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%.Huaxi Energy signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the government of Jiangbul State, Kazakhstan. According to the official news of Huaxi Energy, on December 11th, representatives of Jiangbul State Government, Huaxi Energy and Safaa Energy of Kazakhstan jointly signed a strategic cooperation agreement on developing renewable energy (wind energy, solar energy and hydropower), energy conservation and garbage power generation-related projects in Kazakhstan.The Hang Seng Index rose 1.4%, led by Tencent Holdings Limited. The Hang Seng Index rose 1.4% to 20,435.93 in Hong Kong. Tencent Holdings contributed the most to the index rise, rising by 2.4%. Mengniu Dairy has the largest increase, up by 7.0%. In midday trading, 71 of 83 stocks rose and 10 fell; All stocks rose, led by industrial and commercial stocks.
Chief Economic Adviser of India: Continuing to support high-quality capital expenditure will be the driving force to maintain India's economic growth.Speaker of South Korea's National Assembly: Yin Xiyue will never tolerate declaring martial law in order to warn the National Assembly. On the 12th, South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Yu Yuanzhi said that Yin Xiyue "declared emergency martial law in order to warn the National Assembly, which is absolutely intolerable in the constitutional order, because it means that the democratic constitutional order can be destroyed for political purposes, and the basic rights of the people can also be used as a means for political purposes". Yu Yuanzhi also said that today's presidential talk cannot lead to other misjudgments or social chaos, and Congress will deal with all possible situations.Afternoon comments on Hong Kong stocks: Hang Seng Index rose by 1.72%, Hang Seng Technology Index rose by 2.55%, Hong Kong stocks closed at noon, Hang Seng Index rose by 1.72% and Hang Seng Technology Index rose by 2.55%. Chinese brokerage stocks and consumer stocks were among the top gainers, with China Merchants Securities, Mengniu Dairy and Tongcheng Travel up over 7% and over 5% respectively.
Speaker of South Korea's National Assembly: Yin Xiyue will never tolerate declaring martial law in order to warn the National Assembly. On the 12th, South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Yu Yuanzhi said that Yin Xiyue "declared emergency martial law in order to warn the National Assembly, which is absolutely intolerable in the constitutional order, because it means that the democratic constitutional order can be destroyed for political purposes, and the basic rights of the people can also be used as a means for political purposes". Yu Yuanzhi also said that today's presidential talk cannot lead to other misjudgments or social chaos, and Congress will deal with all possible situations.Samsung has lowered its mobile phone production target to 229 million units next year. Samsung Electronics has set a mobile phone production target for 2025, and plans to produce about 229 million smartphones. This goal includes 179.4 million units produced by ourselves and 49.9 million units produced by joint design and manufacturing (JDM). Compared with the initial plan of 237 million units in October this year, this target has been lowered by 7-8 million units, only slightly higher than the shipment forecast for the whole year of 2024.Lan Foan, Minister of Finance, met with Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. On December 9, Lan Foan, Minister of Finance, met with Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. The two sides exchanged views on the global and China economic situation, the focus of China's fiscal policy and the debt of developing countries, accompanied by Liao Min, Vice Minister of Finance.