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Xinjiang to hold winter tourism trade fair

The 14th Xinjiang Winter Tourism Trade Fair is scheduled to open unveiled in the city of Altay, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, on Nov 27, when the region will embrace its golden period for winter tourism this year, local authorities said on Wednesday. The trade fair will last from November 2019 to March 2020. More than 400 cultural and tourist activities will be launched during the period, according to the region's culture and tourism department.

ADB, Alibaba ink rural development pact

The Asian Development Bank and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Wednesday to boost rural development in China. Cooperation between the two sides will focus on three areas that highlight smart farming and internet-plus agriculture technology applications, ecological management, and rural solid waste value streams. "ADB and Alibaba each have unique resources and advantages they can use to support rural development, protect the urban and rural environment, improve the safety and quality of agricultural production, and increase farmers' incomes," said ADB Vice-President Ahmed Saeed.

Boeing delivers aircraft to Juneyao Airlines

US aircraft giant Boeing Co on Wednesday delivered the sixth 787-9 Dreamliner to China's Juneyao Airlines, the 100th direct-buy 787 jet by the Chinese airline industry. Boeing said the newly delivered airplane carries a special logo"100th 787 for China" on its nose to mark this new milestone. "We are honored to take delivery of this special airplane," said Wang Junjin, chairman of Juneyao Airlines, a Shanghai-based private carrier, at the delivery ceremony in Seattle, Washington state.

Federal Reserve to keep current policy stance

US Federal Reserve officials generally agree that the central bank's current policy stance "likely would remain" as long as the economy stays on track, according to the minutes of the Fed's latest monetary policy meeting released on Wednesday. "Most participants judged that the stance of policy, after a 25 basis point reduction at this meeting, would be well calibrated to support the outlook of moderate growth, a strong labor market, and inflation near the committee's symmetric 2 percent objective," said the minutes of the central bank's policy meeting in late October.

Cargo throughput rises at Hamburg port

Seaborne cargo handling in the first nine months of the year was "highly satisfactory" at Germany's largest harbor, the port of Hamburg announced on Wednesday. With seaborne cargo throughput up 3.2 percent at 104 million metric tons during the period, growth at Hamburg port "clearly exceeded the figures" from the major competitor ports in northern Europe, according to the port of Hamburg. "The growth trend evident since the beginning of the year was maintained," it stated. Container handling at the port was up by 6.9 percent to a total of 7 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs). With an increase of 3 percent and 2 million TEUs, around 30 percent of all containers handled in Hamburg had been bound for China, a port spokesperson said.

Mortgage applications decline by 2.2% in US

Mortgage applications decreased in the United States even as mortgage rates remained low, according to a report by Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). For the week ending Nov 15, the MBA's market composite index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 2.2 percent from a week earlier despite lower rates. Joel Kan, associate vice-president of economic and industry forecasting of MBA, attributed the decrease mainly to an 8 percent slide in refinance activity in the same period. The refinance index measures the activity to replace higher rate mortgages with lower rate mortgages.

Unemployment rate down in Mongolia

The unemployment rate in Mongolia decreased by 19.6 percent in the first 10 months of this year, compared with the same period last year, the country's National Statistical Office (NSO) said on Wednesday. A total of 21,900 people were recorded to be unemployed, 53.6 percent of whom were female. And the highest unemployment rate (56.5 percent) was registered among people aged 15-34. According to the NSO, 29 percent of the unemployed had university degrees. The total number of people in the Asian country's labor force stood at more than 1.3 million at the end of last month, the agency added.

Malaysia's October inflation rate up 1.1%

Malaysia's consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.1 percent year-on-year in October, official data showed. Malaysian Statistics Department said in a statement that the increase in the overall index was driven by the spending of alcoholic beverages and tobacco; miscellaneous goods and services; education; food and non-alcoholic beverages. On a monthly basis, the overall CPI rose 0.2 percent. In a note on Wednesday, MIDF Research said it projected Malaysia's inflation rate to average at 0.6 percent this year, lower than the one percent in 2018. "We expect food component to provide upside pressure for overall inflation in 2019 driven by low base effect and imported inflation, as Malaysia is a net importer of goods," said the research house.