Afp Business Asia

China’s central bank on Monday said it had cut two key interest rates to historic lows, in the latest move by Beijing to boost sluggish spending and kickstart the world’s second-largest economy.The cuts come just days after the country posted its slowest quarterly growth in a year and a half, underlining the deep economic woes the country faces.Leaders are targeting annual growth of five percent this year, but that goal is being challenged by weak consumption and a prolonged and debilitating debt crisis in the colossal property sector.The one-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR), which constitutes the benchmark for the most advantageous rates lenders can offer to businesses and households, was cut from 3.35 percent to 3.1.The five-year LPR, the benchmark for mortgage loans, was cut from 3.85 to 3.6.Both rates were last reduced in July and are sitting at all-time lows.Data showed Friday the economy grew 4.6 percent in the third quarter, its slowest rate in a year and a half.Authorities acknowledged a “complicated and severe external environment… as well as new problems of domestic economic development”.Beijing has said it has “full confidence” in achieving its annual growth goal, but economists say more direct fiscal stimulus is needed to revive activity and restore business confidence.The disappointing data came after weeks of announcements and news conferences about an eagerly awaited stimulus plan, though investors say they are still waiting to see more details.The country’s top banks on Friday cut interest rates on yuan deposits for the second time this year in another potential boost to spending.Central bank chief Pan Gongsheng also on Friday said that authorities were considering a further cut to the amount commercial lenders must hold in reserve before the end of the year.Months of sluggish spending has raised fears that China will dip back into deflation after it ended a months-long stretch of falling prices early this year.Zhang Zhiwei, President and Chief Economist of Pinpoint Asset Management, said Monday’s rate cut was “an encouraging sign”.”The monetary policy has clearly shifted to a more supportive stance since the press conference on September 24. The real interest rate in China is too high,” he said.

Australian mining giant BHP goes on trial on Monday over one of Brazil’s worst environmental disasters, potentially triggering billions of dollars in compensation to be shared among hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs.The High Court in London will examine over several months whether BHP was partly liable for the 2015 collapse of a dam at a mining waste site in Brazil.The rupture killed 19 people and unleashed a deluge of thick toxic mud into villages, fields, rainforest, rivers and the ocean.The Fundao tailings dam at an iron ore mine in the mountains of Minas Gerais state was managed by Samarco, co-owned by BHP and Brazilian miner Vale.At the time of the disaster, BHP had global headquarters in the UK as well as in Australia.A separate case in Brazil has seen Vale and BHP offer to pay almost $30 billion in compensation.Vale has offered to share any compensation BHP ends up paying as a result of the London trial.Tom Goodhead, of law firm Pogust Goodhead which brought the case, told a news conference last week that the London trial was the culmination of a six-year UK legal battle.”(There) has been a systemic failure to adequately compensate victims or to provide adequate reparation in relation to the environmental harms. And that was why this case was launched,” he told reporters.The tragedy in the town of Mariana unleashed a torrent of almost 45 million cubic metres of highly toxic mining waste sludge, flooding 39 towns and leaving more than 600 people homeless.The flood killed thousands of animals and devastated protected areas of tropical rainforest.- ‘Unpunished’ -The amount of damages sought in the upcoming civil trial is estimated at a total £36 billion ($47 billion), on behalf of more than 620,000 plaintiffs, including 46 Brazilian municipalities, companies and indigenous peoples.”We felt as if our whole world had collapsed,” Pamela Rayane Fernandes, whose five-year old daughter Emanuele Vitoria was killed in a mudslide, told AFP ahead of Monday’s trial.”Such a thing cannot go unpunished,” the 30-year-old added.The hearing, set to last until early March, must determine BHP’s potential liability surrounding the disaster. If it is found to be liable, another UK trial should take place from October 2026 to determine the amount of damages.BHP has said the London court case is unnecessary because of ongoing legal procedures in Brazil.The company estimated that more than 200,000 plaintiffs in the London case had already been compensated.BHP added that the Renova Foundation, which manages the compensation and rehabilitation programmes, has already paid out more than $7.8 billion in emergency financial aid.The Australian mining giant said the quality of river water contaminated by the fallout has returned to pre-disaster levels.However, a scientific paper published this year in the Franco-Brazilian geography review Confins said the dam rupture had caused “permanent effects of pollution” on the river Doce and its coastal plain.The trial opens as BHP weighs whether to mount a renewed bid for British rival Anglo American after the latter rejected a $49 billion takeover in May.BHP is allowed to come back with a fresh offer on November 29 following a six-month break, according to UK takeover rules.In 2019, another tailings dam owned by Vale collapsed in Minas Gerais, killing 270 people and devastating the surrounding environment.burs-bcp/ode/jj/gil

More than 90 fake bomb threats have been made against flights operated by multiple Indian airlines this week, Indian media reported Sunday, sparking fear among passengers and global delays.All flights landed safely, but the spate of threats has resulted in planes being diverted to Canada and Germany, and fighter jets scrambled to escort aircraft in the skies above Britain and Singapore.India’s government and civil aviation authorities have warned that “very strict action” will be taken.New Delhi’s civil aviation authorities have not said how many threats have been received in the past week, but the Times of India and broadcaster News18 reported more than 70 hoaxes targeting both domestic and international flights since October 13.At least 30 hoax threats were made on Saturday alone, and at least 20 more threats were made to different airlines on Sunday. India’s IndiGo airline confirmed threats were made against six of its flights on Sunday.Two were on domestic routes, and four were international — linking Indian cities to Saudia Arabia’s Jeddah and Dammam, as well as two separate flights to Istanbul in Turkey.”The safety and security of our passengers and crew is our highest priority,” IndiGo said in a statement.”We are working closely with the relevant authorities and taking all necessary precautions.”The global impact of delays and diversions has been heavy on airline schedules and costs.At least one person — a minor — has been arrested in India, but the threats have continued.”All others responsible for the disruptions will be identified and duly prosecuted,” India’s aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said after the arrest on Wednesday.A report in The Indian Express said that an anonymous account on X, formerly Twitter, was suspended after posting bomb threats to at least 40 flights on Friday and Saturday.This included both Indian and international airlines, including from the United States and New Zealand.”There are bombs placed onboard… No one will make out alive. Hurry up and evacuate the plane,” read the identical messages from the suspended account, the newspaper reported.Among the recent flights impacted was an Air India plane heading from Mumbai to New York, with US security officials sweeping the aircraft after its safe landing on Saturday.Other flights that were impacted include an Air India plane from New Delhi to Chicago, which was forced to make an emergency landing in the far northern Canadian city of Iqaluit on Tuesday.Canada’s airforce had to fly the passengers onward.The same day, Singapore scrambled fighter jets to escort an Air India Express plane.On Thursday, British RAF fighter jets escorted an Air India Boeing 777-300 after a threat was made against the plane, which landed safely in London.

Droves of braying donkeys were once the backbone of Pakistan’s commercial hub Karachi, but growing upkeep costs and the surging sprawl of the city are putting them out to pasture.Jittering donkey carts have long been essential for aftermarket transport from southern Karachi’s wholesale bazaars, nested in narrow streets preventing regular vehicles from accessing their trove of wares.For low-income workers, the beasts of burden provided a path to financial stability — their resilience, low overheads and integral role guaranteeing a modest and stable profit to live off.But punishing inflation has made feed costly whilst the city has exploded in size, accommodating around 50 times more people today than before Pakistan’s independence, with vast distances testing the animal’s limits.”We continued the work of our fathers, but I want my kids to study and do something else,” said Mohammad Atif, the warden of a donkey called Raja — meaning “King”.The 27-year-old spends up to 750 rupees ($2.70) on hay for Raja per day. It used to cost just 200 rupees, the same amount Atif pays for a plate of food he splits with a colleague on increasingly common slow days.”Now you can’t make a living in this line of work,” Atif told AFP in the colonial-era Bolton Market where everything from spices and water to cutlery and construction equipment is sold.A good shift may earn him up to 4,000 rupees, far short of the expenses of his dependents and donkey.- Heyday over -There are just shy of six million donkeys in Pakistan, according to government estimates, one for every 40 people in the country.Local animal broker Aslam Shah told AFP the majority were in Karachi, which exploded into a megacity of more than 20 million people after mass migration in the partition of Pakistan and India.But the 69-year-old said they’re no longer a desired commodity at an animal market held each Sunday.”Sometimes weeks and months go by without us selling a single one,” he said.Bolton Market springs to life at mid-morning as shopkeepers lift their shutters, and housewives in apartments above lower baskets from their balconies to collect orders of foodstuffs.As customers prepare to leave, post-sale negotiations begin on who will win the work of hauling shopping away. But most donkey carts are empty with their owners and animals idle.The carts were once so dominant on roads that the government issued them licence plates. But the metropolis has sprawled with expressways and overpasses off-limits to animal carriages.”I have been told there is lots to carry and that I would have to travel to the other side of the city to deliver goods,” said 21-year-old Ali Usman, in envy of a three-wheeled motorised rickshaw being loaded with rice sacks.”It will take me three to four hours,” he said. “In this time, the rickshaw will have made two trips so the work has not been given to me.”- Stubbornly remaining -Noman Farhat, a wholesaler at Empress Market, built in 1884, said he tries to give some work to donkey owners every day — a small act of mercy despite their impracticality.”They are a part of our culture, and I would be loathe to see them go out of business,” he said.One Karachi animal welfare activist who asked to remain anonymous said increasingly long journeys and poor road conditions are knackering the animals.”Due to a lack of resources, donkey owners use rope or a piece of cloth in place of proper harnesses leading to severe chaffing and skin wounds,” she said.Mistreatment can also cause muzzle mutilation that restricts eating, she said.But some stubbornly believe donkeys will remain at the heart of Karachi.”Despite the harsh conditions they often face, these animals are an essential part of the informal economy,” said Sheema Khan, manager of Karachi’s Benji Project animal shelter.”It is still the cheapest form of transport,” she said.At a wholesale market, pointing to his two sons and grandson loading rice and wheat onto their carts, Ghulam Rasool is inclined to agree.”This work will never end, it will endure till doomsday,” said the 76-year-old.”So what if there are two or three days of no work? There will always be someone who needs us.”

Fujio Uemura has to rest after driving fish all night to Tokyo, under new rules that trucking firms and experts say are crippling Japan’s logistics sector and risk pushing up prices for consumers.The regulations are aimed at easing the stress of the badly paid hard slog of trucking, and making it more attractive to young people in ageing Japan, where some 90 percent of goods are transported by road.”Before, I’d drive as long as I could before taking a break,” said Uemura after his 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) journey from Oita in southern Japan with his load of fresh fillets.”Long hours don’t bother me. It’s my job,” the slim 59-year-old told AFP after leaping athletically down from the cab of his refrigerated 10-tonne vehicle.Since April, truck drivers’ annual overtime has been capped at 960 hours, or 80 hours per month on average, alongside new rules including on break stops.Previously, there was no effective limit and many drivers worked around the clock to expand their meagre take-home pay.But it can be a lonely and unhealthy life, with long, irregular hours on the road contributing to high rates of heart disease and strokes.Despite its importance to the world’s fourth-biggest economy, the trucking industry occupies a weak position in Japan’s economic hierarchy.Truck drivers generally work 20 percent longer than the average worker but earn around 10 percent less, or around 4.5 million yen ($30,000) per year. Almost one in five works 60 hours a week or more.- ‘Urgent issue’ -Most of Japan’s roughly 63,000 trucking businesses are small players with 10 or fewer vehicles, and even before the new rules most struggled.They survived by cutting prices or offering free loading and unloading, often by hand. Drivers frequently wait for hours at no extra cost to customers.But the new rules are the final straw, said Haruhiko Hoshino, a senior official at the Japan Trucking Association.”Reducing drivers’ work hours means turning down jobs. Turning down jobs means that items will not be delivered,” Hoshino told AFP.Without meaningful reforms Japan by 2030 will lack the capacity to move as much as 34 percent of its domestic cargo, according to a study often cited by the government.”The government is tackling this issue with all of its strength,” transport minister Tetsuo Saito said last month, calling it an “urgent issue”.The effects were already visible with reports of airports struggling to secure enough aviation fuel earlier this year and fruit and vegetables arriving late.Firms have teamed up to share lorries, an unthinkable step before the new rules, while dairy companies are looking at standardising containers.The government’s answer to what has been dubbed the “2024 Problem” is for companies to cut trucking firms some slack and not to insist on discounts and freebies.- ‘We are the victims’ -But ultimately the answer is for users and ordinary consumers to pay higher prices, said Hiroaki Oshima, professor at Ryutsu Keizai University.This could be a headache for Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba after elections on October 27.His predecessor Fumio Kishida suffered from poor popularity in part because of inflation squeezing incomes.”In the end, who, right now, should pay for their fair share? I believe it’s the society, it’s those who send and receive cargos, it’s consumers,” said Oshima, who is also a senior advisor at NX Logistics Research Institute and Consulting.Uemura used to spend mornings collecting fish products at various places in his home region and brought them to Tokyo on his own.Now his employer Portline Service sends separate drivers for the pick-ups before Uemura drives off for Tokyo in the afternoon.Portline’s boss Katsuya Doi said this costs him an additional 1.3 million yen ($8,750) or more every month.”We are the victims. It should not be just us or our clients who have to bear the cost,” he told AFP.Doi is working with rival firms to share assignments, negotiate fee increases and host public seminars to encourage consumer awareness.Nonetheless, Uemura’s 35-year-old son is taking to the wheel after quitting shipbuilding.”I told him that this is not a job that lets you sleep a lot,” Uemura said with a chuckle. “You earn more with your hard work.”