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Citigroup slightly lowered South Korea's GDP growth forecast to 1.5% next year. It is expected that the Bank of Korea will cut interest rates next month. Citigroup released a report saying that considering the worse economic sentiment in South Korea this month, it slightly lowered its GDP forecast for this year and next year by 0.1 percentage point to 2.1% and 1.5% respectively. The bank slightly lowered Korea's GDP growth forecast for the last quarter of this year by 0.1 percentage point to rise by 0.3% quarterly, and raised its GDP growth forecast for the first quarter of next year by 0.1 percentage point to rise by 0.6% quarterly. Looking forward to the first quarter of next year, the bank expects South Korea to adopt a combination of expansionary policies, including the Bank of Korea's expected interest rate cut to 2.75% in mid-January, and the government's expected additional budget of 30 trillion won (equivalent to about 1.1% of GDP next year). It is expected that the Bank of Korea will cut interest rates by 25BP each in January, April, July and October next year, and the final interest rate is expected to be 2%.Pakistan KSE-100 index rose 0.5% to 111,504.90.Korean media: South Korea's ruling party has added another person to support the impeachment of Yin Xiyue, and the number of members in favor has now increased to six. According to the latest news in Yonhap News Agency, Zhongwu Qin, a member of parliament of South Korea's ruling National Power Party, said on the 12th that he would vote for the impeachment of the president on the 14th. Yonhap News Agency said that so far, the number of members of the ruling party who have publicly expressed their support for the impeachment of President Yin Xiyue has increased to six.

The word "Jin" was elected as the Japanese Chinese character of the year in 2024. According to NHK, on the afternoon of December 12, local time, Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, Japan announced the word "Jin" as the Japanese Chinese character of the year in 2024. According to the report, this year's word "gold" has two meanings. One is that athletes such as Japanese Olympic athletes have performed well and issued a shining "golden light"; The second is the political black gold problem in Japanese politics and frequent robberies caused by underground part-time jobs, because the pronunciation of "gold" in Japanese, like the word "shadow", also implies the meaning of "shadow". (China News Network)Afternoon comments on Hong Kong stocks: Hang Seng Index rose by 1.72%, Hang Seng Technology Index rose by 2.55%, Hong Kong stocks closed at noon, Hang Seng Index rose by 1.72% and Hang Seng Technology Index rose by 2.55%. Chinese brokerage stocks and consumer stocks were among the top gainers, with China Merchants Securities, Mengniu Dairy and Tongcheng Travel up over 7% and over 5% respectively.The Sharm el-Liberation Organization said that Syria will form a government led by technocrats, and Abu Mohammad Giulani, leader of the Syrian armed group "Liberation Syria" (also translated as "Sharm el-Liberation Organization"), said in a statement on December 11th that the organization will cooperate with international organizations to ensure the safety of the sites where chemical weapons may be stored. He also said that the security forces during the Assad regime will be demobilized. Giulani also said that he will form a technocratic government, and the current transitional government will be in power until March 2025. (CCTV News)

This year, the amount of M&A transactions involving listed companies in Hong Kong has reached 38 billion US dollars, which has triggered a rare bidding war. This year is expected to be the busiest year for M&A transactions involving listed companies in Hong Kong in the past decade, with industries ranging from skin care products to logistics real estate, and the bidding war has also warmed up. It is reported that China Mobile's bid for Hongkong Broadband may face competition from American private equity firm I Squared Capital. Bi Hua, chairman of Fenmei Packaging, is negotiating with Qihao Capital to jointly counter the privatization offer of Shandong Xinjufeng. The data shows that the scale of M&A transactions for listed companies in Hong Kong has reached $38 billion this year, the highest level since 2017, including the merger of Guotai Junan Securities and Haitong Securities, a smaller competitor, to become the largest brokerage firm in China.The Sharm el-Liberation Organization said that Syria will form a government led by technocrats, and Abu Mohammad Giulani, leader of the Syrian armed group "Liberation Syria" (also translated as "Sharm el-Liberation Organization"), said in a statement on December 11th that the organization will cooperate with international organizations to ensure the safety of the sites where chemical weapons may be stored. He also said that the security forces during the Assad regime will be demobilized. Giulani also said that he will form a technocratic government, and the current transitional government will be in power until March 2025. (CCTV News)Samsung has lowered its mobile phone production target to 229 million units next year. Samsung Electronics has set a mobile phone production target for 2025, and plans to produce about 229 million smartphones. This goal includes 179.4 million units produced by ourselves and 49.9 million units produced by joint design and manufacturing (JDM). Compared with the initial plan of 237 million units in October this year, this target has been lowered by 7-8 million units, only slightly higher than the shipment forecast for the whole year of 2024.