26 Mar, 2025

Inflation in Laos Drops to 11.2% in March

Laos’ inflation rate eased to 11.2 percent in March, down from 12.7 percent in February and 15.5 percent in January, according to the Lao Statistics Bureau. Despite an annual price increase, overall costs in March declined slightly by 0.1 percent compared to February.This marks a continued downward trend, with the average inflation rate for the first quarter of 2025 standing at 13.1 percent, a significant drop from 24.9 percent in the same period last year.  The most notable decreases were in food and non-alcoholic beverages, transportation and communication, and postal services, with fresh vegetables, fuel, and telephones seeing the biggest price drops.  However, certain sectors continued to experience high price increases, particularly housing, electricity, cooking fuel, healthcare, household appliances, education, dining, and alcohol and tobacco.  The decline in inflation has been attributed to a stable exchange rate, improved local production, especially in agriculture, and steady global fuel prices.

24 Mar, 2025

Crypto Visa Card Startup Rain Raises $24.5 Million From Norwest, Galaxy and Coinbase Ventures

Quick Take• Crypto Visa debit and credit card issuer Rain has raised $24.5 million in a funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners.• The firm is focused on providing consumers with a way to spend stablecoins with limited friction.Crypto Visa Card Startup Rain Raises $24.5 Million From Norwest, Galaxy and Coinbase VenturesAmid a broader trend of web3 firms attempting to make it easier for people to spend their crypto on everyday services, Visa card issuer Rain said Monday it had raised in a funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners.Rain appears particularly interested in providing consumers with a way to spend stablecoins with limited friction, according to a social media post announcing the new funding. "As stablecoin adoption continues to grow — powering diverse use cases such as cross-border payments, remittances, and dollar-based savings — so too does the demand for frictionless spending of stablecoins in everyday transactions," the company said in its announcement. "Rain is prepared to meet that demand. After 15x revenue growth in just 12 months and payments now processed in 100+ countries."While stablecoin supply and transfer volumes continue to grow, that also appears to be a renewed push to make it easier for crypto holders to spend their digital assets easily on everyday goods and services. Last year, stablecoin transfers surpassed the combined transaction volume of Visa and Mastercard. Earlier this month, the crypto payment platform RedotPay raised $40 million. Also this month, Mesh, the developer of a web3 payments system that streamlines transactions involving crypto assets and merchants' settlement requirements, raised $82 million."Powered by our Visa Principal Membership and our unique blockchain infrastructure, we’re accelerating the global rollout of stablecoin-enabled card issuance, unlocking faster, more efficient payments," Rain said on Monday.Other investors in Rain's latest funding round included Galaxy Digital, CompoSecure, BDMI Fund, Coinbase Ventures, Lightspeed, Goldcrest, Thayer, and Hard Yaka.In 2022, Rain raised $6 million in seed funding.