Global stocks retreated on Tuesday after new data reinforced investors’ concerns over an economic slowdown in China and Italy announced a surprise windfall tax on its banks. Financial stocks in Europe were lower after Italy’s deputy prime minister announced a 40 per cent windfall tax on banks that have recently profited from rising interest rates.
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China’s trade slumped in July, with exports and imports falling more sharply than economists forecast, adding to concerns about growth prospects in the world’s second-biggest economy more than six months after Beijing eased pandemic restrictions. Exports declined by 14.5 per cent year on year in dollar terms, official data showed on Tuesday, the steepest fall
Imports from China to the EU, including of sensitive technology and critical minerals, have increased in recent years, despite lawmakers’ attempts to “de-risk” economic links amid deteriorating diplomatic relations with Beijing. Brussels labelled China a “systemic rival” in 2019 after trade tensions between the two economic superpowers increased. However, Eurostat data shows that the value
The red-brown landscape of Tenke-Fungurume, one of the world’s largest copper and cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is covered by tens of thousands of dusty sacks. The bags stacked up by the roadside and piled next to buildings contain a stash of cobalt hydroxide powder equivalent to almost a tenth of the
In the 1820s, agents from employers in France, Germany and the US prowled around the factory towns of Britain, looking for skilled workers to lure away. A foreign agent “has only to watch at my gates as they come out and in, and get the names of the most able men”, complained one employer at
Bob Iger’s retirement from Disney only lasted 11 months, but since his return as chief executive in November he has admitted to being surprised by the number of problems he has discovered at the company. The decline of the traditional television business has been worse than he thought, leading to a serious drop-off in advertising
8/7/2023, 11:07:50 PM What to watch in Asia today George Russell in Hong Kong Torch bearers light the flame during the opening ceremony of the Chengdu World University Games on July 28. About 10,000 athletes competed in the Chinese city © CNS/AFP via Getty Images Events: The Lok Sabha, India’s lower house of parliament, begins
Sales of cross-border debt denominated in renminbi have boomed this year, as relatively low yields in China’s bond market boost Beijing’s drive to increase the international footprint of its currency. Sales of renminbi-denominated “panda” bonds by foreign issuers in China have risen to Rmb75bn ($10.4bn) so far in 2023 — already surpassing the full-year record
UK consumer spending slowed in July as wet weather damped demand for summer clothing, leaving overall retail sales growth well below the rate of inflation, according to data published on Tuesday. The value of retail sales rose at an annual rate of 1.5 per cent in July, a weaker reading than the average of 3.3
Russian forces carried out two strikes on the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk on Monday evening, hitting a popular hotel. At least five people were killed and a further 31 injured, according to Ukraine’s interior ministry on Telegram. In his nightly address, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had used short-range Iskander ballistic missiles to
Meta has axed a team that used artificial intelligence to create the first database of more than 600mn protein structures, in a signal the company is abandoning purely scientific projects in favour of building moneymaking AI products. The social media giant had employed a group of about a dozen scientists on a project called ESMFold,
A Russian court has frozen about $36mn worth of Goldman Sachs’ assets in the country after state-owned bank Otkritie, which is under western sanctions, filed a lawsuit against the US bank. Otkritie accused Goldman of refusing to fulfil Rbs615mn ($6.4mn) of debt obligations under derivatives agreements between the two banks. According to court documents published
A UK bank serving 14,000 charities has announced £15mn in fresh debt funding from its owner after reporting steep paper losses on the value of its bond holdings. CAF Bank said on Monday it had struck a deal with the Charities Aid Foundation, the UK’s largest charity by income, to cover the shortfall that the
Goldman Sachs’ global head of commodities research Jeff Currie, well-known to energy traders for his upbeat predictions, is leaving the Wall Street bank after 27 years in the latest senior departure from the firm. The analyst made a name for himself after a series of bold and often bullish calls, including predicting the so-called “super
Ron DeSantis said “of course” Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, as the Florida governor took a new jab at the former president, who is facing criminal charges that he plotted to overturn the results of the last presidential race. In an interview with NBC set to air on Monday evening, DeSantis, who is challenging
Like most people speeding up Britain’s East Coast mainline railway, Beth Russell had never stopped at Darlington in County Durham until UK prime minister Rishi Sunak named it in 2021 as the site of the Treasury’s new northern headquarters. Now, the finance ministry’s second permanent secretary is a fierce advocate of the north eastern market
Last week, hundreds of thousands of young Catholics from around the world converged on the Portuguese capital Lisbon for World Youth Day, an international religious gathering that first took place in Rome in 1986. In a sermon delivered in the city on August 3, Pope Francis reminded those present that “in the Church there is
The writer is chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee The recent debate around UK net zero policies needs an injection of scientific reality. The world will continue to heat and extremes of heat and rainfall will worsen until net zero is reached in every country and every sector. Net zero is not a slogan
The writer is partner at Krebs Stamos Group and former director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently announced a highly anticipated set of cyber security regulations, requiring companies to publicly disclose incidents and regularly report on governance. At first glance, these new rules make sense and
German chancellor Olaf Scholz is under mounting pressure to provide cruise missiles to Ukraine to bolster its struggling counteroffensive against Russian forces. Two lawmakers in Scholz’s Social Democrat party (SPD), which has often been more cautious than its coalition partners, have recently joined a chorus of voices calling for Swedish-German made Taurus missiles to be
Donald Trump is a braggart and a liar. Donald Trump attempted to stage a coup. I think both those statements are true. But it is also true that, as president, Trump was responsible for historic shifts in US foreign and domestic policy that Joe Biden has built upon. Those shifts are likely to endure —