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SINGAPORE - Standard & Poor's has affirmed its 'BBB-' long-term and 'A-3' short-term unsolicited sovereign credit ratings on India, but says the outlook on the long-term rating remains negative. “India's long-term growth prospects, underpinned by its favourable demographic profile, and its high foreign exchange reserves, support the ratings,” S&P says.

BEIJING - Volkswagen Group has announced plans to produce a low-cost model (priced between RMB47,700 and RMB55,700) with its joint venture partner, FAW Car Co., as part of VW’s goal to be the world’s largest carmaker by 2018. China represented 31% of VW’s 9.2 million deliveries last year, with plans recently announced to build seven new factories in China, and the release of new and updated models in 2013. Increasing demand for VW products in China has helped counteract declining demand in Europe

GUANGZHOU - The Spring session of the Canton Fair, which closed on May 5, has outperformed expectations, welcomed more than 200,000 overseas purchasers, up 7% on the previous session. Organisers say the value of trade deals struck at the biannual event reached US$ 35.5 billion, an increase of nearly 9%. Observers said the results indicated steady improvement in this year's trade situation. China's foreign trade rose 13.4% on-year in the first quarter of 2013, with exports increasing 18.4%.

HONG KONG - Asia-Pacific will represent half of the world's corporate debt demand of US$53 trillion over 2013-2017, with China comprising a third of global demand, according to a new report by Standard & Poor’s. "China's credit surge will propel Asia-Pacific's corporate debt to levels exceeding the combined debt of Western countries comprising the US, Canada, Eurozone and the UK," S&P credit analyst Terry Chan said. "We believe that Asia-Pacific's banks, which provide nine-tenths of corporate financing in the region, have the capacity to take on this monumental financing task.

TOKYO - Japan’s Q1 GDP growth has beat expectations in the latest sign that Abenomics is working to improve growth prospects. Q1 GDP on a non-annualised basis GDP grew by 0.9% on-quarter, accelerating from 0.3% in 2012 Q4. Growth was boosted by private spending and exports, with the latter benefitting from the yen’s depreciation. However, non-residential investment slowed, suggesting caution among the business sector. Looking ahead, BBVA Bank expects the Japanese economy to maintain improving growth trends, in line with BBVA’s full-year GDP growth projection of 1.7%.

BEIJING – The May monthly survey of global fund managers by Bank of America Merrill Lynch found that a quarter of respondents see a hard landing in China and a commodity collapse as their number one "tail risk", an increase from 18% in April. A total of 231 respondents with US$661 billion of assets under management participated in the survey, which indicates China’s economic slowdown is beginning to rival the European debt crisis (which dropped on the survey from 42% to 29%) in terms of concern to fund managers.

TAIPEI - Taiwan's top economic planner is confident the economy can grow by 3% this year, achieving the Government’s target. Kuan Chung-ming, Minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), described continued depreciation of the Japanese yen as a "mixed blessing". He noted that a lot of raw materials and semi-finished products come from Japan, so the yen's depreciation could be favourable to Taiwan. He also said he did not think continued depreciation of the Japanese yen will trigger a race of depreciation of Asian currencies (ATI).