FirstFT: South Korea’s fertility fee rises for first time in 9 years

Good morning. South Korea’s fertility fee has risen for the primary time in nearly a decade. In the present day’s prime story explains what drove the turnaround. Additionally on the agenda:

• Trump’s newest tariff risk

• A father-son boardroom battle in Singapore

• The political rise of the anti-vax motion

South Korea’s fertility fee has risen for the primary time in 9 years, as a post-pandemic surge in marriages has spurred hopes that the world’s fastest-ageing society could have turned a nook.

The nation’s fertility fee — the typical variety of infants a girl is predicted to have in her lifetime — elevated from 0.72 in 2023 to 0.75 final yr, in response to the most recent information from the nationwide statistics workplace.

Though the speed stays the bottom on the earth and much under the two.1 wanted to make sure a broadly steady inhabitants, that is the primary rise since 2015, when it was 1.24.

“There was a change in social values, with more positive views about marriage and childbirth,” stated Park Hyun-jung, an official at Statistics Korea, including that final yr’s development was additionally pushed by a rise within the variety of folks of their early 30s in addition to pandemic delays.

The rising demographic disaster has been an enormous problem for South Korean policymakers, who’re grappling with falling financial progress and the elevated price of pensions and healthcare for its ageing inhabitants.

Learn extra concerning the uncommon child bump and whether or not the momentum can proceed.

Right here’s what else we’re maintaining tabs on immediately:

• Financial information: Japan releases its newest commerce statistics whereas the US publishes revised fourth-quarter GDP figures.

• EU-India ties: European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen begins a two-day go to to New Delhi. The EU chief is planning to ask India to decrease its tariffs on automobiles and wine. (Reuters)

• US-UK relations: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will meet President Donald Trump on the White Home. The go to comes after US lawmakers yesterday expressed concern to the UK about China’s plan to construct an enormous embassy in London.

5 extra prime tales

1. Donald Trump has threatened to slap 25 per cent tariffs on imports from the EU, elevating the prospect of a broad transatlantic commerce conflict. In remarks through the first cupboard assembly of his second time period, the US president lashed out on the bloc, saying it “was formed to screw the United States”, and stated the tariffs “will be on cars and all other things”.

• US-Ukraine minerals deal: Trump has stated the US is not going to give Ukraine safety ensures “beyond very much”, as Washington and Kyiv put together to signal a vital minerals deal on Friday.

• ‘Gold card’: Trump stated the US would provide everlasting residency and a path to citizenship for rich foreigners in the event that they paid $5mn beneath a brand new scheme.

2. Taiwan has objected to what it says had been unannounced Chinese language live-fire naval workouts in busy waters close to its south-western coast. Taiwan’s defence ministry stated the Individuals’s Liberation Military yesterday notified industrial ships and plane by way of advert hoc radio warnings of “shooting drills” in a coaching space 40 nautical miles off the municipality of Kaohsiung and neighbouring Pingtung County.

3. A Singaporean billionaire is searching for to oust his son as chief govt of the household’s property firm, accusing him of making an attempt a boardroom coup and poor enterprise choices. Kwek Leng Beng, govt chair of Singapore’s largest listed property firm, Metropolis Developments, filed courtroom papers outlining a household feud that has escalated in current months, resulting in the group suspending its shares yesterday morning.

4. Nvidia’s revenues soared within the quarter to the tip of January as gross sales of its AI-focused chips boomed, exceeding Wall Road expectations. Chief govt Jensen Huang stated demand for the corporate’s latest-generation Blackwell chips remained robust regardless of worries that advances by Chinese language AI start-up DeepSeek might stymie Nvidia’s progress.

5. Greater than $800bn has been wiped off international cryptocurrency markets in current weeks, as the passion that swept the crypto trade after Trump’s election victory final yr ebbs away. Latest high-profile scandals in addition to the largest-ever cryptocurrency theft have additionally shaken confidence within the trade.

The Massive Learn

Vaccine scepticism was lengthy a fringe phenomenon, with anti-vaxxers handled as cranks. However now its main proponents are grabbing the political limelight in a way that may have been unthinkable even a number of years in the past. With conventional political events world wide struggling to look related, the anti-vaccine motion has change into a new anti-establishment political pressure filling the vacuum.

We’re additionally studying . . . 

Chart of the day

Thousands and thousands of Chinese language households are affected by “catastrophic health expenditure” — medical prices which have devastated their family funds. Many specialists argue such expensive payments are disastrous for household funds but additionally damaging for the broader economic system.

Take a break from the information . . . 

With headlines offering a depressing forecast for the yr forward, the FT Edit crew has compiled an inventory of eight issues you may look ahead to in 2025 together with sporting glory, advances in vaccines and a once-in-a-lifetime planetary alignment this Friday.