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Asian Chemical Connections

Thrifty times call for new strategies

At an investors conference call yesterday, Indira Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo, said she expects the ‘age of thrift’ in consumer spending to continue into next year. As consumers in the developed world are placing value at the top of their agendas, the company’s efforts in the future will be on developing lower priced […]

Will Japan’s rate rise do any good?

The Bank of Japan has decided to raise interest rates – from 0.25 to 0.5%. This could weaken the yen, thereby damaging the country’s export-led recovery. For the petrochemical players, the benefits of a 21-year low yen have been offset by the increased cost of importing naphtha. The bank is also banking on last summer’s […]

Japan is still in search of a consumer recovery

Japan’s fourth quarter GPD growth of 4.8%, which was released today, exceeded economists’ expectations. However, although consumer spending rose by 1.1% on an annualised basis, this merely compensated for the 1.1% decline in Q3. In addition, wages rose by only 0.2% last year, barely up from a decade-long decline. Companies are preferring to pay down […]

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