international digital currency Overview

Indian Trade Secretary: India will need more imports to maintain high growth, and should not be too worried about the trade deficit.Indian Rupee's exchange rate against the US dollar fell below 84.86, a record low.South Korea will gradually reduce the rice planting area to cope with the decline in demand. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs of South Korea said on Thursday that South Korea will strive to gradually reduce the rice field area to solve the problem of declining demand and adopt environmentally-friendly planting methods. Due to the change of diet structure, the annual rice consumption of Koreans has decreased, and the per capita rice consumption has dropped significantly from 61 kg in 2018 to 56.4 kg in 2023. At present, the total area of rice fields in South Korea is about 698,000 hectares, and the government says it plans to reduce the area of rice fields by 80,000 hectares next year. In addition, by 2029, the planting area of environmentally friendly rice will be expanded from 35,000 hectares this year to 68,000 hectares. The government will also allocate 244 billion won (about 170 million US dollars) to subsidize farms that grow strategic crops other than rice, such as wheat, beans and barley, which is an increase from 186.5 billion won this year.

Kuwait set the price of crude oil sold to the Mediterranean region and northwest Europe in January at a discount of $4.90 per barrel.Citigroup slightly lowered South Korea's GDP growth forecast to 1.5% next year. It is expected that the Bank of Korea will cut interest rates next month. Citigroup released a report saying that considering the worse economic sentiment in South Korea this month, it slightly lowered its GDP forecast for this year and next year by 0.1 percentage point to 2.1% and 1.5% respectively. The bank slightly lowered Korea's GDP growth forecast for the last quarter of this year by 0.1 percentage point to rise by 0.3% quarterly, and raised its GDP growth forecast for the first quarter of next year by 0.1 percentage point to rise by 0.6% quarterly. Looking forward to the first quarter of next year, the bank expects South Korea to adopt a combination of expansionary policies, including the Bank of Korea's expected interest rate cut to 2.75% in mid-January, and the government's expected additional budget of 30 trillion won (equivalent to about 1.1% of GDP next year). It is expected that the Bank of Korea will cut interest rates by 25BP each in January, April, July and October next year, and the final interest rate is expected to be 2%.The personal pension system has been extended to the whole country, and banks have issued assessment tasks: before the first quarter, each person must complete at least 20 accounts, and the personal pension system has been extended from 36 pilot cities (regions) to the whole country. The reporter learned that major banks have already laid out in advance in non-pilot areas and started the work of making an appointment to open an account for personal pension funds. A staff member of the personal finance department of a state-owned bank told reporters that with the full roll-out of the personal pension system, their bank is preparing for a 100-day attack. The staff also revealed that at present, the bank has issued specific task indicators to employees. "Each employee needs to complete about 20 to 30 account opening tasks, from now until the end of the first quarter of next year." (per meridian)

Shenzhen Component Index opened at 10942.05 points in the afternoon, up 0.86%. The GEM index opened at 2,297.69 points in the afternoon, up 1.60%. The small and medium-sized board opened at 11,810.25 points in the afternoon, an increase of 0.61%; The Shanghai Composite Index opened at 3,455.06 points in the afternoon, up 0.66%. The Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 Index opened at 4023.60 points in the afternoon, up 0.87%.Thailand's consumer confidence index rose to 56.9 in November, boosted by stimulus measures, and Thailand's consumer confidence index rose from 56.0 to 56.9 in November.Chief Economic Adviser of India: Continuing to support high-quality capital expenditure will be the driving force to maintain India's economic growth.