The Evening Runway with Hongbin Jeong and Chua Tian Tian

Singapore's core inflation hit its highest level in June, after the rate breached its 4 percent handle since 2008. With uncertain growth of income and increasing living expenses, some segments of society may face greater stress. How are consumers reacting to investing during these tumultuous times and what concerns do they have? Prime Time’s Timothy Go and Bharati Jagdish speak with Samuel Rhee,Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, Endowus to find out more. 

Emerging market bonds have been hit by their worst losses of the past decade amid looming rate hikes and the threat of a global recession. Just look at the numbers - the rolling 12-month return of the JP Morgan EMBI Global Diversified was at -21.2% at the end of June. But despite this, some analysts believe that the asset class’ fundamentals remain strong, and that this is the time to buy into emerging market debt. On Market View today, Prime Time's Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian spoke with Ramon Maronilla, Fixed Income Portfolio Specialist at T. Rowe Price for more.

The fallout continues from US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's short but controversial trip to Taiwan. Earlier today (Aug 4) China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi called her visit a 'manic, irresponsible and highly irrational' act by the US.  Beijing has said that "measures taken by China at present and in the future are necessary and timely defensive countermeasures". In The Straits Times’ The Big Story, Multimedia journalist Cheow Sue-Ann spoke with Elizabeth Law, ST’s China Correspondent to find out more. 

In 2021, Singapore unveiled its Green Plan 2030, which the government described as a "whole-of-nation movement to advance Singapore's national agenda on sustainable development." Now, innovation in renewables plays a key role in Singapore’s journey to a greener goal. What are the key technologies that we can tap on to promote Singapore’s green ambitions?  Prime Time’s Timothy Go and Bharati Jagdish speak with Dr Avishek Kumar, Founder & CEO of VFlowTech to find out more. 

The private equity scene in Southeast Asia has rebounded from the lows of 2020 to post record growth in deal count last year. The area led growth in the APAC sector with an 81 per cent year-on-year improvement. Market watchers say the PE scene is getting even better with supportive government grants and a healthy inflow of global capital. But where are venture capitalists putting their money into in the meantime? On Market View today, Prime Time's Finance Presenter Chua Tian Tian spoke with Jennifer Ho, Partner, Integra Partners to find out.

A survey has found that the Gen Z workforce is pretty open about sharing their salaries with their peers. Some big companies overseas have also embraced salary transparency, while some remain skeptical. To weigh the pros and cons, Prime Time’s Timothy Go and Bharati Jagdish speak with Alena Salakhova, Regional Director of STEM-specialist recruiters, SThree to get more insights. Highlights of the conversation: 01:45 : Gen Z workers are shaking things up at the workplace when it comes to pay transparency.  03:03 : How effective is salary transparency in closing the gender wage gap and negotiations? 06:14 : What employers should take note of when hiring millennial and Gen-Zs.  08:20 : Should salary transparency be enshrined in corporate practices in Singapore? 10:27: Ways salary transparency has worked to address biases in the United States

After much speculation, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday night, defying Beijing’s threats of retaliation over the visit and raising fears of a military crisis in the Taiwan Strait. Prime Time’s Timothy Go speaks with Dr Chong Ja Ian, Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore for an analysis of the fallout from Mrs Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. 

As cyber-criminals are getting more sophisticated, companies are putting effort to guard themselves against such threats. However, shortage of manpower in the cybersecurity industry is posing a great challenge on protecting data from cyber crimes. What more can we do to alleviate the cybersecurity manpower crunch? Prime Time’s Timothy Go and Bharati Jagdish speak with David Ng, Country Manager for Singapore at Trend Micro to find out more. 

Finally, after many months of waiting, the Ethereum Merge, the highly anticipated event in the cryptocurrency space this year, is slated to take place mid September. What does this mean? How will it impact investors and will it overtake Bitcoin eventually? Prime Time’s Timothy Go and Bharati Jagdish speak with Daniel Dizon, CEO of Swell Network to find out more. 

Investors are digesting a number of key macroeconomic developments in Asia. For one thing, China's factory activity expanded at a slower pace in June, with the Caixin China General Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) standing at 50.4, down from 51.7 points one month ago. But how should we read into these numbers and what are the implications of these developments? On Market View today, Financial Presenter Chua Tian Tian spoke with John Zhu, Chief Economist Asia of Swiss Re to find out more.