Economy

Joe Biden speaks at the IPEF launch event in Tokyo on May 23: The U.S. has a chance to be at the forefront of seizing economic leadership opportunities.
Opinion

2023 outlook: IPEF is best bet for more resilient supply chains

Regional talks will also advance clean economy and fairer growth

3 January 2023
The United Nations offices in Geneva. Conflicts such as U.S.-China rivalry and Russia's invasion of Ukraine increasingly divide the world and slow globalization.
International relations

Fairness, not just democracy, to be key for sailing divided world

Nikkei Fairness Index screens nations as trustworthy or risky as trade partners

1 January 2023
While residential solar installations in the U.S. have boomed this year, utility-scale projects have fallen by an estimated 40%.
Energy

U.S. solar installations fall 23% in 2022 on China trade curbs

Import restrictions deal blow to industry reliant on Xinjiang silicon

31 December 2022
APEC senior officials during an informal preparatory meeting in Honolulu on Dec. 13: Promoting innovation will be a core part of the group's 2023 agenda. (Photo from APEC press release)
Opinion

2023 outlook: APEC to catalyze joint drive for sustainable growth

Business community should be part of solution to region's challenges

27 December 2022
A man gets swabbed for a COVID test near Peking University in Beijing on Nov. 16: Xi's zero-COVID policy has severely damaged the country's attractiveness to talent.
Opinion

Security focus is setting back science in both China and the U.S.

Researchers are finding it more difficult to live and work in the two countries

27 December 2022
Alan Blinder served on then-U.S. President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers before becoming vice chairman of the Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan.
Interview

U.S. inflation to improve as supply bottlenecks clear: Alan Blinder

Ex-Fed vice chair expects interest rates to top out at around 4.75% to 5%

23 December 2022
Seed cotton being moved at a processing plant in Xinjiang's Kashgar city. 
US-China tensions

China's Xinjiang obfuscates trade data after U.S. import ban

Detailed monthly breakdown of exports disappears without explanation

19 December 2022
Referees at the World Cup in Qatar have turned to technology to review difficult calls.
Comment

Divided world should learn from World Cup on settling disputes

Escalating trade fights need neutral arbiter like soccer's video referees

18 December 2022
The addition of TMTC and others to the Entity List is meant to deny China "access to advanced technologies for military modernization and human rights abuses," said a senior Commerce Department official.
Trade war

U.S. blacklists China chipmaker YMTC, AI champion Cambricon, others

Chip tool maker intended as alternative to ASML also added to Washington's list

16 December 2022
The Japan Center for Economic Research said China's economy will slow as a result of its zero-COVID policy, U.S. export restrictions and, over the long term, labor shortages stemming from the dwindling population. (Source photos by AP and Getty Images) 
Economy

China's GDP unlikely to surpass U.S. in next few decades: JCER

Effects of zero-COVID policy prompt think tank to drop earlier forecast

14 December 2022
Pfizer's anti-viral medication Paxlovid to treat COVID-19: Global access to effective tests and treatments is a crucial element to economic recovery.
Opinion

Delays on WTO deal for COVID treatments are costing lives in Asia

Export of generic versions best way to limit hospitalizations, economic losses

14 December 2022
An aluminum factory in Zouping, China. The U.S. could appeal the ruling, which would send it into a legal void because Washington has blocked appointments to the WTO's Appellate Body.
Trade war

WTO rules against U.S. on Trump metal tariffs, favoring China

Biden administration strongly rejects 'flawed' conclusions of panel

10 December 2022
Fewer Chinese container ships are departing to the U.S. as trade patterns shift.
Trade

U.S.-bound container traffic from China plunges as ASEAN share rises

Washington-Beijing rivalry and shifting consumption change trading patterns

9 December 2022
Self-Defense Force personnel and Miyazaki prefecture police search for missing people at the site of a landslide caused by Typhoon Nanmadol in southern Japan in September.
Natural disasters

'Bomb cyclones' in North Pacific up 20%; more typhoons hit Tokyo

'Megastorms' raise the economic and human cost of global warming

7 December 2022
Canada intends to boost energy exports to Japan and work with Tokyo on supply chain resiliency, Trade Minister Mary Ng told Nikkei in Tokyo on Dec. 5. (Photo by Tamayo Muto)
Interview

Canada's IPEF bid has support from all members: trade minister

Ottawa sees Indo-Pacific framework as 'complementary' to strategy

6 December 2022
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signals that the U.S. central bank may slow the pace of interest rate increases from its next meeting in December.  
Economy

Fed's Powell signals rate-hike slowdown could start in December

But chairman says inflation fight far from over, dimming hope for 2023 rate cut

1 December 2022
The Japanese government recently unveiled a $200 billion stimulus package to provide relief for inflation.
Interview

Japan needs healthy dose of inflation: IMF fiscal chief

Vitor Gaspar says country must play the long game to tackle debt

24 November 2022
The venue for the APEC summit at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center in Bangkok on Nov. 14: The reinvigoration of the group must be led by the private sector.
Opinion

APEC should look to business for leadership

Regional grouping has lost its luster as a force for trade liberalization

16 November 2022
Joe Biden, Fumio Kishida and Narendra Modi participate in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework launch event in Tokyo on May 23: The IPEF should have a collective economic self-defense mechanism.
Opinion

IPEF should defend Asian states against Chinese economic coercion

U.S. can energize talks with discussion of EU-style collective protection tools

11 November 2022
The yen strengthened against the dollar following a report showing that inflation is easing in the U.S. (Photo by Koji Uema)
Currencies

Yen surges to six-week high on signs of easing U.S. inflation

Currency, stock markets react to prospect that Fed will slow rate hikes

11 November 2022
Demand for a wide range of semiconductors has dropped sharply after prolonged supply shortages. (Photo by Wataru Ito)
Semiconductors

Intel, Samsung, Micron brace for slump as chip cycle tips downward

Economic slowdown chills tech demand, leaving semiconductor inventories glutted

29 October 2022
U.S. President Joe Biden greets a worker as he arrives to speak about investments in infrastructure in Los Angeles on Oct. 13: Is it possible for unelected central bankers to ask the government in a democratic society to trim their fiscal plans?
Opinion

Spare some sympathy for central bankers

Favorable supply-side conditions are gone and fiscal activism poses challenge

25 October 2022
Attitudes on China have hardened on both sides of the political aisle in the U.S.
US-China tensions

Beyond chips, U.S. lawmakers urge tougher line on Chinese deals

Democrats and Republicans seek probes into transactions in rail and land

25 October 2022
Bank of Japan data suggests that the Oct. 21 yen-buying intervention dwarfed last month's.(Photo by Masaru Shioyama)
Currencies

Japan spent $37bn in record intervention to support yen: estimate

Moves on consecutive trading days hint at defense line of 150

25 October 2022
The U.S. Federal Reserve published in September a projection foreseeing policy rates as high as 6% or more in the next two years.
Finance

Most Japanese banks risk losses from steep U.S. rate hikes: BOJ

Japan's central bank conducts stress test against forecast 6% fed rate

22 October 2022