Economists at Davos caution that Trump's intimidations might push nations away from the US dollar. They contend at the World Economic Forum that the US president's warnings directed at countries considering other currencies could prove adverse over time.

Economists at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday suggested that President Donald Trump's warnings to nations aiming to lessen their dependence on the U.S. dollar might instead speed up their departure from the American currency.

"Encouraging individuals to adopt your currency is tied to its ability to offer stability and a method of payment," commented Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economics professor, as part of a panel discussion at the event.

"If you're under threat, I believe it only strengthens the motivation to strive for diversity."

Should they not comply, Trump cautioned, the US would retaliate by imposing tariffs of 100 per cent on their goods.

"There's absolutely no possibility of the BRICS supplanting the U.S. Dollar in global commerce, and any nation attempting to do so should bid farewell to the United States," he posted on his social media site, Truth Social, at that time.

For many years, the US dollar has reigned supreme in worldwide commerce and has been the principal reserve currency stored by global central banks. However, its prominence is progressively being contested, with nations such as China striving to lessen their reliance on the dollar and globally promote their own currencies.

Haymans Fung of Standard Chartered Bank's 2025 Forecast for Marketing

Fung offers some guidance for marketers planning for the upcoming year: "Ensure your marketing plan genuinely corresponds with the business plan. Communicate with your stakeholders, comprehend the shortcomings and prospects, and confirm that your efforts are addressing the company's tangible issues.

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Kevin Huang, the Chief Operating Officer at SCMP, and Haymans Fung, who serves as the Global Head of Wealth and Retail Bank Marketing, as well as the Head of Wealth and Retail Bank Marketing in Hong Kong for Standard Chartered Bank.

When the final moments of 2024 faded into history at the stroke of midnight, Haymans Fung, who holds the titles of global head of wealth and retail bank marketing, as well as head of wealth and retail bank marketing for Hong Kong at Standard Chartered Bank, probably let out a breath of relief. The year had been a roller coaster ride for the financial institution with a history spanning more than 165 years, filled with hurdles and impressive accomplishments.

"She remarks on how swiftly 2024 has passed, while taking a moment to look back on the year. She found it rewarding, especially managing Hong Kong and other significant markets. She's impressed by the tremendous work they've done and takes great pride in their achievements."

Without a doubt, 2024 was a year full of significant events for Standard Chartered Bank. Their first-ever Family Office Forum in Hong Kong was attended by 80 ultra-rich families from around the world, featuring the famous Rockefeller family. This prestigious occasion not only solidified the bank's relationship with the world's super-rich, but it also displayed its proficiency in catering to the unique requirements of the ultra-affluent segment.

Enhancing the community. However, Fung's attention isn't solely on expanding the business.

"She emphasizes the significance of our actions being truly motivational and beneficial for the community," she articulated. "We possess a powerful platform, and it's essential that we utilize it to contribute and create a positive difference."

European Union import duties fail to curb influx of Chinese vehicles, BYD impacted by labor allegations: 7 key stories on electric vehicles

These include news on Chinese auto manufacturers' global strategies and the US prohibiting Chinese technology in intelligent cars – seven electric vehicle narratives that might have escaped your attention.

1. Despite EU tariffs, influx of Chinese electric vehicles continues, according to recent trade data.

Despite new tariffs imposed by the European Union, there has been an unexpected increase in the number of Chinese electric vehicle (EV) deliveries in December. This has raised concerns in the market that trade disputes between China and Europe may worsen by 2025.

2. Chinese electric vehicle titan, BYD, faces hurdles in Brazil amid allegations of 'slave-like' working conditions

Extended work schedules, bare sleeping platforms, and a single bathroom used by a large group of people – these are typically standard circumstances for Chinese construction workers. However, in Brazil, these are seen as intolerable "slave-like conditions". Although Brazil's economy is nowhere near the scale of China's, it surpasses the latter in terms of worker protection.

3. In 2024, trade restrictions on China reached an all-time high due to concerns about overproduction.

China's Zijin Mining competes with Glencore following a year of unprecedented profits. The gold and copper manufacturer's market value is equivalent to that of the worldwide commodity trading behemoth, Glencore.

The Chinese company, Zijin Mining Group, achieved an unprecedented yearly profit due to a surge in growth that put it on par with the international commodities behemoth, Glencore. However, the firm has decided to lower its production goals for the current year.

The company reported a 52% increase in net income for 2024, amounting to 32 billion yuan (approximately US$4.4 billion), according to a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange late Tuesday. The company's market value is now roughly equivalent to Glencore, following an increase in copper production and benefiting from record gold prices last year.

However, indications of a decrease in the rapid rate of growth are evident, as Zijin reduces its copper production goal by approximately 6 per cent to 1.15 million tons. The venture into lithium has also stumbled, following its negligible production last year and a significant cut in its 2025 production target by roughly 60 per cent to 40,000 tons.

Shares of Zijin saw a decrease of 1.1 per cent, dropping to HK$14.84 in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the standard Hang Seng Index experienced a 1.6 per cent decline.

Over the last ten years, the mining company has expanded rapidly, establishing itself as a significant international provider of copper. This was achieved by launching substantial new initiatives in the Democratic Republic of Congo and mainland China. Similar to its competitor, Rio Tinto Group, Zijin has identified lithium as a critical component of its future goals, with plans to become one of the largest global producers.

The surge in lithium has been hindered by a tumultuous market. Previous year, it delayed two new ventures in Argentina and Western China. A drastic drop of nearly 90% in the cost of the battery metal from 2022 has compelled a multitude of global companies to limit their growth strategies or reduce production.

Banks in Hong Kong brace for challenging times as the growth in profits for the last nine months decelerates. The net interest margin shrank to 1.5 per cent in the initial nine months of the previous year, down from 1.67 per cent in 2023, based on data from the HKMA.

Banks in Hong Kong reported the weakest profit increase in three years, caused by reduced net interest margins and an increase in unpaid loans, which counterbalanced earnings from wealth management.

The data revealed that the difference in the interest rates for loans and deposits, known as the net interest margin (NIM), for banks dropped to 1.5 per cent in the initial nine months of the previous year. This is a decrease from 1.67 per cent in 2023. In previous years, the NIM was recorded at 1.31 per cent in 2022, 0.98 per cent in 2021, and 1.18 per cent in 2020.

Banks continued to be profitable, however, we need to shift our attention towards problems with bad debt and the rising occurrence of financial frauds this year," stated Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang, the deputy CEO of HKMA, during a press conference on Wednesday.

Yue indicated that the initial data gathered from banks in the last quarter mirrored the trend observed in the first three quarters, suggesting that the complete annual data might reflect the same trend.

HSBC introduces HyQ, a 25-level office skyscraper in Qianhai aimed at fostering international cooperation. The bank believes there is considerable opportunity for business and trade partnership between Guangdong and Hong Kong.

The structure serves as the headquarters for HSBC China's Shenzhen division, HSBC Qianhai Securities, and HSBC Software Development Guangdong, which is a financial technology hub. According to the bank, this tower will act as a critical hub to accelerate business expansion in the Greater Bay Area. This area, encompassing various cities in the southern mainland, including Hong Kong and Macau, is expected by Beijing to emerge as a globally competitive economic region by 2035.

HSBC sees great opportunities for economic and trade partnerships between Guangdong and Hong Kong as more top-tier Chinese firms shift towards global innovation and growth, stated Peter Wong Tung-shun, HSBC's Chairman for the Asia-Pacific region, during Wednesday's inaugural event.

"Similar to this towering structure, we too possess extensive aspirations and eagerly anticipate enhancing collaboration with additional partners. Our aim is to significantly contribute to the growth of the Greater Bay Area as well as the reciprocal advancement of both the Chinese and global economies."

The Qianhai structure is set to accommodate facilities for securities and funding services, wealth administration, along with private and business banking. In addition, administrative support will be available on the premises.

In the previous week, officials from both Hong Kong and mainland China announced several steps to bolster and improve cross-border links. These involve a trade-finance facility worth 100 billion yuan and enhancements to the Bond Connect program. Furthermore, they mentioned, it will shortly be more straightforward for residents of Hong Kong to open bank accounts on the mainland without being physically present there.

ByteDance's Doubao 1.5 gives a new look to China's leading AI app

In certain benchmark tests, this proprietary model outperformed top models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Alibaba.

On Wednesday, the company headquartered in Beijing unveiled its proprietary multimodal model, Doubao 1.5 Pro, highlighting a "resource-efficient" training method which they claim doesn't compromise on performance.

ByteDance shared in a statement that the model has implemented a unified approach from the initial training phase to maintain a balance between superior performance and the most efficient inferencing cost. They also mentioned having created a server cluster that possesses adaptable support for lower-end chips, a strategy aimed at reducing the expenses related to AI infrastructure.

Major technology companies in China are making efforts to match the level of their American peers, despite facing financial limitations and restricted access to high-end chips. These challenges have urged them to enhance the efficiency of their AI models and improve their products within the nation's isolated market.

Performance assessments indicate that Doubao 1.5 Pro has outperformed in seven out of 14 evaluations. These evaluations were designed to test the model's understanding of language, mathematical and programming capabilities, specialized knowledge, visual comprehension, and logical reasoning skills.

Tencent intensifies its international AI initiatives by introducing its sophisticated Hunyuan 3D-generation system. The Hunyuan3D 2.0, an open-source system, is anticipated to reduce the difficulties of implementing AI models in various sectors including video games, social networking, and more.

The sophisticated setup comprises two fundamental elements: a form-creation module known as Hunyuan3D-DiT and a texture-creation model, Hunyuan3D-Paint.

Tencent has launched Hunyuan3D Studio, which they have claimed to be "the first comprehensive platform in the industry" designed to streamline the creation of 3D content through the use of AI. It is accessible for both expert and novice users to modify or even bring their creations to life.

The latest 3D-generation model and AI production platform are anticipated to "significantly reduce the obstacles for fans, developers, and creators", stated Guo Chunchao, leader of Tencent's Hunyuan3D team.

In addition to enhancing productivity, these items will "facilitate the appreciation of 3D AI models in different sectors," Guo further explained.

China allocates resources to steady the stock market in response to potential tariff threats from Trump. Regulators reveal that they will augment investments from the National Social Security Fund, mutual funds, and other sources to invigorate the stock market.

Chinese authorities have revealed a strategy to guide investment funds in order to stabilize the country's stock markets, amidst escalating disagreements with the US in the wake of President Donald Trump's warning of potential tariffs.

China plans to channel medium- to long-term funds, such as commercial insurance funds, the National Social Security Fund, and mutual funds, to intensify their involvement in the stock market. This was announced in a collective statement on Wednesday by several government departments, including the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of China, and the National Financial Regulatory Administration.

The percentage of the funds' assets invested in the stock market will be progressively raised, while a permanent mechanism will be established to monitor these investments, according to the statement.

The strategy to "steady the stock market by eliminating hurdles for medium- and long-term funds to infiltrate the market" was a subsequent step to a number of policies launched the previous year aimed at enhancing the Chinese economy and its slow-moving stock market, according to the statement.

The strategy emerges as China attempts to steer through the unpredictability of Trump's second tenure. On Tuesday, Trump mentioned that he was mulling over a 10 per cent levy on Chinese exports starting February 1, as punishment for the influx of fentanyl, which is accountable for thousands of fatalities in the US each year.

In the initial week of 2025, Chinese shares experienced a downturn, marking their poorest commencement to a year since 2016. The indexes in Shanghai and Hong Kong saw significant declines on Wednesday due to a proposed tariff and an investment strategy aimed at outperforming China in the field of artificial intelligence.

Legal action is being taken against Ou Zongrong, the founder of Chinese developer Zhenro, due to alleged unlawful activities. Following the expiration of a restructuring support agreement, Ou Zongrong has been subjected to mandatory legal procedures, as stated by the holding company.

The creator of Zhenro Properties Group, a developer based in Shanghai, has been subjected to mandatory legal actions. This comes as the heavily indebted home construction companies persist in battling the ongoing real estate market crisis in the country.

The real person in control at Zhenro, Ou Zongrong, is confronting obligatory legal measures "because of alleged unlawful activities," the development firm's parent company declared on Monday. The company highlighted that "Ou presently does not occupy any roles like director, monitor, or upper-level executive at the company."

The news broke merely a few days following Ou Guowei, Ou Zongrong's son, stepping down from his roles as a non-executive director and audit committee member of the developer's firm. Prior to this, on January 2, the developer revealed that a restructuring support agreement had lapsed after its definitive deadline had passed on the last day of December.

My Perspective | The $3.2 trillion query from Beijing: What portion of China's foreign exchange reserves are channeled to Hong Kong?

The commitment from the central bank to boost its reserve of Hong Kong dollars underscores its dedication to maintaining the city's prominence as a financial hub.

The head of China's central bank, Pan Gongsheng, has vowed to allocate a larger portion of the nation's $3.2 trillion foreign exchange reserves to Hong Kong. This has sparked conjecture regarding how much additional funding Beijing can designate for the city's assets.

Beijing has consistently kept the specifics of its foreign exchange reserve portfolio confidential, leaving the exact quantity of reserve funds designated for Hong Kong markets a mystery. Pan, the former head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (Safe) until November 2023, indicated that Beijing would substantially boost the proportion of Hong Kong assets, but did not provide specific details.

Since 2018, Safe has been providing a restricted view into the makeup of China's foreign exchange reserves through its yearly reports. This began when they started revealing the percentage of assets held in US dollars with a delay of four years. In their report from 2023, which was published in October, Safe revealed the proportion of US dollar assets for the year 2019.

The officially released figures from 2014 to 2019 show that the proportion of US dollar assets in China's foreign exchange reserves remained between 55% and 59% during this period. In 2019, the percentage of US dollar assets dropped to 55%, with the balance made up of "other currencies". The specific breakdown of these other currencies was not provided by Safe. However, they had previously revealed that China's reserves not in US dollars comprised of euros, sterling, yen, won, and a minor percentage of Hong Kong dollars.

China is expected to retain approximately 50% of its holdings in US dollars for the sake of "security". After all, dollar-based assets, such as US treasuries, continue to be among the most readily available and reliable asset categories for Beijing.

Safe has been assessing the proportion of the dollar in China's foreign currency reserves compared to the worldwide average. The organization stated that China's reserves were already "more varied" than the international level of 61 per cent in 2019, implying that the country is not in a position to significantly reduce its US dollar holdings.

Consumer confidence in China is nearing a 'critical juncture' where it could skyrocket following a series of stimulus measures, according to UBS. The Swiss bank has suggested that homegrown brands and private labels are likely to profit as Chinese households decrease their savings and increase their spending.

The consumer sector in China, which has been negatively affected by a prolonged property downturn that has stunted economic growth and lowered morale, may be approaching a critical juncture. This comes as consumers start to save less and increase their spending in response to the stimulus package introduced last September, according to analysts.

The rate of growth in surplus savings of households slowed down in 2024 and saw a decrease in the third quarter, while there was a 3 to 4 percent yearly rise in societal retail sales, as per a report by UBS revealed on Monday. The Swiss bank credited this turnaround to the lessening impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, along with favorable government measures.

Local brands are poised to gain advantages, and private brands could potentially become the main factor for this year's growth due to their limited market presence. However, what's more significant is that they could profit from a possible shift away from the "downtrading" trend observed in the previous year.

UBS suggests that due to enhancements in quality and accessibility of channels, customers might not view local brands or private labels as 'cheap alternatives' to internationally-branded products. Instead, they are increasingly selecting local brands or private labels, guided by a practical mindset.

An independent study released by the bank in October discovered that almost half of the participants transitioned to local brands and private labels within the past year, attributing this change to "greater worth for their money". This tendency was particularly prevalent among consumers in major and mid-sized cities.

Investor hopes for a rebound in consumption continue to be muted due to the possibility of increased US tariffs and ongoing strain on real estate prices. The Monday report forecasts that China's total real consumption growth will likely hover about 3.8 per cent in the period of 2025-2026.