HONG KONG (Reuters) -Casino revenues in Macau, the world's biggest gambling hub, surged 366% from a year ago to total 15.6 billion patacas ($1.93 billion) in May, the highest since January 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic had still to fully grip China.

The monthly take was bolstered by a five-day national holiday that saw hundreds of thousands of visitors flock to the special Chinese administrative region, which is the only place in China where citizens can legally gamble in casinos.

China lifted strict COVID-19 restrictions in January, allowing visitors to swarm into Macau for the first time in more than three years.

Around 500,000 people visited the former Portugues colony during the five day Labour Day holiday at the start of May, crowding onto its pastel coloured streets surrounding historical sights Senado Square and the Ruins of St Paul's and packing its glitzy casinos.

Authorities are keen to diversify sources of income in Macau, which depends on casinos for more than 80% of its government revenues, and have imposed strict new regulations on its six casino operators.

The rush of visitors comes as the densely populated territory grapples with an acute labour shortage, a key concern for casino operators Sands China (OTC:SCHYY), Wynn Macau (OTC:WYNMF), MGM China (OTC:MCHVY), SJM Holdings (OTC:SJMHF), Galaxy Entertainment and Melco Resorts.

Sands last week officially opened its "Londoner" casino resort which includes a 6,000 seat arena and attractions like a replica of London's Big Ben clock tower.

It was the first big casino opening since the COVID pandemic and was attended by former England football captain David Beckham who drew scores of fans to the property.

($1 = 8.0840 patacas)

By Kevin Buckland

TOKYO (Reuters) - Most Asia-Pacific stock markets rose on Thursday amid receding bets for a U.S. rate hike this month and relief over the passage of the U.S. debt ceiling bill through the House.

The dollar sagged to a one-week low versus the yen and hung close to Wednesday's more-than-two-month trough to the euro after Federal Reserve officials including Governor and vice chair nominee Philip Jefferson pointed to a rate hike "skip" at the June 13-14 policy meeting.

Treasury yields rose slightly from nearly two-week lows.

Crude oil prices edged off four-week lows following a surprise swing back to growth in a private survey of Chinese factory activity, with an OPEC+ meeting looming on the weekend.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares gained 0.45%, rebounding after touching the lowest level since March 22 in the previous session.

Japan's Nikkei added 0.29%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.5% and mainland Chinese blue chips advanced 0.53%.

A divided House passed a bill to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling - and avert a catastrophic default - with majority support from both Democrats and Republicans, stoking optimism that it can move through the Senate before the weekend.

"This has gone through with a very big majority, so there's enough bipartisan support that it's very hard to believe this isn't going to be even more of a formality in the Senate," said Ray Attrill, head of foreign-exchange strategy at National Australia Bank (OTC:NABZY).

""What this does is it turns the attention to the incoming data and the Fed meeting this month," Attrill added.

Money markets currently lay about 38% odds for a hike on June 14, swinging back from about 70% earlier in the day, after some unexpectedly hot jobs numbers.

However, shortly after, the Fed's Jefferson said skipping a rate hike in two weeks would provide policymakers time to see more data before making a decision. Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker also said on Wednesday that for now he is inclined to support a "skip" in rate hikes.

The dollar was little changed at 139.435 yen after slipping to the lowest since May 25 at 138.96 earlier in the session.

The euro was flat at $1.06905. It sank as low as $1.0635 on Wednesday for the first time since March 20.

Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields edged up to 3.6655% in Tokyo, after dipping to 3.6140% overnight for the first time since May 18.

Brent crude futures for August delivery rose 46 cents, or 0.63% to $73.06 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) added 40 cents, or 0.59%, to $68.49 a barrel.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to approve a bipartisan bill to suspend the government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling, just five days before the deadline to avoid a crippling default.

Voting continued on the legislation, which must also be approved by the Democratic-majority Senate before President Joe Biden can sign the measure into law.

TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan and the United States will sign the first deal under a new trade talks framework on Thursday, both governments said, boosting ties between the two at a time of heightened tensions with China over the democratically-governed island.

Taiwan and the United States started talks under what is called the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade last August, after Washington excluded Taiwan from its larger pan-Asian trade initiative, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

Taiwan's Office of Trade Negotiations said in a brief statement the first agreement under the framework would be signed in Washington on Thursday morning U.S. time, but gave no other details.

The U.S. Trade Representative's office said Deputy United States Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi would attend the event, but also did not elaborate.

Last month, the two sides reached agreement on the first part of their trade initiative, covering customs and border procedures, regulatory practices, and small business.

After the initial agreement is signed, negotiations will start on other, more complicated trade areas including agriculture, digital trade, labour and environmental standards, state-owned enterprises, and non-market policies and practices, the USTR has previously said.

The pact is not expected to alter goods tariffs, but proponents say it will strengthen economic bonds between the United States and Taiwan, open the island to more U.S. exports, and increase Taiwan's ability to resist economic coercion from China.

Beijing has denounced the trade talks as it does with all forms of high level engagement between Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory, and the United States.

Taiwan strongly rejects China's sovereignty claims, which Beijing has been trying to push on Taipei through repeated military activities including war games around the island.

By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand companies will start to benefit from the country’s new free trade agreement (FTA) with the United Kingdom with the pact now in force, the government said on Wednesday.

“The benefits which begin flowing from the FTA today, provide a further big boost to our economy,” said New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins a statement.

New Zealand forecasts the deal with its seventh-largest trading partner will add NZ$1 billion ($634.40 million) to GDP each year and save NZ$37 million in tariffs annually. The UK estimates the deal will add 800 million pounds to its GDP.

The agreement comes as London seeks to pivot towards the Indo-Pacific in light of its departure from the European Union. It has also signed a FTA with Australia.

“This is a major delivery milestone and sits alongside the seven new or upgraded FTAs secured since 2017, which is helping to contribute to record earnings for our exporters,” said Trade Minister Damien O'Connor.

Britain has also agreed with New Zealand to increase the age of eligibility for working holiday visas to 35 from 30, letting people stay for up to three years at a time.

($1 = 1.5763 New Zealand dollars)

By Ira Dugal

MUMBAI (Reuters) - On a hot summer afternoon, 23-year old Nizamudin Abdul Rahim Khan is playing cricket on a muddy, unpaved road in the Rafiq Nagar slum in India's financial capital, Mumbai.

Here, there is scant evidence of India's fast-growing economy. Bordering what was once Asia's largest garbage dumping ground, Rafiq Nagar and surrounding areas are home to an estimated 800,000 people, most living in tiny rooms across narrow, dark alleys.

The young men and women in the area struggle to find jobs or work, and they mostly dawdle the day away, said Naseem Jafar Ali, who works with an NGO in the area.

India's urban unemployment soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a high of 20.9% in the April-June 2020 quarter, while wages fell. While the unemployment rate has fallen since, fewer full-time jobs are available.

Economists say more and more job-seekers, especially the young, are looking for low-paid casual work or falling back on unreliable self-employment, even though the broader Indian economy is seen growing at a world-beating 6.5% in the financial year ending in March 2024.

India is overtaking China to become the world's most populous nation with over 1.4 billion people. Nearly 53% of them are under 30, its much-touted demographic dividend, but without jobs, tens of millions of young people are becoming a drag on the economy.

"Unemployment is only the tip of the iceberg. What remains hidden beneath is the serious crisis of underemployment and disguised unemployment," said Radhicka Kapoor, fellow at economic research agency ICRIER.

Khan for instance, offers himself as casual labour for home repairs or construction, earning just about 10,000 Indian rupees ($122) a month to help support his father and his four sisters. "If I get a permanent job, then there will be no problem," he says.

The risk for India is a vicious cycle for the economy. Falling employment and earnings undermine India’s chances to fuel the economic growth needed to create jobs for its young and growing population.

Economist Jayati Ghosh calls the country's demographic dividend "a ticking time-bomb."

"The fact that we have so many people who have been educated, have spent a lot of their own or family's money but are not being able to find the jobs they need, that's horrifying," she said.

"It's not just the question of potential loss to the economy...it is a lost generation."

SMALL BUSINESSES COLLAPSE

Unemployment is far more acute in India's cities, where the cost of living is high and there is no back-up in the form of a jobs guarantee programme which the government offers in rural areas. Still many in the army of rural unemployed flock to the cities to find jobs.

While urban unemployment was at 6.8% in the January-March quarter, the share of urban workers with full-time jobs has declined to 48.9% as of December 2022 from an already low 50.5% just before the start of the pandemic, government data shows.

This means that of the estimated urban workforce of about 150 million, only 73 million have full-time jobs.

For people in urban areas with full time jobs, average monthly wages, adjusted for inflation, stood at 17,507 rupees ($212) in the April-June 2022 quarter - the latest period for which government data is available.

This was a modest 1.2% higher than the October-December 2019 period, before the start of the pandemic.

But for the self-employed, incomes have fallen to 14,762 ($178.67) rupees in the April-June 2022 quarter, according to research by Ghosh and C.P. Chandrashekhar, both at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. It was at 15,247 rupees in the October-December 2019 quarter.

"The big thing that has happened is the collapse of small businesses, which were the backbone of employment," said Ghosh.

Since the Indian government's decision to demonetise 86% of the country's currency in circulation in 2016, there have seen continuous attacks on the viability of small business, with the pandemic being the latest, she said.

Over 10,000 micro, small and medium enterprises shut in 2022-23 (April-March) alone, the government said in parliament in February. In the previous year, over 6,000 such units had shut. But the government did not specify whether any new enterprises were set up in those periods.

GRADUATE PAINTER

Many families in Khan's neighbourhood, typical of the urban sprawl in the city of 21 million, have been hit by job losses and lower incomes in recent years. Young workers are particularly vulnerable.

Arshad Ali Ansari, a 22-year-old student, said he saw his brother and sister lose their jobs soon after the start of the pandemic.

Sitting in a single-room with a kitchen attached, where his family of eight lives, Ansari said they survive on his 60-year old father's earnings of about 20,000 rupees a month.

His brother, who was a graduate and had worked in a bank, lost his job during the pandemic and had to join their father in painting houses.

"My brother had education, he had experience," Ansari said.

His sister, once a social worker, also lost her job and has given up hope of finding one.

India will need to create 70 million new jobs over the next ten years, wrote Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC, in a note earlier this month. But only 24 million will likely be created, leaving behind "46 million missing jobs."

"From that lens, a growth rate of 6.5% will solve a third of India’s jobs problem," Bhandari wrote.

(This story has been refiled to fix a typo in paragraph 2)

($ 1 = 82.62)

By Kevin Buckland

TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar languished below the psychological 140 yen level on Wednesday after getting knocked back from a six-month high after Japanese officials met on Tuesday to discuss their currency.

The Australian dollar rode a rollercoaster after it jumped on heated local inflation data only to be dragged lower moments later by more signs of a slowdown in China, a major trading partner. The Chinese yuan slumped to a six-month low in offshore trading.

The Aussie was last down 0.15% at $0.6507, heading back toward last week's 6 1/2-month low of $0.6490. It sank as much as 0.38% at its lowest point, immediately after climbing as much as 0.33%.

"We have to remember that the Aussie is a pro-growth currency, strongly linked to the outlook for commodities, and we've seen commodities under pressure of late," said Rodrigo Catril, senior foreign-exchange strategist at National Australia Bank (OTC:NABZY).

"The lack of positive news coming from economic activity in China is exacerbating that view, and proving to be the dominant one," trumping increased likelihood for further Reserve Bank of Australia tightening "sooner rather than later" following a hotter-than-expected consumer price reading, he said.

The New Zealand dollar sank as much as 0.5% to a 6 1/2-month trough at $0.60125.

Against the Chinese yuan, the U.S. dollar climbed as much as 0.38% to 7.1171 for the first time since Nov. 30.

Meanwhile, the greenback was little changed at 139.82 yen following a 0.46% slide on Tuesday, when Japan's top currency diplomat said following a meeting of the country's finance ministry, central bank and financial watchdog that officials "will closely watch currency market moves and respond appropriately as needed."

The dollar had risen as high as 140.93 earlier that day for the first time since Nov. 23.

"The meeting was preemptive," said Bart Wakabayashi, general manager at State Street (NYSE:STT) in Tokyo.

"I think the real line in the sand is 150," added Wakabayashi, who expects diverging monetary policy outlooks in Japan and the United States to continue to push the currency pair higher.

"If we get above 145, we're going to see pretty much every Japanese official on the wires trying to talk it down, and if they don't like what they see, they're going to act," he said, referring to the risk of currency intervention.

Elsewhere, the euro slipped 0.22% to $1.0711, giving back part of Tuesday's 0.28% advance.

Sterling retreated 0.14% to $1.2395, following a 0.44% gain the previous day.

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is closely scrutinizing exports to China and last year denied or took no action on a quarter of requests in order to stop sales that would advance Beijing's militarization, a senior official said in testimony released on Tuesday.

In 2022, 5,064 export and re-export license applications were reviewed and about 26% were denied or returned without action, Commerce Department assistant secretary Thea Rozman Kendler said in written testimony for a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Wednesday.

"We identify sensitive U.S. technologies that would give our adversaries an advantage, develop policies and strategies for protecting these technologies, and review license applications submitted by exporters," Kendler's testimony said.

Nearly 700 Chinese parties are subject to the government's export controls on what is known as the "Entity List," Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod said in written testimony. More than 200 have been added since the beginning of the Biden administration, he said.

"We leverage our administrative and criminal enforcement, as well as our regulatory authority, to address the diversion of advanced technologies – like semiconductors, marine engines, and satellite and rocket prototypes – that support China’s military modernization efforts," Axelrod's testimony said.

The goal is to counter China's "military modernization, human rights abuses, and other activities contrary to our national security and foreign policy interests," he said.

The hearing is titled "Countering China: Advancing U.S. National Security, Economic Security, and Foreign Policy".

The administration's plans to restrict certain U.S. outbound investments in specific sensitive technologies are still under discussion, said testimony from Treasury Department official Paul Rosen.

"Our desire is to avoid situations in which U.S. investments support and advance technologies that enhance military or intelligence capabilities in countries of concern that could undermine our national security and put Americans at risk," his testimony said.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in March the Biden administration was considering a pilot program to address risks about investment in China.

"There are a lot of U.S. pension funds invested in China and people's retirement money. You certainly don't want do anything that has an unintended consequence," Raimondo said. "You don't want to be overly broad."

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The head of Australia's central bank on Wednesday pledged to do whatever is necessary to bring inflation back to target, warning that risks to inflation are on the upside and households should brace for the pain ahead.

Appearing before lawmakers, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe said inflation expectations were well anchored for now, but that cannot be taken for granted and entrenched inflation would lead to higher interest rates and unemployment.

The RBA has projected headline inflation to return to the top of the bank's target of 2%-3% by mid-2025, a slower path than many other economies as Lowe wants to preserve strong gains in the labour market.

"Mid-2025 is pressing the length of time we can reasonably take, because if we take longer than that, people may reasonably say: 'Are you serious about the inflation target?' I want to reassure you we're serious," said Lowe.

"The risk to inflation is to the upside and we need to be attentive to that."

Services price inflation could remain elevated due to high unit labour costs if productivity growth failed to pick up, warned Lowe, adding that there are also uncertainties about the slowdown in household spending and the global economy.

The RBA has already raised interest rates by a whopping 375 basis points since May last year to an 11-year high of 3.85%. It has warned that more rate rises may be required to bring inflation back to target.

Lowe said success in the inflation fight is not guaranteed, and "it's going to be painful for a while yet" for Australian households.

"We won't be declaring victory until victory is achieved."

Markets see the RBA holding rates steady next month, but there is a sizeable chance of another quarter-point hike in August or September, and rates are expected stay elevated for the rest of the year.

Economic data over the past month has been on the soft side. Retail sales were flat in April as consumers cut back spending on food and dining out, while quarterly gains in wages missed forecasts and a red-hot labour market showed signs of cooling.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will in 15 days launch a public tender for the construction of 10 industrial parks at a planned business corridor on an isthmus in the south of the country, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday.

Auto makers, tech companies and semiconductor producers could be among investors in the parks, Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro said this month, noting officials were pitching the project to companies from the U.S., Canada, Taiwan and Germany.

Lopez Obrador said last week the government is willing to provide subsidies and grant tax cuts to companies that set up operations in the so-called Inter-Oceanic Corridor.

The project is taking shape along the stretch connecting the Pacific port of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca state with the Gulf coast hub of Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state. It ultimately aims to compete with the Panama Canal as a channel to move goods.