JP Morgan sees upside risk to South Korea rates and expects the Bank of Korea to hike in Nov, Feb and May to a terminal 3.75%, above economists’ median of 3.5%. The bank forecasts Korean GDP growth of 3.8% this year and 3.3% next year and says a semiconductor boom could boost investment, exports, wages and domestic demand. JP Morgan expects the Bank of Korea to hold rates at 3% on Oct. 22 but warns stronger domestic demand and persistent core inflation could push the terminal rate above 3.75%.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and four other departments issued a notice launching the recommendation process for 2026 national green computing facilities and published the 2026 evaluation index system. The system covers four assessment areas: energy utilization, carbon emissions management, water resource utilization and compute resource utilization. New indicators include compute energy efficiency, carbon utilization efficiency, digital carbon management and product carbon footprint, with greater emphasis on energy and carbon efficiency. Scoring weights for carbon utilization efficiency, water-use efficiency, share of renewable electricity and rack-resource utilization have been raised, reinforcing green, low‑carbon, intensive and circular requirements.

China State Railway Group said national railway freight totaled 2.69 billion tonnes in Jan–Aug, averaging 187,400 loaded cars per day. Rail shipments of coal were 1.389 billion tonnes over the period, including 928 million tonnes of thermal (power) coal. The railway increased outward coal flows from major producing regions — Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang — and worked to ensure thermal coal deliveries met demand over the summer peak. Coal stocks at power plants directly supplied by the national railway remained at elevated levels.