposals. The dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of currencies, edged slightly higher to trade at […]

The Golden Arches’ latest handiwork in Singapore has seen “overwhelming demand,” but it remains the subject of hot debate in the city state. In markets outside North America, McDonald’s is well known for extensive menus that cater to local taste-buds, and in celebration of Singapore’s 52nd birthday next month, it released a burger based on […]

China has ramped up its defenses along its border with North Korea to ready itself for a potential crisis on the peninsula, The Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper reported Beijing has increased surveillance of the border region as well as a “combat readiness-level big data disaster recovery center.” The military has also conducted drills […]

Giant state-owned telecom China Unicom said Sunday that talks with potential strategic investors are ongoing and that no binding agreements have yet been reached. That follows reports last week that a number of private tech giants, including Baidu and Tencent, would jointly invest $12 billion into the company. That would represent much more than just […]

Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Grab said it expects to raise about $2.5 billion in fresh funds from China’s Didi Chuxing, Japan’s Softbank Group and others to bolster dominance in the region and grow its fledging mobile payments business. Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing platform that has triumphed over Uber in the mainland market, and SoftBank […]

Despite cutting the economic growth outlook for the U.S. and U.K., the International Monetary Fund kept its global growth forecast unchanged on expectations the euro zone and Japanese growth would accelerate. In the July update of its World Economic Outlook, the IMF forecast global economic growth of 3.5 percent for 2017 and 3.6 percent for […]

Vietnam stopped a company from exploring for energy in contested waters of the South China Sea after taking threats from Beijing, the BBC reported early on Monday. Talisman-Vietnam, a subsidiary of Spanish energy firm Repsol, commenced gas-drilling operations in an area about 400 kilometers off Vietnam’s coast earlier this month, but Hanoi has since ordered […]

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faces a grilling in parliament on Monday over a suspected scandal that has cut his ratings to their lowest since taking office in 2012 and after a candidate from his ruling party lost a mayoral election. Several opinion polls have shown Abe’s support below 30 percent and, while this does […]

The U.S. government will ban U.S. citizens from traveling to North Korea after the death of a U.S. student arrested there while on a tour, a U.S. official and tour agencies that arrange trips to the country said on Friday. The ban will be announced on July 27 and go into effect 30 days later, […]