Malaysia’s sovereign rating may be in trouble as an ongoing corruption saga threatens to destabilize the nation’s fiscal position, S&P Global Ratings has warned. In a Thursday statement that affirmed the Southeast Asian country’s A-/A-2 foreign currency and A/A-1 local currency ratings, S&P said Kuala Lumpur’s outlook remains “stable” but noted that the scandal surrounding […]

The friend of former South Korean leader Park Geun-hye who was at the center of an influence-peddling scandal that rocked the country’s business and political elite has been sentenced to three years in jail, the Yonhap news agency reported on Friday. Prosecutors had demanded a seven-year jail term for Choi Soon-sil on charges of obstruction […]

Color-changing drinks, liquid nitrogen dessert and gourmet marshmallows — fare for a music concert or the Muslim holy month of Ramadan? It may be unconventional, but in Singapore, hipster food crazes are all the rage during the Islamic celebration. Every year, a mega market pops up on the island nation in honor of the month-long […]

Your favorite brew of Darjeeling tea could soon be in short supply. Political chaos has forced the closure of tea plantations and estates in India’s famed Himalayan town, dealing a blow to brands dependent on Darjeeling’s prestigious teaplant. Darjeeling, a popular hill station in the state of West Bengal, is currently in shutdown mode, with […]

Chinese tech giants Alibaba Group Holdings and Tencent Holdings will be among new investors pouring a total of around $10 billion into mobile carrier China Unicom, sources said, part of efforts by Beijing to rejuvenate state behemoths with private cash. Four sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Alibaba and Tencent would invest […]

Kuwait has reportedly handed a list of demands to Qatar related to a diplomatic spat that saw several Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic and commercial ties, Reuters reported on Friday, citing Al Jazeera television. The television network, based in Qatar, cited sources on the list, adding there were no immediate details . Saudi […]

Doomsday predictions for China’s economy have a long history, but most are looking at the wrong scenario, Michael Buchanan, head of strategy at Singapore wealth fund Temasek, said on Thursday. “If you’re using the metrics from the Asia crisis, you’re going to get the wrong answer,” Buchanan said at the DBS Institutional Investor Symposium in […]

China will introduce a national standard for the use of English language on public signage, in its latest bid to say farewell to widely mocked – and often widely loved – poor translations and “Chinglish”. The new policy, which comes into effect on December 1, will establish guidelines for English translations in 13 areas, including […]

With bond yields globally in the dumps, Singapore’s wealth fund GIC is looking at unconventional sources for fixed income returns, Liew Tzu Mi, GIC’s chief investment officer for fixed income, said on Thursday. For one, she pointed to selective emerging markets for fixed income investments. “In a generally low interest rate environment, if you do […]

China’s bond market will double in size from the current $9 trillion over the next five years, overtaking Japan’s to become the world’s second largest behind the United States’, UBS Asset Management said in a report. Underpinning that growth is a law passed in 2015 to prohibit local provinces and cities from borrowing from banks. […]