Economy
World AI Conference, South Korea monetary policy, China economic data
Your weekly lineup of Asia's biggest business and political events People visit the World Artificial Intelligence Conference at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai on July 26, 2025. © Reuters The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, now in its ninth year, is set to showcase China's advances in AI as its low-cost models gain traction globally. The conference comes on the heels of a United Nations meeting in Geneva on AI governance, which highlighted the contrasting attitudes of the U.S. and China. With inflation above the Bank of Korea's target and robust growth fueled by the semiconductor sector, the South Korean central bank is expected to begin a cycle of rate hiking. The monetary policy meeting also comes amid weakness in the won. Get the best of our coverage of Asia and much more by following us on X, where our handle is @NikkeiAsia. We are also on Bluesky with the handle @asia.nikkei.com. China releases closely watched economic statistics, including trade data, on Tuesday, followed by its gross domestic product growth on Wednesday. Analysts in a Nikkei survey estimated that the world's No.
