Day: January 26, 2026

Young consumers’ spending on anime, comics, games and pop toys, alongside growing wellness expenditures by senior consumers, will continue to shape China’s consumption landscape this year, according to HSBC Holdings. Against this backdrop, the coming nine-day Spring Festival holiday was set to benefit the food, hotel and tourism sectors, HSBC said in a trend report, adding that this tailwind would propel first-quarter growth in the food sector, particularly for snack food and dairy… South China Morning Post

Chinese lending to Africa dropped by nearly half to US$2.1 billion in 2024 compared with the previous year, according to a new report. The fall, from US$3.9 billion in 2023, was part of a decade-long trend. Lending had been on an upwards trajectory since 2006 and peaked between 2012 and 2018 – a period that saw the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative when lending passed the US$10 billion mark each year. At its height, in 2016, Beijing lent US$28.8 billion, but the total has not passed the… South…

Gold surged to an all-time high of US$5,000 an ounce on Monday, with analysts forecasting further gains as the precious metal is increasingly viewed as a strategic hedge amid heightened geopolitical risks linked to the current US administration’s foreign policy shifts and a growing push for de-dollarisation. “We see the recent move as justifiable, given the rise in geopolitical risks and [the] macro environment,” said Alexandra Symeonidi, a senior corporate credit and sustainability analyst with… South China Morning Post