International Business Times

Bollywood At 100: How Big Is India’s Mammoth Film Industry?

gooch7 — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:54:10 GMT

Bollywood, the name given to India’s Mumbai-based movie industry, is the world’s largest filmmaking entity -- the largest the planet has ever seen.

The Indian cinematic tradition commenced exactly 100 years ago with the release of the black-and-white silent film “Raja Harischandra” on May 3, 1913.

Of course, the title “Bollywood” did not exist then.

"The term Bollywood is an invention of the late 20th Century, after Bombay cinema caught the imagination of the West," Nasreen Rehman, a historian of South Asian cinema, told BBC.

India's Central Bank Cuts Key Lending Rates In Annual Policy Review; Rules Out Further Rate Cuts In Current Financial Year

sreeja.vn — Fri, 03 May 2013 08:31:22 GMT

India's Central Bank, the Reserve Bank of India on Friday cut its repo rate – key lending rate – by 25 basis points to 7.25 percent and kept the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR), the minimum ratio of total bank deposits to be held in cash by banking institutions in India as stipulated by the central bank, intact at 4 percent in line with expectations.

Chinese Luxury Spending Declines Sharply Due To Chinese Government's Austerity Plan

s.song — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:21:28 GMT

The Chinese government’s austerity plan, instituted last December to combat corruption and bribery, is having the effect of reducing the amount of luxury goods the Chinese are buying, and slowing the expansion plans of global luxury good brands in China, according to 21cbh.com.

General Motors Pulls Controversial Chevrolet Ad As It Hopes To Expand In China With New Manufacturing Facility [VIDEO]

Michelle FlorCruz — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:03:24 GMT

General Motors (NYSE: GM), the automaker behind deeply American car companies like Chevrolet, Buick and GMC, may be stepping away from its all-American reputation to pursue the ever-expanding Chinese market.

Falling Exports Cut Chinese Manufacturing In April, Dragging Down Its Purchasing Managers Index, Signaling Slowing Growth

mikeobel — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:15:36 GMT

Declining exports slowed manufacturing in China during April, underscoring an emerging weakness in the world’s second-biggest economy.

The government’s purchasing managers' index (PMI) slipped to 50.6 in April from March’s 50.9, which was an 11-month high. A reading above 50 signals growth, and a reading below 50 means that manufacturing activity shrank.

Beijing's Nearly Uninhabitable, But Because Of Prices, Not Smog

s.song — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:59:05 GMT

Housing and rental prices in Beijing have always been expensive compared with most other cities in China, but in the last 10 years, they have increased much faster than usual, along with the cost of almost everything else. What hasn't increased at the same rate is wages, which is making Beijing now nearly unaffordable for many people, from hourly wage earners to mid-level office workers, according to Sohu News.

China's High-Ranking Officials And Businessmen Salaries Still Too High For Critics

Michelle FlorCruz — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:28:31 GMT

Earlier this month, it came to light that China’s president, Xi Jinping, makes an annual salary of roughly $19,000 -- paltry compared to U.S. President Barack Obama’s $400,000 a year. Perhaps more surprising, China’s biggest corporate bosses take home only a fraction of what their U.S. counterparts make for a years’ work.

IMF Estimates Asia Growth At 5.75%, But Warns Of Asset Bubbles And A ‘Delicate Balancing Act’

Angelo.Young — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:27:42 GMT

Economic growth this year in Asia will again emerge as the global pacesetter, but the volume of money pouring into the region risks out-of-control inflation, excessive debt and unsustainable prices for real estate, currencies and stocks, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday.

In its annual report on Asia, the IMF estimated that the region's economic growth in 2013 will be a robust 5.7 percent, far better than is expected in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Africa.

China's Out Of Control License Plate Prices, Now More Expensive Than The Car

Michelle FlorCruz — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:41:42 GMT

Hong Kong Strike: Tycoon Hires New Workers And Returns Kwai Tsing Port To Capacity, Despite 4-Week Strike That Has Even Reached Inside Corporate Offices

msingleton — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:55:35 GMT

A dock workers' strike at Hong Kong's commercial port was dealt a blow on Thursday as billionaire Li Ka-shing hired new workers to end the four-week-old walk out.

Kwai Tsing container terminals, which are owned by Li's Hongkong International Terminals Ltd., are operating at about 90 capacity, according to a company statement. The new hires, and some strikers who returned to work, have helped boost efficiency at the dock, cutting ship waiting time to 20-25 hours, down from nearly 60 hours at the start of the strike on March 28.

Karachi: A Flourishing Stock Market In A Blood-Soaked Pakistani City Spiraling Out Of Control

gooch7 — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:14:23 GMT

Karachi, a teeming metropolis of some 18 million people on the coast of the Arabian Sea, embodies everything that is wrong with Pakistan – it is overcrowded, chaotic, corrupt and filled with violence and chronic power shortages.

However, Karachi also boasts one of the world’s best-performing stock markets – the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) racked up a 49 percent return in 2012, making it one of the best-performing bourses in the world that year.

China Posts March Trade Deficit, But Q1 Commerce With US Rises

ericlinton — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 04:48:38 GMT

China’s trade in the first quarter of 2013 surged with the United States but fell with Europe, the Beijing government announced Wednesday, another sign of an uneven recovery in the global economy.

March Inflation Rate Shows Sharp Slowdown In China

ericlinton — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:40:38 GMT

China's annual consumer inflation eased markedly to 2.1 percent in March from February's 3.2 percent while producer price deflation deepened, the government announced Tuesday morning.

Food price inflation, which had surged to 6 per cent year on year in February, fell back to a pace of 2.7 per cent.

The National Bureau of Statistics said China's producer prices dropped 1.9 percent in March, faster than February's annual drop of 1.6 percent.

The figures leave policymakers room to keep monetary conditions easy and nurture a nascent recovery.

Lagarde Backs Bank Of Japan Easing, Stands By Euro

ericlinton — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:02:51 GMT

IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Sunday welcomed the Bank of Japan’s aggressive easing program as a helpful step to support global growth.

World's Richest Countries Suffered Slight Economic Contraction In 4Q 2012: OECD

mikeobel — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:29:01 GMT

The economies of the world's richest countries, except for China, fell by an overall 0.1 percent at the end of last year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday.

Companies reducing their inventory of products pulled down real GDP in the OECD by 0.3 percentage points. A contraction in government consumption reduced GDP by an additional 0.1 percentage point.

Bank Of Japan Announces Aggressive Monetary Easing Measures; Nikkei Soars Higher While Yen Declines Indicating Rising Investor Confidence In The Economy Revival Plan

sreeja.vn — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 09:13:31 GMT

The Bank of Japan Thursday announced a strong monetary easing campaign that sent the Japan markets soaring high, while the yen slipped over 1 percent against the dollar.

The aggressive monetary easing program is the first important measure taken by the newly appointed BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, who has vowed to pull the world’s third largest economy from a two-decade-long deflation.

China March Official Manufacturing PMI At 11-Month High; HSBC Final PMI Reading At 51.6

moranzhang — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 03:13:27 GMT

SHANGHAI -- Manufacturing activity in China picked up speed in March, official data showed on Monday, although the figure came in slightly below analysts’ expectations.

China's official manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index rose to 50.9 in March from 50.1 in February, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics. While the increase missed market expectations of a rise to 52.0, as forecast in a Reuters poll of economists, it nevertheless pushed the index to an 11-month high.

Japan's Factory Output Posts Surprise Decline In February

sreeja.vn — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:52:03 GMT

Japan’s industrial output fell unexpectedly 0.1 percent in February, against analysts’ estimate of a 2.5 percent increase, indicating that the world’s third-largest economy is in for a slow recovery. However, core CPI declined by 0.3 percent year-on-year, better than the forecast of a 0.4 percent decline.

India's Current Account Deficit Touches Record High For Third Quarter On Muted Exports, High Imports

sreeja.vn — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 08:19:40 GMT

India’s current account deficit hit an all-time high of 6.7 percent of the country's GDP for the quarter ended December 2012, raising concerns over Asia’s third largest economy’s weak finances.

India's worse-than-expected Current Account Deficit (CAD) for the three-month period was down due to rising imports of oil and gold, while exports recorded flat growth for the period owing to a global slowdown. The CAD stood at $US 32.6 billion for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2012-13, compared with analysts average forecast of a 6 percent deficit on GDP.

China’s Industrial Profits Extend Gains In Jan-Feb Period

moranzhang — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 03:42:59 GMT

Shanghai, China -- Profits at Chinese industrial companies surged in the first two months of 2013, official data showed on Thursday, extending a four-month streak of gains amid a broader recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.

Total profits earned by major Chinese industrial enterprises rose 17.2 percent from a year earlier in the January-February period, the National Bureau of Statistics said (in Chinese) on Thursday.

Indian Women Get Back To Work Faster Than Western, Japanese Counterparts: Report

gooch7 — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:18:08 GMT

Educated women in India are managing the demands of their careers and family obligations far better than their peers in the West and Japan, according to a new research report to be released next week by the Center for Talent Innovation, or CTI, a nonprofit New York-based think tank.

Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – The BRICS Nations – Propose Creating Their Own Version Of The IMF, World Bank

Angelo.Young — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:30:31 GMT

Two of the world’s top development banks are both based in Washington, D.C., which is part of the reason why the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are often viewed -- justifiably or not -- as organs of U.S. and Western economic interests.

Now the biggest emerging markets, Brazil, India, Russia, China and South Africa, known collectively as the BRICS, are proposing to create a workaround that would allow them an alternative source of development funds.

Tax Rates On Individual Workers' Pay In OECD Member Nations Rose In 2012, Led By Netherlands, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Spain And Australia

mikeobel — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:26:48 GMT

European countries led the 2012 global rise in taxes among members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Among the OECD nations the average tax and social security burden on individual workers’ pay rose by 0.1 of a percentage point to 35.6 percent. That burden rose in 19 out of 34 countries, fell in 14 and remained unchanged in one, the OECD said Tuesday.

OECD Report Says China's Economy Will Overtake US Economy By 2016

msingleton — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:09:58 GMT

China's economy, which has experienced a declining rate of growth for three years, is accelerating and will surpass the United States as the world's largest economy by 2016, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The Paris-based organization of 34 global economies said Friday that China can average 8 percent growth during the current decade, after accounting for price differences. The forecast is contingent on Beijing's ability to continue implementing certain economic, financial and regulatory reforms.

China PMI: March Data from HSBC's Flash Manufacturing Report Suggests Uptick In Country's Output

Angelo.Young — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 11:23:15 GMT

China's manufacturing sector saw improvement in March following a near-flat February, according to preliminary data released on Thursday by HSBC.

The flash manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), one of the two most closely watched monthly economic reports on the country’s industrial activity, rose to 51.7, up from February’s final reading of 50.4. Numbers above 50 indicate growth.