MONEY MASTER

  Key Takeaways: Record Cash Decline : Japanese households reduced their collective cash holdings by 3.4% year-on-year, marking the largest drop since the Bank of Japan (BOJ) began tracking this data in 1998. By the end of December, their total cash holdings had fallen to ¥105.3 trillion (approximately US$707 billion or RM3.11 trillion). Inflation and Spending : The drop in cash is largely attributed to rising living costs as inflation impacts household finances. This comes after a period of cash hoarding during the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw a surge in cash savings. Cashless Trend : The shift towards cashless payments is contributing to the reduced need for physical cash. The adoption of digital payments and increased consumer spending are driving the change in how Japanese citizens handle their money. Rise in Investments : While cash holdings are declining, investment assets are on the rise. Investment trust holdings hit a record high, and individual investments in Japanese gov...

  Japan's consumer inflation rate is expected to rise for the fourth consecutive month in August, according to a Reuters poll of 20 economists. The core Consumer Price Index (CPI) , which excludes fresh food but includes energy items, is forecast to increase by 2.8% year-on-year , up from 2.7% in July. This ongoing inflation, driven by rising electricity, gas, and food prices due to rice shortages, continues to surpass the Bank of Japan's 2% target, increasing expectations for further rate hikes. Trade and Export Data Data due next week is expected to show that Japan's exports continued to grow in August, driven by a recovery in chip-related shipments . Exports are projected to have risen by 10% year-on-year , slightly below July's 10.3% increase. However, imports are anticipated to have grown by 13.4% , fueled by higher imports of computer and communication equipment, compared to a 16.6% rise in the previous month. This imbalance is likely to result in a trade ...

  Samsung Electronics , the world’s leading maker of smartphones, TVs, and memory chips, plans to cut up to 30% of its overseas staff in certain divisions, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter, as reported by Reuters. South Korea-based Samsung has instructed its subsidiaries worldwide to reduce sales and marketing staff by approximately 15% and administrative staff by up to 30% , according to two of the sources. This reduction will be implemented by the end of this year and will affect jobs across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa . While it is unclear how many employees will be affected and which specific countries and business units will experience the most significant impact, six additional people familiar with the matter confirmed Samsung’s plan for a global reduction in headcount. The sources, who requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the information, indicated that the scope and details of the job cuts have not been fully di...

Here is an inspiring story on financial bailout that I get from a forum and thought of sharing it in this blog while planning my financial goals for the year 2011 since for the past two years, we heard a lot of financial bailout, but do we really know what it is and how it works? I hope the story can provide more knowledge for us on the financial bailout which is happening over the past two years. It is a slow day in a damp little Irish town. The rain is beating down harshly, and all the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the town, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. The owner gives him some room-keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butche...

I posted something on The Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011 last week and get a comment from a reader named Aaron asking on how the Global Competitiveness Index is calculated by the World Economic Forum. The following is his comment aaron said... So how is the Global Competitiveness Index calculated and what does this say about the economy, as I see that Canada has slipped down one place too? As we all know, all these reports and indexes are just number that the World Economic Forum put in based on their perception using some of the guidelines from the forum. To me, the drop of a country in the Global Competitiveness Index means one and only thing - too many red tapes which makes it difficult to do a business with the nation. Well, that is just my opinion. Anyway after getting the comment from Aaron, I feel that it is also good for me to learn new stuff by learning how the Global Competitiveness Index is calculated by the World Economic Forum, thus I do a search from the Wor...

The US which has just lost the pole position to Switzerland in the Global Competitiveness Report not long ago slips another two places in the latest report by the World Economic Forum, overtaken by Sweden and Singapore. Malaysia also slipped 2 places while the United Kingdom which has recently slipped move back up by one place to 12th position. Click on Read More to get the full list of The Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011 by World Economic Forum . Country/Economy GCI 2010 GCI 2009 Change 2009-2010 Rank Score Rank Switzerland 1 5.63 1 0 Sweden 2 5.56 4 2 Singapore 3 5.48 3 0 United States 4 5.43 2 -2 Germany 5 5.39 7 2 Japan 6 5.37 8 2 Finland 7 5.37 6 -1 Netherlands 8 5.33 10 2 Denmark 9 5.32 5 -4 Canada 10 5.30 9 -1 Hong Kong SAR 11 5.27 11 0 ...

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The global economy crisis has led the central banks all over the world to reduce the interest rates to close to 0% which is the all time low. With interest rates that low, borrowing has been cheap which can indirectly spurs the economy - low interest rates, company can borrow to for company expansion, people can borrow more to buy properties and people are forced to spend their money or savings. In fact, the global stock market has been rallying non-stop since March 2009 because of low interest rates and this lead to the presumption that global economy has recovered, although the jobless in the United States stays at 10%. Some has the feeling that the stock market and commodities rally was led by low interest rate because people starting to treat stock market as just another legalized casino. Nevertheless, I do believe we are on the way of recovery but this road is expected to have a lot of potholes. With recovery on the way, central banks will be slowly starting to raise the interest...

I believe that nobody ever suspects what happened to Lehman Brothers about a year ago would actually took place. And if that is not enough, let us take a look at one of the struggles that the Wall Street wizard, J. Christopher Flowers had to endure lately. Of late, Flowers is struggling to salvage a series of ill-timed investments that he made just before the financial crisis got really ugly and dragged already distressed institutions down further than he thought possible. His billion-dollar stakes in Japan's Shinsei Bank and in Hypo Real Estate and HSN Nordbank, both in Germany have crumbled. Such is the impact of what many claimed to be the worst economic crisis ever since the Great Depression. Probably some of us want to know how the economic crisis all started? Not long ago, a US homeowner did something that he hadn't done for quite a while. He sold his house for less than the listed price. When enough other sellers did the same, the house prices that on average had more t...