 Market rout costs Ambani's crown as Asia's richest New Delhi (AFP) March 10, 2020 - India's Mukesh Ambani has lost his crown as Asia's richest person after the latest rout across global markets wiped almost $6 billion off his fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. All told, the world's 500 richest people lost $238.5 billion on Monday, according to Bloomberg, the biggest daily plunge since the index began tracking them in October 2016. Equity and oil markets went into meltdown on what has been dubbed Black Monday as growing fears about the economic impact of COVID-19 were compounded by Saudi Arabia's decision to slash crude prices following a row with Russia over production cuts. Crude prices tanked by a third in their worst drop since the 1991 Gulf War. The sell-off erased $5.8 billion from 62-year-old Ambani's net worth to leave him with a net worth of about $41.8 billion. He was overtaken by Chinese tycoon Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba whose fortune had fallen about $1.1 billion to $44.5 billion. Ma, 55, had ceded the number-one ranking in mid-2018. The slump in oil prices raises questions about plans by Ambani's Reliance conglomerate to cut debt as they hinge on selling a stake in its oil and petrochemicals unit to Saudi Aramco, Bloomberg reported. Ambani, whose fortune ballooned on the back of India's telecoms boom, lives with his family in a 27-storey luxury Mumbai skyscraper reputed to have cost more than $1 billion to build. The carnage on global markets on Monday also lost Amazon founder and world's richest man Jeff Bezos $5.6 billion and Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett $5.3 billion, Bloomberg said. However, they still have fortunes of $111.8 billion and $76.4 billion respectively. Frenchman Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury-goods giant LVMH, was Europe's biggest decliner with a $4.4-billion drop in his net worth to $81.4 billion.
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The soaring price of pork and other food kept Chinese consumer inflation close to eight-year highs in February, official data showed Tuesday, as authorities battled the coronavirus outbreak.
Analysts said the figure would likely remain elevated for some time as measures put in place around the country to contain the deadly epidemic have put a huge dent in supplies of key goods.
However, the factory prices fell and observers warned of further drops as global demand for Chinese goods is battered by the spread of the disease.
Consumer inflation rose 5.2 percent on-year last month, slightly down from 5.4 percent the month before, which was the highest since October 2011. The reading was in line with forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey.
Food prices rose almost 22 percent, with pork increasing 135 percent -- following a 116 percent rise in January -- as the country's pig herds are ravaged by African swine fever that has seen millions of pigs culled.
"The sudden new coronavirus epidemic caused a more complex impact on price movements in February," said Zhao Maohong, director for the urban department of the National Bureau of Statistics.
Consumers were encouraged to stay home over an extended Lunar New Year holiday to avoid infections and businesses suspended operations. Cities also imposed various travel restrictions.
"Usually, year-on-year consumer price index (CPI) inflation drops by roughly 1.5 percentage points following the Lunar New Year holiday... so the 5.2 percent reading in February was actually quite unusual," said chief China economist at Nomura, Lu Ting.
Lu added that the figure suggests "supply shock does dominate CPI inflation in the short term".
- Car sales hit -
The producer price index -- a barometer of the industrial sector that measures the cost of goods at the factory gate -- fell 0.4 percent, slightly more than expectations of a 0.3 percent drop.
Iris Pang, ING chief economist for Greater China, told AFP that "factories almost stopped operation in February", leading to expectations of a fall in prices.
She added that both indexes are expected to fall in March because of lower energy prices after a rout on oil markets.
But Pang said "this may not be a good thing for all companies as some depend on higher oil prices to have higher profits". She said she expects prices to normalise as people return to work and are more willing to spend.
Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said core inflation, which strips out both food and energy prices, fell to a nine-year low, suggesting the virus outbreak "led to a marked weakening in demand-side price pressures".
Passenger car sales in China plummeted last month as well, dragged down by the epidemic, according to data released Monday by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
It said 124,649 sedans were sold last month, a 78.4 percent drop from a year ago.
"Due to the sudden outbreak of the new coronavirus epidemic, since the start of the Spring Festival break, dealers across the country basically closed their stores and stopped sales and service operations," the CPCA said.
"Because of that, most dealerships' retail sales in the first three weeks of February were basically zero."
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