HONG KONG — On Tuesday, China’s economic planning body detailed steps geared at stimulating the economy, but avoided large spending projects.

The piecemeal nature of the proposals unveiled Tuesday appeared to disappoint investors who had hoped for bigger moves, and Shanghai’s index lost 10% of its initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday, trading only 3% higher.

The head of the National Development and Reform Commission announced that the government will frontload 100 billion yuan ($14.1 billion) in expenditure from the 2025 budget, in addition to another 100 billion yuan for construction projects.

China Announces More Support For Economy But Holds Back On Major Spending Package

Overall, spending was significantly lower than the multi-trillion yuan levels predicted by analysts.

Zheng Shanjie, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China was still on track to meet its full-year economic growth objective of roughly 5%. He did, however, concede that the economy is facing challenges and that the global climate is becoming “more complex and extreme”.

China’s policymakers have struggled to accelerate growth since the COVID-19 outbreak ended. A slowdown in the property market has exacerbated the situation since consumer spending has lagged and global demand has dropped.

In a note, UBS top China economist Tao Wang stated that the market was “likely expecting a significant fiscal stimulus.”

A small package of 1.5 to 2 trillion yuan ($210 billion to $280 billion) is more reasonable to expect in the short term, she added, followed by another 2 to 3 trillion yuan ($280 billion to $420 billion) in 2025.

In September, China launched a monetary stimulus package that included reductions in mortgage rates and the amount of reserves required to be held on deposit with the central bank. Those and other measures were the most forceful efforts so far to lift the property industry out of its slump and accelerate growth.

On Tuesday, the NDRC announced additional measures aimed at increasing investment and spending, as well as assisting small and medium-sized firms that face a competitive disadvantage against major state corporations.

China Announces More Support For Economy But Holds Back On Major Spending Package

However, much of the information was focused on technical problems such as payment restrictions, project management, and the use of bonds for financing.

To combat dropping housing sales and home prices, Zheng promised “comprehensive policy measures to help stop the decline in the real estate market.”

“In response to volatility and declines in the stock market, we will introduce a series of powerful and effective measures to strive to boost the capital market,” he stated, providing no further information.

SOURCE | AP

STOCKHOLM – South Korean poet and novelist Han Kang received the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday for a beautiful and frightening body of work that, according to the Nobel committee, “confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.”

Han, a slow-burning international literary sensation who has won numerous accolades in South Korea and Europe, is the first Asian woman and South Korean writer to receive the Nobel Literature Prize. She received awards for books like “The Vegetarian” and “Human Acts,” which examine the anguish of being human and the wounds of Korea’s violent history.

Anna-Karin Palm, a Nobel literature committee member, stated that Han writes about “trauma, pain, and loss,” whether individual or collective, “with the same compassion and care.”

Han Kang Wins The Nobel Prize For Literature. She’s The First South Korean To Do So

“And this, I think, is something that is quite remarkable,” Mr. Palm added.

Anders Olsson, the Nobel committee chairman, complimented Han’s “empathy for the vulnerable, often female lives” of her characters.

“She has a unique awareness of the connections between body and soul, the living and the dead,” according to Olsson.

Han is the second South Korean to earn the Nobel Prize. The late former President Kim Dae-Jung received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his efforts to restore democracy in South Korea under the country’s previous military administration and improve relations with war-torn adversary North Korea.

Han told the Swedish Academy over the phone that she had just finished dinner with her son at home in Seoul when she received the news.

She stated that she was both “honored” and shocked to be South Korea’s first Nobel literature laureate.

“I grew up with Korean literature, and I feel very connected to it,” said Han, whose father and brother are both novelists. “So I hope this news is nice for Korean literature readers and my friends, writers.”

She added, “I’m going to have tea with my son and I’ll celebrate it quietly tonight.”

Han receives the Nobel Prize at a time when South Korean culture is gaining global traction, as seen by the recent success of films such as director Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite,” the Netflix survival drama “Squid Game,” and the global recognition of K-pop groups such as BTS and BLACKPINK.

Han, 53, won the International Booker Prize for fiction translated into English in 2016 for “The Vegetarian,” an unnerving novel about a woman who decides to stop eating meat, which has disastrous effects.

Accepting the honor, Han stated that creating novels “is a way of questioning for me.”

“I just try to complete my questions through the process of my writing and I try to stay in the questions, sometimes painful, sometimes — well — sometimes demanding,” she told me.

Han began publishing as a poet in 1993, followed by a short story collection in 1995 and a novel, “Black Deer,” in 1998.

“Greek Lessons” — about the interaction between a woman who can no longer speak and a teacher who is losing his sight — “Human Acts” and “The White Book,” a poetic novel based on the loss of Han’s older sister shortly after birth. “The White Book” was a nominee for the International Booker Prize in 2018.

“Human Acts,” described as “witness literature” by Nobel committee chair Olsson, is based on the real-life death of pro-democracy protestors in Han’s hometown of Gwangju in 1980. The novel earned Italy’s Malaparte Prize in 2017.

Her most recent novel, “We Do Not Part,” will be released in English next year. It also addresses a period in South Korea’s 20th-century history that saw the country go through war, the separation of the Korean peninsula, and tyranny. The story is about a 1948-1949 revolt on Jeju, an island south of the Korean peninsula, in which thousands of people were massacred.

Anders Karlsson, a lecturer at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies who has translated Han into Swedish, said he was “overjoyed” with the Nobel award.

He reported that Han’s “poignant, condensed” style has the ability to explain “difficult and dark passages in South Korean history … in quite open and inviting language that engages and does not deter the reader.”

Han Kang Wins The Nobel Prize For Literature. She’s The First South Korean To Do So

The literature prize has long been criticized for focusing too much on European and North American writers of style-heavy, story-light prose. It has also been male-dominated, with Han becoming only the 18th woman among its 120 laureates.

Six days of Nobel announcements began Monday, with Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun winning the medicine award. The physics prize went to two machine learning pioneers, John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton. On Wednesday, three scientists who discovered strong tools for decoding and even designing novel proteins received the chemistry prize.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be revealed on Friday, followed by the economics award on Monday.

The prize includes a financial reward of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a gift made by the award’s originator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel. The laureates will collect their honors at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

SOURCE | AP

(VOR News) – On Thursday, the Social Security Administration announced that a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment will be implemented in January for millions of Social Security recipients.

The cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, provides retirees with an average monthly increase of over $50, according to agency officials.

Social Security benefits are received by approximately 72.5 million individuals, including retirees, incapacitated individuals, and children. Nevertheless, retirees expressed concern that the increase would not be sufficient to counteract the increasing costs even before the announcement.

Sherri Myers, an 82-year-old retiree from Pensacola City, Florida, is currently seeking an hourly position at Walmart in order to supplement her income. “I am unable to consume nutritious food, despite my desire to do so.” While at the grocery store, I simply disregard vegetables due to their exorbitant cost.

The woman commented, “Even McDonald’s is expensive, so I have to be extremely selective about my food choices.” In 2024, recipients experienced a 3.2% increase in benefits, following an unusually high 8.7% increase in 2023 as a result of the highest inflation rate in 40 years.

Moderating inflation is indicated by the reduced increase in 2025.

Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley anticipates that the impending increase will provide recipients with some relief, as the agency is currently managing a record number of retirees, while funding is at an all-time low and inflation has decreased.

We tell those who believe the Social Security adjustment is insufficient, “You are not wrong.”

He pointed out that “in their older years, they have to spend their money on a different array of costs and expenses, including prescription drugs.” “I’ve heard the stories and it is a struggle for seniors,” said the representative.

He asserted that the actions taken by the Biden-Harris administration should result in a reduction in prescription drug expenses for a significant number of individuals.

The organization will commence informing beneficiaries of their revised benefit amount via letter in early December. Approximately 7.5 million recipients of Supplemental Security Income will commence receiving adjusted benefits on December 31.

It is anticipated that payroll taxes, which are withheld from employees and their employers to support the program, will increase to $176,100. The utmost earnings that were subject to payroll taxes from Social Security in 2024 were $168,600, a rise from $160,200 in 2023.

The announcement is being made in anticipation of the significant financial deficit that the national social insurance plan is expected to encounter.

The annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report, which was released in May, indicates that the program’s trust fund will be unable to sustain full payments beginning in 2035. The research indicates that the government will be able to cover only 83% of the scheduled payments if the trust fund is depleted.

Jo Ann Jenkins, CEO of AARP, stated in a statement, “There is more we must do to ensure that older Americans can continue to rely on Social Security.” AARP continues to advocate for Congress to collaborate across party lines in order to strengthen Social Security and establish a sustainable long-term solution for the nation.

Social Security proposals from Kamala Harris and Donald Trump differ.

Harris and Trump were interviewed by AARP in late August to ascertain their strategies for protecting the Social Security Trust Fund.

Harris pledged to compensate for the deficit by ensuring that billionaires and large corporations pay their equitable share of taxes and allocate the proceeds to the long-term protection and enhancement of Social Security.

Trump declared, “We will safeguard it through expansion.” I have no inclination to participate in any activities that are associated with the process of aging. That is not the course of action I will take. I was there for four years, as you are aware, and I never gave it a second thought. I will refrain from implementing any modifications to Social Security.

O’Malley asserts that there is a movement to implement an alternative index by the Social Security Administration that evaluates price fluctuations by analyzing the spending patterns of older individuals on commodities such as food, medicine, and health care. Subsequently, this index would be implemented to ascertain the increase in the cost of living.

The COLA is currently calculated using the Consumer Price Index, which is a market basket of consumer products and services. O’Malley asserts that lawmakers who advocate for the modification are “promoting an exceptionally sound policy.”

SOURCE: AP

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