Here are a few stories from around Asia you may have missed this week.
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda speaks during a press conference after a policy meeting at the bank's headquarters, in Tokyo, Japan, March 19, 2024. /Reuters
On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) ended eight years of negative interest rates, moving away from trying to jumpstart the economy by injecting monetary stimulus. The BOJ increased its key interest rate from minus 0.1 percent to a range of 0 percent to 0.1 percent. It is the first time the BOJ has raised interest rates in 17 years and it also marks the beginning of the normalization of Japan's ultra-loose monetary policy that was maintained for 11 years. "We reverted to a normal monetary policy targeting short-term interest rates, as with other central banks," BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda said at a press conference after the decision.
In 2016, the bank cut the rate below zero in an attempt to stimulate the country's stagnating economy. The shift makes Japan the last central bank to exit negative rates. The Japan Times said, "After a few false dawns, the nation has climbed out of the hole it fell into after the property industry collapsed three decades ago."
Visitors walk past a dragon-shaped sculpture displayed to celebrate the Lunar Year of the Dragon inside the flower dome at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore on February 1, 2024. /CFP
Singapore is the happiest country in Asia for the second year in a row, according to the 2024 World Happiness Report released on Wednesday. The city-state ranked 30th out of the 143 places surveyed for the study.
Topping the list this year is Finland, followed by Denmark and Iceland. The annual report, released on March 20, was introduced in 2012 to support the United Nations' sustainable development goals. The data is obtained from U.S. market research company Gallup, and organizations such as the World Bank and the World Health Organisation. Experts analyzed data in six key factors: GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, social support, freedom, generosity and perception of corruption.
"These factors help to explain the differences across nations, while the rankings themselves are based only on the answers people give when asked to rate their own lives," according to a statement by the World Happiness Report. Myanmar, Cambodia, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are among Asia's least happy countries, according to the report. India was in 126th place overall.
Students walk to school wearing masks as smoke envelops Lahore, Pakistan,January 15, 2024. /CFP
South Asia remained one of the most polluted places on Earth in 2023 with Pakistan, Bangladesh and India being the world's three smoggiest countries, with particulate matter about 15 times the level recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), data published on Tuesday showed.
The IQAir report was based on data from more than 30,000 monitoring stations in 134 countries and regions. Average concentrations of PM2.5 – tiny airborne particles that damage the lungs – reached 79.9 micrograms per cubic meter in Bangladesh in 2023, and 73.7 micrograms in Pakistan. The WHO recommends no more than 5 micrograms. In 2022, Bangladesh was ranked as having the fifth-worst air quality, and India was eighth.
China launched the Queqiao-2 relay satellite on a Long March-8 Y3 carrier rocket for China's lunar missions on Wednesday from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province.
The satellite separated from the carrier rocket 24 minutes after liftoff, entering the planned orbit. The solar panels and communication antennas were unfolded afterward, marking a successful launch mission. Compared to its predecessor, Queqiao-2 is more powerful, with more functions and a longer lifespan for more missions.
A man arranges scarves of political parties at a shop, ahead of Lok Sabha elections, Mumbai, India, March 20, 2024. /CFP
Details of the world's largest elections were announced on Saturday with nearly a billion people eligible to vote in India's general elections, to be held over seven weeks from April 19 to June 4. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek a record-equaling third consecutive term in power.
Announcing the election dates on March 16, India's chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar called the Indian elections the "biggest democratic festival" in the world. He said election officials would go on horseback and elephants, as well as helicopters, to reach the most remote parts of the country. Nearly 1.05 million voting booths and 5.5 million electronic voting machines along with 15 million election officials will be deployed across 28 states and nine union territories.
The elections will be for 543 seats in India's Lok Sabha, or lower house of parliament.
( Cover: A South Korean bank employee sorts Japanese yen on the day the Bank of Japan held a monetary policy meeting and decided to end the negative interest rate policy, Seoul, South Korea, March 19, 2024. /CFP)