Reuters

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's cabinet on Tuesday approved tax measures to boost domestic tourism during the low season, Deputy Finance Minister Paopoom Rojanasakul said.

The measures, which cover the period from May to November, include tax deductions for companies organising conventions and seminars, he said.

Additional measures were designed to increase domestic travel to secondary cities, including allowing income tax deductions for... (continue reading...)

(Reuters) - UBS raised its year-end 2024 forecast for the MSCI All Country (AC) World index to 830 from 800 on Tuesday, citing improving equity risk appetite, optimism around artificial intelligence and a potential slowing of U.S. wage growth.

The brokerage's current forecast gives a 6% 'upside' potential by the end of the year for the benchmark index, which is used to gauge the broader global equity market performance.

Expectations of... (continue reading...)

(Reuters) - Myanmar's junta is cracking down on gold and foreign exchange traders and agents selling foreign real estate, with 35 arrests announced in the last two days as part of efforts to stabilise its rapidly depreciating currency.

State media said these include five people charged with illegally selling condominium units in Thailand and 14 people arrested for allegedly destabilising the foreign currency exchange rate.

The kyat... (continue reading...)

By Joe Cash and Kevin Yao

BEIJING (Reuters) - A plunge in China's new housing construction is fuelling hopes the battered property sector is finally coming to terms with chronic oversupply, but a clean-up of bad assets is the missing policy piece that keeps Japan-like stagnation fears alive.

On paper, the world's second-largest economy is almost where the U.S. and Spain were when their late 2000s property crises began to stabilise, with... (continue reading...)

By Ellen Zhang and Marius Zaharia

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese policymakers last month unveiled a slew of support measures for the property sector, including a nod to local governments to buy "some" unsold apartments and turn them into affordable housing.

Authorities hope that over time, improving access to affordable housing could provide utility to some of the excess construction undertaken in the boom years and that it may... (continue reading...)