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Malaysia's Budget 2027 Preview: RM438.9 Billion of Expansionary Spending, a RM40 Billion Fuel Subsidy Shock and the 3% Deficit Target for 2028

Ahead of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim tabling Budget 2027 on October 9, 2026, the pre-budget roundtable reported by The Edge Malaysia on September 26, 2026 frames a fiscal consolidation that narrowed the federal deficit from 5.5% of GDP in 2022 to 3.7% in 2025 against the statutory 3%-by-2028 target of the Public Finance and Fiscal Responsibility Act 2023, now strained by a fuel subsidy bill rising from a budgeted RM15 billion to an estimated RM40 billion with Brent above US$100 - about half to be covered by additional public revenue and the remainder by reprioritisation of expenditure - while TA Research projects an expansionary envelope of RM438.9 billion, up 3.7% on the revised 2026 estimate of RM423.4 billion, focused on targeted assistance, development spending and longer-term growth rather than broad-based giveaways: a budget of continuity under pressure rather than a sharp change of course.

InsightsEconomy

Russia's 2026 Trade-Balance Turnaround: Four Checkpoints, a 1.3-Point Export Lead, and the Arithmetic From −36% to +19.7%

Russia's goods surplus for January–July 2026 reached $79.0 billion, up 19.7% on $66.0 billion a year earlier, on exports of $271.8 billion (+16.3%) against imports of $192.8 billion (+15.0%), with July alone at $13.6 billion; this analysis dates the reversal between the first-quarter reading of $25.3 billion (−17.6%) and the first-half reading of $65.4 billion (+20.7%), sizes the implied second quarter at $40.1 billion (+70.6%), reads the 1.3-point export lead as an external perimeter in which both flows re-expanded together, and shows how the $27.9 billion services deficit cuts the $79.0 billion goods surplus to a $33.9 billion current-account surplus (+57.7%).

Company Digest

Company DigestAI

Kakao to Split Into Two Listed Companies, Kakao AI and Kakao X, in Restructuring Around Artificial Intelligence

Kakao Corp. will split into two listed companies, Kakao AI and Kakao X: the newly established Kakao AI takes the KakaoTalk platform together with the AI, advertising and commerce businesses plus subsidiaries DK Techin and K&Works, while Kakao X, the surviving entity, keeps fintech, content and mobility under an investment-focused structure; the split ratio is 0.36 to 0.64 based on net book values, existing shareholders receive shares in both companies, CEO Chung Shin-a will lead Kakao AI and Kim Do-young, chief executive of Kakao Investment and head of group investment strategy, is nominated to head Kakao X, with shareholder approval at an extraordinary general meeting on December 17, 2026, the split effective January 1, 2027 and separate trading from January 27, 2027.

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