Day: April 5, 2017

    Donald Trump, US president, is to meet Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, at Mar-a-Lago in Florida this week. Discussions of economics seem likely to focus on China’s trade and exchange rate policies. This would be a mistake even if the US president’s views of trade were not mistakenly fixated on bilateral imbalances. Far more challenging and important is integrating China into the financial system. US policymakers should worry about China’s capital account, not its current account. That is where danger now lies. Why does the capital account matter more? The answer is that this is where two interrelated aspects of an economy interact with the world economy: macroeconomic balances between savings and investment; and the financial system. In both respects, the Chinese econ...

    A Malaysian MP said girls as young as nine were physically and spiritually ready for marriage, as the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country passed a law on sexual offences against children without criminalising child marriage. Shabudin Yahaya, a member of the Barisan Nasional coalition, made the comments in response to a proposal by an opposition member of parliament to amend the Sexual Offences Against Children bill to include a ban on child marriages. The proposal was voted down by the majority of parliament. They reach puberty at the age of nine or 12. And at that time, their body is already akin to them being 18 years old. So physically and spiritually, it is not a barrier for the girl to marry,’ Shabudin said on Tuesday during a debate on the bill. He also said ther...