Finance

October 22: South Korea’s central bank held its base rate at 3.00% on Thursday,...

South Korea’s Kospi lost 5.46% on Tuesday, wiping out more than 800 trillion won of market value, as fears over Chinese memory chips and the AI rally hit Asia’s chip stocks. Our tables show the losses, the foreign selling and Wednesday’s rebound.

Singapore’s GDP grew 5.4% year on year in the third quarter, down from 6.2% but above forecasts, as manufacturing slowed. The central bank left its exchange-rate policy unchanged. Our tables compare the quarters and the MAS decision.

The GST Council recommended removing arrest powers from GST law, raising the prosecution threshold from ₹1 crore to ₹5 crore and cutting the general penalty to ₹10,000. Our tables compare the old and proposed rules and the refund timelines.

A day after the RBI raised the repo rate to 5.50%, PNB, Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank, Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and Tamilnad Mercantile Bank raised their repo-linked lending rates by 0.25%. Our tables list the new rates and the EMI impact.

The RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50% and shifted its stance to “calibrated tightening”. We list the RBI’s forecasts, the repo rate’s path since 2023 and our EMI calculations for home loans.

G7 leaders have agreed to release 100 million barrels of crude and diesel from emergency reserves over four months, with diesel front-loaded in the first 20 days. Brent fell 1.48% to $100.80 after the announcement.

The US 10-year Treasury yield touched 5.34% on Thursday, its highest level since 2002. Borrowing costs in Britain, France and Japan are also at multi-decade highs.

Gross GST collections rose 14.7% to ₹2,03,521 crore in September 2026, the third straight month above ₹2 lakh crore. Import-linked collections grew 25.9%, far faster than domestic collections at 10.1%.

China's official manufacturing PMI rose to 50.1 in September, ending two months of contraction, and services also returned to growth. A private survey hit a five-month high, but input prices jumped and hiring stayed weak.

From October 1, subsidised LPG needs biometric Aadhaar e-KYC, bulk deposits start at ₹3 crore, late birth and death registration gets stricter, and NRI property buyers no longer need a TAN. What each change means for you.

Profits at China's major industrial firms rose 15.7% in January-August to 5.27 trillion yuan, but August growth slowed to 4.2%. Electronics profits more than doubled on AI demand and drove 62% of the gain, while utilities and consumer sectors lagged.