Australian start-up AsiaCarGroup has launched the first online marketplace for cars in Cambodia, mykhmercar.com, according to a company statement.

The website allows local individual sellers and car dealers to easily, quickly and securely sell their cars, motorbikes and trucks using the platform and find buyers faster than before, according to the release.

AsiaCarGroup is part of Emerging Classifieds Ventures Pty Ltd, which operates online marketplaces for cars and real estate in early-stage emerging markets around the world. It manages more than 110 websites in 90 different countries.

 Through experience gained in other frontier markets around the world, AsiaCarGroup is currently offering local car dealers a ‘software as a service’ (SaaS) customer relationship management (CRM) platform for local car dealers to better manage their inventory.

“Mykhmercar.com allows individual local sellers as well as professionals to find their buyer in a more efficient way, using the efficiency of the online platform and its ecosystem,” the release said.

With around 12.5 million internet users in the country – including more than 51 per cent of the national population using social media (some 8.4 million users) – Cambodians are increasingly using online services to buy and sell goods, AsiaCarGroup said.

Cambodia currently has at least 500,000 cars on the road and of these 90 per cent are second-hand vehicles. – The Phnom Penh Post

ICP rises to $68.31/barrel due to geopolitical issues

The Indonesian Crude Price (ICP) rose 7.4 per cent to US$68.31(Bt2173.16) a barrel in April from the previous month due to geopolitical issues, including the United States’ tightening sanctions against Iran, according to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.

The ICP, used as a benchmark to calculate nontax income in the state budget, was 3.73 per cent higher in April than the previous month.

The ministry also cited that increasing political tensions in Libya and the US embargo on Venezuela’s crude exports could hamper oil supplies.

“The other factor is the shrinking of global crude oil supplies,” said the ministry in a press statement, adding that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries recorded that supplies declined 30.02 million barrels of oil per day [bopd] in April, the lowest since February 2015.

The ICP increase, according to the ministry, was also triggered by the termination of 700,000 bopd from Russia’s Druzhba pipeline to a number of European countries as well as maintenance at several oil fields in Ghana, Azerbaijan and Libya. – The Jakarta Post

Airbnb-style short-term home sharing still illegal

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will not be going ahead with proposed changes to the rules for short-term stays in private homes after extensive consultations since 2015 with diverse groups of stakeholders.

It announced on Wednesday that the minimum stay duration of three months will continue to apply. This means short-term accommodation of less than three consecutive months remains illegal.

The authority had considered a draft regulatory framework proposed last April to allow owners at strata-titled developments to accommodate short-term stays if they get 80 per cent consent from owners.

The framework also required owners to register their properties with the URA, and to abide by an annual cap of 90 days per unit for short term stays, among other requirements.

Based on a national survey commissioned by the URA in the second half of 2018, the majority of more than 1,000 private homeowners surveyed supported the proposed rules. – The Straits Times

Foreign sales pave way for Vinamilk’s GTN takeover

Tael Two Partners Ltd, one of the two major foreign stakeholders of GTNFood Joint Stock Company, has registered to offload its entire holding in the Vietnamese food company.

The deal will pave the way for Vinamilk to acquire a larger stake in the ownership of Moc Chau Milk.

The Singapore-based private equity fund registered to sell 55 million shares, equivalent to 22 per cent of GTNFoods, between May 10 and June 7 for divestment purpose.

The mode of transaction is to register to sell by the tender offer of Vinamilk, the fund said in its filing to the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange. – Viet Nam News

In particular, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), recently sealed a memorandum of agreement that renews their “firm commitment” to take on steps in addressing this crime.

BSP governor Benjamin Diokno, who also chairs the anti-money laundering body, and AMLC executive director Mel Georgie Racela signed the deal at the central bank recently.

The AMLC implements and enforces Republic Act No. 9160, also known as the “Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 (AMLA)” and RA No. 10168 known as the “Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012.”

“The AMLC ensures that the Philippines will not be used as a money laundering site for proceeds of any unlawful activity, and that the Philippines is secure from terrorism financing,” the central bank said in a statement.

“The AMLC, therefore, is empowered to investigate money laundering and terrorism financing; prosecute these crimes; and cause the confiscation of criminal proceeds.”

The AMLC also enforces compliance by covered persons with the provisions of the law, its implementing rules and regulations, and other AMLC issuances. The law authorises the council to impose administrative sanctions for their violations.

Pursuant to the New Central Bank Act, the BSP, on the other hand, exercises supervision over banks and quasi-banking operations of non-bank financial institutions. With the recent passage of its new charter, the BSP’s powers have now expanded to cover money service businesses, credit granting businesses and payment system operators.

The Singapore central bank said it will disclose data on its foreign exchange (forex) intervention operations, which comprise MAS’s net purchases of forex on a six-month aggregated basis, with a six-month lag from the end of the period.

Thus, the data would be released on a six-monthly basis and will begin with data for the second half of 2019. This works out to the first release date coming in July 2020.

Forex intervention is integral to MAS’s management of the Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate ($NEER). MAS said its forex intervention operations will remain focused on keeping the $NEER within its policy band to “keep inflation low over the medium term”.

“This further disclosure initiative will provide market participants a better indication of the actions that MAS has undertaken to implement its monetary policy stance, while preserving MAS’s operational effectiveness,” it said.

The disclosure of its $45 billion transfer of funds from the OFR to Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC is one of MAS’s firsts, and looks to be a move towards more transparency.

Currently, MAS discloses the amount its OFR stands at on a monthly basis, thus such a move would allow the financial community to understand any movements should figures change monthly.

As at April 2019, the OFR stood at $404 billion. As Singapore’s central bank, MAS manages the country’s OFR.

MAS said the $45 billion is the “excess” over what it deems necessary to maintain confidence in Singapore’s exchange rate-centred monetary policy and does not imply any reduction in Singapore’s total foreign reserves.

The fund transfer is slated to take place in May 2019, and will be invested on a longer-term basis with expected higher returns.

MAS said the fund transfer was prompted by its latest review which found it should be maintaining the OFR to at least 65 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on an ongoing basis.

The stock of OFR has “grown steadily over the years”, amounting to 82 per cent of GDP as at the first quarter of 2019, it said.

“This level of OFR will provide a sufficiently strong buffer against stresses in the global economy and markets, and underpin confidence in Singapore’s exchange rate-centred monetary policy,” MAS added.

MAS engages in market intervention operations to keep the $NEER within a policy band consistent with ensuring price stability, as the exchange rate plays a dominant role in determining core inflation in Singapore.

The OFR thus enables MAS to defend the stability of the $NEER during “times of speculative pressures of financial crises”, it said.

When asked about how the move may impact the Singapore dollar, Selena Ling, head of treasury research and strategy at OCBC Bank, said that in the near term, the Singapore dollar will be more reactive to newsflow on escalations in US-China trade tensions and ongoing US dollar strength and yuan volatility.

Greater transparency on the net forex intervention operation data will also be welcome for market watchers and non-agent banks, albeit with a six-month lag, she added.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) data showed that headline inflation last month was the lowest since the 2.9 per cent posted in December 2017.

At the end of April, the rate of increase in prices of basic commodities averaged 3.6 per cent, within the government’s 3-4 per cent target range for the entire year.

The authority said the annual increase in the heavily weighted food and non-alcoholic beverages index slowed down to 3 per cent from 3.4 per cent a month ago and 5.9 per cent a year ago.

 The country’s inflation rate will likely continue its downtrend over the next few months and stay within the government’s target range until next year, the central bank said after the government announced that the pace of price increases in April slowed further to 3 per cent.

At the same time, however, central bank governor Benjamin Diokno warned that domestic consumer prices could still spike because of rising crude oil prices in the international market and the effects of the ongoing El Nino dry spell on local agricultural output.

Balancing this are predictions of a weakening global economic environment, which could pose downside risks to inflation, said the head of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

“Against these upside and downside risks, the BSP continues to keep a close watch over price developments in the country,” Diokno said, noting that the relevant data were to be weighed carefully by the monetary board at its meeting on the direction of local interest rates on Wednesday.

The central bank expects that inflation will settle within the range of 2-4 per cent for both 2019 and 2020 – a target that has been supported by recent data – after last year’s fastest pace of increases in nine years.

The BSP chief earlier acknowledged that banks had been complaining to him of tight liquidity in the financial markets – an offshoot of the 175-basis point increase in interest rates last year to fight off inflation – but added that some central bank officials remained unconvinced that monetary policy should be eased at this point.

The April inflation data was welcomed by the private financial sector, which continues to advocate for lower interest rates to encourage loan growth that, in turn, is needed to drive Philippine economic growth.

“With the inflation objective in hand and growth seen to take a hit in the first half, it would be about time for BSP to ease off the brakes from crisis mode and finally nudge on the accelerator to zoom to faster growth,” ING Bank Manila’s senior economist Nicholas Mapa said in statement.

For Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, the recent inflation reading validated government efforts toward stabilising inflation so that the country’s buoyant economic growth, along with key reforms, remained unimpeded.

In the case of rice, easing prices were attributed by Pernia to stable supply in the country, with more imports expected to arrive in the country as the Rice Liberalisation Act took effect.

With rice tariffication in full swing, prices of the Filipino staple food are expected to be cheaper by up to 7 pesos (Bt4.27) a kilo.

But Pernia, who heads the state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), warned of possible prices increases because of the prolonged dry spell due to El |Nino, pending utility rate hike petitions and volatile international oil prices.

SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong made the statement at a banking forum titled “For Vietnamese Banks’ Further Development” held in Hanoi on Wednesday.

Hong said the central bank targeted a 13 per cent increase of total means of payment and credit growth of 14 per cent this year, but adding adjustments could be made in accordance with the situation.

The SBV would help stabilise the monetary market through the use of open market operation (OMO) measures to regulate liquidity among credit institutions.

At the same time, the central bank would also regulate the interest rate and USD/dong exchange rate policies in line with the Government’s targets and market movements, Hong said.

She said the SBV would take intervention measures when necessary to stabilise the local foreign currency market.

With a net purchase of US$8.35 billion to date this year, the central bank has increased the nation’s foreign reserve to some $69 billion. The result was positive as it was many times higher than the country’s $711 million trade surplus in the first four months of the year.

The ample foreign currency source would help the SBV more actively regulate the exchange rate and easily take measures to stabilise the forex market if necessary.

Hong also believed the stabilisation of the USD/dong exchange rate would create favourable conditions for the country’s production and business, FDI attraction and exports.

By the end of the first quarter of 2019, the USD/dong exchange rate listed at commercial banks was relatively stable compared to the beginning of the year, with the US dollar appreciating only 25 dongs against the end of last year.

Experts forecast the exchange rate would remain stable in the second quarter, buoyed by a high interest rate gap between the Vietnamese dong and dollar deposits, robust FDI sources, a healthy current account surplus and no interest rate hikes expected by the US Federal Reserve (Fed) and other large countries’ central banks.

Vo Tri Thanh, former deputy director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said the interest and exchange rates had been relatively stable in the first months of 2019.