HANOI — Vietnam’s breakneck credit expansion may fuel asset price bubbles, prominent academics in the Southeast Asian nation warned its lawmakers last week, documents showed.

The government is encouraging private lending and public spending to meet an 8.3%-8.5% gross domestic product (GDP) growth target this year. That is far above forecasts from multilateral agencies and private economists and comes as the export-reliant nation has been hit with new tariffs on its shipments to the US, its main foreign market.

In a closed-door meeting last week in parliament, at least two Vietnamese senior academics criticized the current year’s economic policy, a relatively rare occurrence in the tightly controlled, Communist-run nation.

“Vietnam’s money supply growth rate is very high, leading to the highest credit-to-GDP ratio in the region, and to risks of inflation and asset price bubbles,” said Pham The Anh, dean of economics at Vietnam’s National Economics University, in a paper that was discussed by parliament’s economic committee on Sept. 5 and a copy of which was viewed by Reuters.

And Vu Sy Cuong, associate professor of Vietnam’s Academy of Finance, said in another paper at the same meeting that the credit surge was also contributing to a stock market rally. A copy of that paper was also seen by Reuters.

Vietnam’s finance ministry and central bank did not reply to requests for comment. Mr. Anh told Reuters the central bank would need more independence to cool down asset prices. Mr. Cuong did not respond to a request for comment.

Loans in Vietnam last year were worth 136.4% of its $476-billion GDP, more than three times the median in emerging and middle-income markets, according to the latest data from the International Monetary Fund.

And, ahead of a crucial party congress in early 2026, bank credit grew at an annual 19.3% in the first half, Vietnam’s central bank said, exceeding a 16% cap for all of 2025 set by it, and well above an average of nearly 14% over the past five years.

Credit went primarily to developers and home buyers, the World Bank said in a report released on Monday.

Mr. Anh told lawmakers the credit binge has contributed to a “real estate price fever,” adding speculators were creating “ghost cities.”

As credit spiked, bad debt rose to 5.3% of loans by February from 5% last year, according to World Bank’s data that excludes sizeable off-balance-sheet lending.

Banks are also setting aside less capital for bad debt, with the ratio of their capital buffers nearly halving over the last three years, the World Bank said.

STOCK MARKET RALLIES AMID MARGIN DEBT PEAK
The government has said it wants to start removing from next year credit growth caps, which in recent years have often been interpreted by banks as targets.

That could “accelerate credit growth and fan credit risks in the system if other prudential measures are not enforced,” said Willie Tanoto of Fitch Ratings.

While the government has called for control of inflation, which in August stood at 3.2%, it has not signaled any intention to slow credit growth.

Vietnam’s stock market has continued surpassing its peak since June, while margin debt, which is money investors borrow to acquire assets, hit a record high exceeding $11 billion in the second quarter, according to Vietnamese broker DNSE, representing roughly 5% of the stock market capitalization at the time.

“High economic growth is important, but economic stability in the long term has even greater significance,” said Mr. Cuong of Vietnam’s Academy of Finance. — Reuters

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have solidified the status of his daughter Kim Ju Ae as his likely successor after she accompanied him on a visit to China, South Korean lawmakers said on Thursday, citing the country’s spy agency.

Ms. Ju Ae stayed at the North Korean embassy and avoided the public spotlight during the Beijing visit, but just being on the overseas trip with her father was “enough to build a narrative” as the regime’s likely successor, said Lee Seong-kweun, a lawmaker on South Korea’s parliamentary intelligence committee.

“It was suggested that Kim Ju Ae’s status was solidified as a likely successor by showing her occasionally, while enabling her to build overseas experience but not to appear at public events,” said Park Sun-won, another lawmaker on the committee.

Also, North Korean officials were spotted wiping out traces in order not to expose biological information of Mr. Kim and his daughter during the China trip. This included using a special plane to transport garbage and the pair staying at the North Korean embassy, South Korea’s spy agency told the lawmakers.

Earlier this month, Mr. Kim made an unprecedented trip to Beijing for a large-scale multilateral gathering, watching a military parade standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr. Kim also held bilateral meetings with Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin on the sidelines in a bid to portray an image that North Korea was no longer an isolated country and was trying to restore relations with China, the South Korean lawmakers said.

The South Korean intelligence agency believed that economic ties between Beijing and Pyongyang would inevitably expand following the meeting between Mr. Xi and Mr. Kim, most likely through unofficial trade, according to the lawmakers. — Reuters

TOKYO/SEOUL — In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia.

Kirk, 31, who helped amplify Republican President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university.

In Seoul on Friday, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory”, while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference that has previously featured speakers including Donald Trump Jr.

“The phenomenon of young people, especially men, turning conservative is occurring simultaneously across multiple continents,” Kirk told the audience, who waved their phones and chanted ‘USA’ as he entered the stage to an elaborate pyrotechnic display.

“It is not unique to the US, which is why it deserves more attention. That is why I chose South Korea as my first Asian destination.”

The event also included a worship concert, a session on “How Christians Can Lead the World” and a video message from American diaper company Everylife, which says it has a “pro-life mission” and urged young South Koreans to “make more babies”.

Recent elections spanning North America, Europe and Asia show young men voting for right-wing parties and young women leaning left, a break from pre-pandemic years when both tended to vote for progressives.

Opinion polls show the gender divide is particularly stark in South Korea, where the liberal Democratic Party wrested back power after the conservative former president was removed from office and jailed over a bungled attempt to impose martial law.

COMMITTED ‘COMRADE’
After Seoul, Kirk travelled to Tokyo where he spoke at a symposium hosted by the upstart Sanseito party, which made its political breakthrough in a July upper house vote warning about a “silent invasion” of immigrants.

“I’m excited … to learn and to hopefully invigorate the people of your great nation to keep fighting this globalist menace,” Kirk said in an interview with a Sanseito lawmaker posted on YouTube before the event.

The party’s leader, Sohei Kamiya, said he was “stunned and heartbroken” at the news of Kirk’s death in a post on X on Thursday, calling him a “comrade committed to building the future with us”.

“We had promised to meet again at his year-end event and had begun to imagine the work we would take on together,” Kamiya said.

Speaking this week on his podcast about his Asia trip, Kirk said: “The same things we have been fighting for here – whether it be lawfare in South Korea or mass migration in Japan – this is a worldwide phenomenon.”

Japan’s foreign-born residents account for just 3% of the population, a far lower proportion than in the United States and Europe, but record numbers of tourists in recent years have made foreigners more visible in major cities. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — US consumer inflation likely picked up in August as the cost of gasoline rose and tariffs on imports raised some goods prices, but the pace of increase would probably not be strong enough to derail a much-anticipated interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve next week.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) report from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Thursday could still fan concerns of stagflation following recent downbeat news on the labor market. The pass-through from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs has so far been gradual, but economists expected that could soon change. They noted businesses had depleted their pre-tariff inventory. Business surveys have for some time been signaling imminent price increases.

Though a report from the BLS on Wednesday showed producer prices were unexpectedly cooler in August amid a compression in trade services margins and mild increase in the cost of goods, economists did not expect this to be replicated in the CPI data.

“The evidence is overwhelming that more tariff-related inflation is coming, though it may still be several months before it passes through fully,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Santander US Capital Markets.

The CPI likely increased 0.3% last month after climbing 0.2% in July, a Reuters survey of economists showed. Consumer prices were likely lifted by higher prices at the pump and supermarket. Tariffs have boosted the price of coffee, which has so far increased by the most in nearly 2-1/2 years on an annual basis.

Beef prices have also surged, a combination of import duties and past droughts that decimated the national herd.

Labor shortages at farms as the Trump administration rounds up undocumented migrants for deportation were also adding to higher food prices, economists said.

In the 12 months through July, the CPI is forecast to have advanced 2.9%. That would be the largest year-on-year gain in seven months and follow a 2.7% increase in July.

BUSINESSES MAY SOON RAISE PRICES
“The slow response of consumer prices to the tariffs so far is partly due to distributors selling goods that were imported before the tariffs were imposed,” said Samuel Tombs, chief US economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “But wholesalers’ and retailers’ inventory are both equivalent to just 1.3 months of sales, suggesting that many of these businesses now will be selling goods which incurred tariffs.”

Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI is estimated to have climbed 0.3% for a second straight month.

Economists expected tariff-related price increases for goods such as apparel and furniture to lift the so-called core CPI. Firmer services prices were likely as demand for travel drives up airline fares and the cost of hotel and motel rooms.

In the 12 months through August, core CPI inflation is anticipated to have increased 3.1%, matching July’s gain.

The US central bank tracks the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price indexes for its 2% inflation target. The core PCE inflation is currently estimated to have increased 0.3% in August for a third consecutive month, which would translate to an annual increase of 3.1%. That would be an acceleration from a 2.9% increase in July.

Those estimates could, however, change after the CPI data.

The Fed is expected to cut interest rates at its policy meeting next Wednesday, with a quarter-percentage-point reduction fully priced in, after it paused its easing cycle in January because of uncertainty over the inflationary impact of tariffs.

Should CPI inflation undershoot expectations that would point to softening demand constraining businesses’ ability to pass on tariff-related costs to consumers.

“The next few months of data will provide a useful test of tariff-related price increases, as the fall can be a natural time for businesses to raise prices,” said Veronica Clark, an economist at Citigroup. “While we do expect some stronger price increases, if goods prices remain more muted it could be a sign that weak consumer demand is limiting businesses’ ability to raise prices. This weak demand backdrop has us continuing to expect a series of rate cuts from the Fed.” — Reuters

WASHINGTON — What was meant to be a moment of silence in the US House of Representatives on Wednesday for the slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk erupted in shouting and finger-pointing, an episode that provided a bitter illustration of a nation divided by political acrimony.

As news of Kirk’s fatal shooting at a Utah university spread, lawmakers began to argue how to best honor him. US Representative Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, raised her hand and asked for someone to lead a prayer, adding, “Silent prayers get silent results.”

Some Democrats then questioned why other killings that involved less prominent figures were not getting the same attention, according to one lawmaker present, which resulted in swearing and accusations about politicizing tragedies.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson pounded the gavel for order, while an unidentified person shouted, “Pass a gun law!”

Kirk, 31, co-founder of the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA and a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, was shot while speaking at an event in Orem, Utah, on Wednesday. The motive is unknown and it was not clear whether a suspect had been arrested.

His death left many of his fellow conservatives seething and blaming liberals for the assault, while Democrats largely kept to a more reserved tone, decrying political violence generally and again calling for stronger gun laws.

It was a debate far too familiar – and personal – for lawmakers.

“There’s no excuse for political violence in our country, it’s got to end,” said Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, who survived being shot in 2017 at a congressional baseball practice.

“It’s a problem that we’ve seen grow and it’s got to be addressed. It’s got to stop.”

According to the most recent data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 46,728 people died from gun violence in the US in 2023, the third-highest figure ever recorded.

Two years ago, Congress passed the first sweeping gun-control measure in 30 years, a bipartisan bill that tightened loopholes and increased background checks but has done little to stem shootings.

YAWNING POLITICAL DIVIDE
The differing reactions suggested that Kirk’s death likely will only deepen America’s yawning political divide – as two assassination attempts on Trump did last year. Almost a quarter century has passed since the nation was last unified by tragedy, following the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Before the identity of the shooter was known, prominent right-wing figures were framing the incident as a part of a broader assault by the left against conservatism.

“America has lost one of its greatest champions,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller wrote on X. “All of us must now dedicate ourselves to defeating the evil that stole Charlie from this world.”

Laura Loomer, a MAGA loyalist who has Trump’s ear, called for “cracking down on the Left with the full force of the government. Every single Left wing group that funds violent protests needs to be shut down and prosecuted. No mercy.”

Elon Musk, the X platform’s billionaire owner, was even more blunt. “The Left is the party of murder,” he wrote.

Trump – who routinely refers to his political rivals as “radical left lunatics” who he warns represent an existential threat to America – called the shooting an outgrowth of overheated rhetoric.

“Violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree – day after day, year after year – in the most hateful and despicable way possible,” Trump said in a video posted to his Truth Social platform.

The reaction from Democrats was more muted. “We don’t yet know what motivated the person who shot and killed Charlie Kirk, but this kind of despicable violence has no place in our democracy,” former President Barack Obama said in a statement.

Democratic former US Representative Gabby Giffords, who was critically wounded by a gunman in 2012, said, “Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence.”

One exception was Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a potential 2028 presidential candidate who placed his finger squarely on Trump for encouraging political violence.

“It’s gotta stop,” Pritzker told reporters. “I think there are people who are fomenting it in this country. I think the president’s rhetoric often foments it.”

PUBLIC REJECTS POLITICAL VIOLENCE
Americans overwhelmingly reject political violence.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in October of last year asked if Americans agreed with a statement that it was “acceptable for a member of my political party to threaten and/or intimidate others to achieve a political goal.” Just 6% of respondents – a trivially small share in terms of an opinion survey – said they agreed.

Ruth Braunstein, a professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins University who has studied Kirk and the right, said the shooting had the potential to spike already heated political tensions in the country.

“It is obviously a tragedy on a personal level, but it also does have the capacity to further inflame a political environment where the temperature is already way too high. That’s a real possibility, and a real risk,” Braunstein said.

Christian Heyne, chief policy officer at Brady – a gun violence protection group named for James Brady, a former White House press secretary shot and seriously wounded during a 1981 assassination attempt against Republican President Ronald Reagan – urged the parties to find common ground on guns.

“Gun violence doesn’t check party ID. It is indiscriminate. And the American people always lose,” Heyne posted on the social media site BlueSky. “We know change is possible. We must stop pretending there are ‘sides’ and fight together to build a safer future.”

Kirk’s shooting came as the conservative media ecosystem had been convulsing for several days over the political significance of violence.

In recent days, its prominent voices including Trump have been spotlighting the August 22 killing of a Ukrainian refugee in North Carolina, claiming it was a product of liberal criminal-justice policies.

Kirk, no stranger to fanning the flames of controversy, had taken a deep interest in the case. In an interview on Fox News on Tuesday, Kirk said the “narrative” advanced by liberals “in the past 10 years (is) that there is a relentless assault against Black people on behalf of white people.”

Kirk said that was not true. “White individuals are more likely to be attacked, especially per capita, by black individuals in this country.”

One Republican who was trying to lower the temperature was Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who said Kirk’s death should not serve as an excuse for further strife.

“Every single person who encourages aggressive responses to it rather than civil discourse owns a certain amount of responsibility for his death and anyone else’s,” Tillis said in an interview.

Few on either side are likely to listen to Tillis, however. He is retiring from politics. — Reuters

WASHINGTON – US right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, was fatally shot in the neck on Wednesday during an event at a Utah university that the governor described as a political assassination.

Authorities had yet to publicly identify a suspect some six hours after the shooting. No suspect was in custody, US media reported, citing law enforcement sources.

FBI Director Kash Patel said an unnamed person had been detained for questioning, then released.

“Our investigation continues,” he wrote on social media.

Governor Spencer Cox had said at an earlier press conference that police were interviewing a “person of interest” but gave no details about the person’s identity or how the individual was believed to be connected with the shooting. At the same press conference, Beau Mason, the Utah Department of Public Safety commissioner, said the perpetrator suspected of firing the single shot that killed Kirk, 31, remained “at large.”

In a video message taped in the Oval Office and posted to his Truth Social online platform, Trump vowed that his administration would locate the suspect.

“My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it,” Trump said.

Cellphone video clips of the killing posted online showed Kirk addressing a large outdoor crowd at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, around 12:20 p.m. MT (1620 GMT), when a gunshot rang out. Kirk moved his hand toward his neck as he fell off his chair, sending the attendees running.

In another clip, blood could be seen gushing from Kirk’s neck immediately after the shot.

The suspect likely fired from a rooftop at a significant distance, authorities said, adding that there were about 3,000 people attending the event. Jeff Long, chief of the university police department, said that he had six officers working the event, and that he coordinated with the head of Kirk’s private security team, which was also on site.

Trump ordered all government US flags flown at half-staff until Sunday in Kirk’s honor.

The killing was the latest in a series of attacks on US political figures, including two assassination attempts of Trump last year, that have underscored a sharp rise in political violence.

“This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation,” Cox said at the press conference. “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.”

Trump, who routinely describes political rivals, judges and others who stand in his way as “radical left lunatics” and warns that they pose an existential threat to the nation, decried violent political rhetoric.

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals,” Trump said in the video. “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

An attempt at a moment of silence for Kirk in the US House of Representatives degenerated into shouting and finger-pointing.

Kirk’s appearance on Wednesday was the first in a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” at universities around the country. He often used such events, which typically drew large crowds of students, to invite attendees to debate him live.

ASKED ABOUT SHOOTINGS, THEN SHOT
Seconds before he was shot, Kirk was being questioned by an audience member about gun violence, according to multiple videos of the event posted online.

“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America in the last 10 years?” Kirk was asked.
He responded, “Counting or not counting gang violence?” He was shot moments later.

Kirk and the group he co-founded, Turning Point USA, the largest conservative youth organization in the country, played a key role in driving young voter support for Trump in November.

After winning his second presidential term, Trump credited Kirk for mobilizing younger voters and voters of color in support of his campaign.

“You had Turning Point’s grassroots armies,” Trump said at a rally in Phoenix in December. “It’s not my victory, it’s your victory.”

Kirk had 5.3 million followers on X and hosted a popular podcast and radio program, “The Charlie Kirk Show.” He had also recently appeared as a guest co-host on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”

He was part of an ecosystem of pro-Trump conservative influencers – including Jack Posobiec, Laura Loomer, Candace Owens and others – who helped to amplify the president’s agenda. Kirk frequently attacked mainstream media and engaged in culture war issues around race, gender and immigration, often in a provocative style.

At the White House, staff members, many of them young and admirers of Kirk, were ashen-faced as news of the shooting spread. Kirk was married and had two young children.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE ON THE RISE
While the motive for the shooting is unknown, the United States is undergoing its most sustained period of political violence since the 1970s. Reuters has documented more than 300 cases of politically motivated violent acts since supporters of Trump attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In July 2024, Republican Trump was grazed by a gunman’s bullet during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. A second assassination attempt two months later was foiled by federal agents.

In April, an arsonist broke into Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence and set it on fire while the family was inside.

Earlier this year, a gunman posing as a police officer in Minnesota murdered Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and shot Democratic Senator John Hoffman and his wife. And in Boulder, Colorado, a man used a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails to attack a solidarity event for Israeli hostages, killing one woman and injuring at least six more.

In 2022, a man broke into Democratic then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer, leaving him with skull fractures and other injuries. In 2020, a group of right-wing militia members plotted unsuccessfully to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.

Republican and Democratic politicians alike expressed dismay over the shooting.

“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,” Vice President JD Vance, who was close to Kirk, wrote on X.

“I am shocked by the murder of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University,” Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement. “Political violence of any kind and against any individual is unacceptable and completely incompatible with American values. We pray for his family during this tragedy.” — Reuters