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 1800th train of "Yangtze River Train" started this year and completed the annual operation task 20 days ahead of schedule. On December 11th, on the first anniversary of normal operation, the 1799th and 1800th trains of "Yangtze River Train" started from Xianglushan Station in Wuhan and Chengxiang Station in Chengdu respectively, and completed the annual operation task 20 days ahead of schedule. "Yangtze River Train" is a hot-metal combined transport train in Sichuan to solve the "dam-breaking difficulty" of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River and improve the transportation capacity of the golden waterway of the Yangtze River. It was launched on December 10, 2023 and reached the first thousand-train target after eight months of operation. Luo Sheng, director of the transportation marketing department of Shudao Railway Operation Group and general manager of Shudao Banlie Branch, said that "Changjiang Banlie" is the fastest-growing train product in Sichuan with the shortest time for over 1,000 trains.Hua Fu Securities completed the capital increase and share expansion of over 4.7 billion yuan, and the Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange issued a closing announcement: the capital increase and share expansion project of Hua Fu Securities was launched. There were 17 participants in this capital increase, including 4 original shareholder units and 13 new investors, with a total investment of about 4.757 billion yuan. According to China, a brokerage firm, Hua Fu Securities' capital increase and share expansion has attracted wide attention in the market, becoming the largest equity financing case in the securities industry this year.
The 10-year main contract of treasury bond futures rose in the afternoon, hitting a record high. The 10-year main contract of treasury bond futures rose in the afternoon and now rose by 0.17% to 108.335 yuan, hitting a record high. In addition, the 30-year main contract rose by 0.27%, the 5-year main contract rose by 0.07%, and the 2-year main contract rose by 0.03%.Samsung Electronics shares rose 3%.Kuwait set the price of crude oil sold to the United States in January at a premium of $4.10 per barrel.
Musk is going to melt the Statue of Liberty? Musk also responded to the rumors of foreign media. Recently, a screenshot appeared on the American network. The content was that CNN published a report saying that Musk, a well-known American entrepreneur, was going to melt the Statue of Liberty in the United States to make a limited edition electric pickup truck. However, Reuters later denied that the CNN report was forged. A spokesman for CNN also told Reuters that the CNN report in the screenshot was forged, and CNN had never published such a report. At present, Musk himself has responded to this matter in a teasing tone on his social platform X. Musk wrote in three posts: "No, I will melt it 1000% (Statue of Liberty)"; "With a laser eye from space"; "and then cast it again before no one notices";Minister of Finance Lan Foan attended and delivered a speech at the launching ceremony of the China-World Bank Group Global Ecosystem and Transformation Center. On December 8, the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank jointly held the launching ceremony of the China-World Bank Group Global Ecosystem and Transformation Center (hereinafter referred to as the Global Center). Lan Foan, Minister of Finance, delivered an opening speech with Peng Anjie, President of the World Bank, and signed a memorandum on the Global Center and an agreement on the renewal of the China-World Bank Group Partnership Fund. Liao Minyi, Vice Minister of Finance, and Philo, Vice President of the East Asia and Pacific Region of the World Bank, made closing remarks. More than 100 Chinese and foreign representatives from more than 20 embassies and international organizations in China, as well as relevant domestic departments and research institutions attended the event. Lan Foan emphasized that in the past decade, the central government has invested nearly 6 trillion yuan to fully guarantee the construction of beautiful China. The "gold content" of China's ecological environment has improved significantly, and the "green content" of its development has increased significantly. At the same time, China has assumed the responsibility of a big country, demonstrated its role as a big country, and achieved a major transformation from a participant to a leader in global environmental governance. China is willing to take the global center as a bridge, share China's experience in ecological protection and development, and embark on the road of green transformation together with other countries.Sources: The Bank of Japan tends to keep interest rates unchanged next week. Five sources familiar with the Bank of Japan's thinking said that the Bank of Japan tends to keep interest rates unchanged next week because policymakers tend to spend more time examining overseas risks and clues about salary increase next year. Any similar decision will increase the possibility that the Bank of Japan will raise interest rates at its meeting in January or March next year, when there will be more information about the wage increase next year. The source also said that there was no consensus within the Bank of Japan on the final decision, and some people in the Committee still believed that Japan had met the conditions for raising interest rates in December. This decision will depend on each member's belief in the possibility of achieving wage-driven sustained price increases in Japan. If upcoming events, such as next week's meeting of the Federal Reserve, trigger another sharp fall in the yen, thus intensifying inflationary pressure, the Bank of Japan may also agree to raise interest rates. But overall, many BoJ policymakers seem to be in no hurry to pull the trigger.