China

Over 36,000 new houses were sold in 30 cities in mid-June.

It already rose 16.8% YoY in April 2019.

Guangzhou accounted for 60% of transactions of over $113.39m.

Growth was driven by China where real estate investments surged to $17b.

To mitigate cost impact, firms could embrace AI or start operations in Africa or South Asia.

China remains the top source market, accounting for 55.8% of Asian passengers. Asia’s cruise passenger source market hit a new high in 2018, with 4.24 million people going on an ocean cruise, up 4.6% YoY, according to data released by Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). Most of the source markets in Asia saw year-on-year gains in 2018, including Singapore (39.9% to 373,000), India (28.1% to 221,000), Indonesia (54.9% to 72,000), Philippines (49.1% to 61,000), South Korea (13.5% to 44,000), Thailand (14.5% to 30,000) and Vietnam (53.7% to 10,000). Meanwhile, data showed that mainland China retained its dominance as a source market, accounting for 55.8% of all Asian passengers, though the Chinese market has been going through a period of adjustment and saw a marginal 1.6% decline in passengers. The more measured increase in Asia’s passenger volume did not come as a surprise, as cruise ship capacity dipped in 2018 after years of rapid expansion in this region, according to the report. Asia’s slowdown in ship capacity is due to the strong demand for cruise ships worldwide, and reduced short cruise itinerary options ex-mainland China. “In the next few years, cruising in Asia is expected to continue growing in popularity with the arrival of new ships in 2019/2020 including from Costa Cruises, Genting Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean International and MSC Cruises,” CLIA managing director for Australasia & Asia Joel Katz explained. Asia continues to be the cruise industry’s third largest market after North America and Europe, the CLIA figures show, maintaining a 14.8% share of the total global ocean passenger volume (28.5 million) for 2018.

Chinese corporates' onshore funding costs are forecasted to fall further.

The energy sector saw the most defaults of $6.94b.

Chinese startups clinched almost 1 in 3 global VCs.

The surge in exit values outpaced the previous all-time high of $125b recorded in 2014.

The country is aiming to build a commodity circulation system that fits the modern economic system.

Investments in infrastructure and construction are expected to boost growth.

China Tower Corp, Xiaomi Corp and Meituan Dianping had the largest IPOs in H2 2018.

It was led by online payment provider Ant Financial’s mammoth $14b series C funding round.

The total investment is almost double that recorded in end-2016.

It offset the 23% decline in China’s outbound M&A activity which dropped for the third consecutive year.