HONG KONG -- China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) ranked third in the world in terms of foreign direct investment inflows last year, after the United States and the Chinese mainland, HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam said Wednesday.

"Hong Kong is a free, open and diversified economy and a metropolis that attracts talents, organizations and enterprises of different scales from all over the world," Lam said when delivering the annual policy address at a Legislative Council meeting. (Hong Kong-Policy address-FDI inflow ranking)

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SEOUL -- South Korea's headline inflation hovered above 2 percent for the sixth consecutive month due to higher price for farm goods and oil products, statistical office data showed Wednesday.

The consumer price index (CPI) stood at 108.83 in September, up 2.5 percent from a year earlier, according to data from Statistics Korea. (South Korea-CPI)

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SYDNEY -- As rock-bottom interest rates have seen housing prices across Australia skyrocket, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) said Wednesday that they would begin to step in.

The APRA said in an announcement that greater regulations would be put into place for banks when it comes to assessing loan applications.

Part of this includes raising the minimum interest rate buffer on home loan application from 2.5 percent to 3 percent -- a move to marginally reduce Australians' home-loan borrowing capacity. (Australia-Banking-Housing Market) Enditem

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