NDPMS Wealth Management

Despite the global downturn, countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore have seen sky-high property price rises, with Singaporean property prices souring around 60 percent in the past three years. Asia-Pacific's booming property markets are reliant on ultra-loose US monetary policy — and prices could plummet by up to 50 percent when the Federal Reserve starts tapering off its asset purchases, a senior economist warned CNBC. "The Asian housing market has become increasingly dependent on U.S. funding. So if there is one property market in the world where you find dependence on what happens next in the Federal Reserve it is a market like Hong Kong," said Steen Jakobsen, the chief economist and chief investment officer at Saxo Bank, who had just completed a week-long trip to Singapore, Indonesia and Hong Kong. Speculation has continued for months as to when the Fed might start scaling back its massive USD 85 billion-a-month bond-buying program, designed to aid the country...

Soaring inflation, high fuel cost, rising cost of education and health insurance premiums have eroded the real incomes of middle-class Indian families, with household savings rates dropping by a staggering 40 percent in the last three years, says an Assocham survey. Soaring inflation, high fuel cost, rising cost of education and health insurance premiums have eroded the real incomes of middle-class Indian families, with household savings rates dropping by a staggering 40 percent in the last three years, says an Assocham survey. "Poor households are unable to maintain the consumption levels at current prices while middle income families find their purchasing power erode fast, thus having far less surplus money," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said. The survey found that net financial savings by Indians, which include deposits with banks and non-banking finance companies, cash, investment in stocks, debentures and small savings instruments have dipped considerably becau...