Today's Edition
Hong Kong (AFP)
Asian markets were mostly up Wednesday as investors weighed bullish growth targets announced by China and the looming prospect of a global trade war.
Global stocks had tumbled Tuesday after China, Mexico and Canada hit back at US tariffs and fears grew that Europe could be President Donald Trump's next target.
Investors welcomed China's economic targets for the coming year on Wednesday as the government held its annual meeting of the National People's Congress.
China set an annual growth target of around five percent on Wednesday, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver.
Beijing also announced a rare hike in fiscal funding, allowing its budget deficit to reach four percent this year.
It comes alongside a pledge to create 12 million new jobs in China's cities and a push for two percent inflation in 2025, an official document seen by AFP on Wednesday showed.
The world's second-largest economy is also planning to increase defence spending by 7.2 percent, the same as last year.
Hong Kong rose around 2.5 percent in early trade before pulling back to around 1.5 percent.
Jakarta climbed more than two percent and Taipei jumped one percent.
Tokyo and Shanghai held steady while Seoul was slightly up.
Sydney, Wellington and Bangkok were down around one percent.
US tariffs are expected to hit hundreds of billions of dollars in total trade between the US and China.
Trump signed an executive order on Monday to increase a previously imposed 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods to 20 percent.
China responded by saying it would impose levies of 10 and 15 percent on a range of US agricultural imports.
