The boss of British fashion retailer Next said on Wednesday he did not think the downturn in the UK economy would be long lasting and anticipates a sharp recovery in 2024. Recent gauges of Britain’s economy, such as consumer confidence data, have suggested it could sidestep a prolonged recession which had been widely predicted last year. “We’ve never thought that the downturn would be long-lasting,” Next CEO Simon Wolfson told Reuters after the retailer reported full-year results. “The genesis of the problem is a post-pandemic supply side squeeze,” he said, ...

China’s outstanding green loans currently exceed 22 trillion yuan ($3.2 trillion), accounting for about 10% of the country’s total loan balance, People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang said on Wednesday. Separately, China’s green bonds have hit more than 2.5 trillion yuan, Yi said at the Boao Forum in southern China’s Hainan province. “Achieving carbon neutrality requires ‘carrots and sticks’,” Yi said, adding that a central bank incentive mechanism, which provides commercial banks with loans with interest rates as low as 1.75%, could be equated to a “carrot”. To support ...

The Reserve Bank of India will raise its main interest rate by 25 basis points on April 6 and then pause for the rest of the year, according to a Reuters poll of economists who said the central bank would still maintain its tightening stance. Inflation in Asia’s third-largest economy remains above the central bank’s upper tolerance limit of 6.00%, reaching 6.52% in January and easing only slightly to 6.44% in February, a key reason for the RBI to hike again. A strong majority of economists, 49 of 62, said ...

Consumer and mid-sized banks are planning to monitor their internal processes more closely and hold more frequent discussions with regulators as the industry tries to move forward from weeks of turmoil, industry executives say. Industry leaders were taking stock after the collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (OTC:SBNY) and trying to differentiate solid institutions from troubled ones, executives said at a conference in Las Vegas. “There is definitely optimism among bankers despite the last few weeks, but they are not turning a blind eye to what has happened,” ...

Merging UBS and Credit Suisse brings significant execution risk, which incoming Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti is suited to handle due to his background, said UBS Chairman Colm Kelleher at a news conference on Wednesday. “The number one priority is to stabilize the situation,” Kelleher said, adding that shareholders saw an upside in the transaction but were concerned about execution risk. Source: Reuters (Reporting by John O’Donnell, Writing by Miranda Murray, Editing by Friederike Heine)

Impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, China’s economy has experienced ups and downs over the past three years. As headwinds have also emerged in the external environment, notably the US’ continued economic “decoupling” push, some began to question China’s economic potential. However, from the perspective of technology innovation cycles, China’s economy still has huge potential and is actually entering a “golden age” of growth. Progress in technology is a fundamental driver of economic growth. Over the past three decades, China, from a relatively low starting point, did not completely grasp the ...

China’s potential growth rate is the potential growth rate of the whole world，an official from China’s state planner said on Wednesday. Zhao Chenxin, Deputy Director General of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, told the Boao Forum in southern China’s Hainan province that economic globalisation has suffered some setbacks and twists, but has generally continued to move forward. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

German consumer sentiment is set to nudge up in April as energy prices have relented somewhat from record highs, though a full recovery is not in sight anytime soon, showed a GfK institute survey on Wednesday. The institute forecast its consumer sentiment index to improve to -29.5 heading into April from a revised reading of -30.6 in March, slightly below the expectations of analysts polled by Reuters of -29.0. April’s reading, rising for the sixth month in a row, shows sentiment is on its way towards recovery, GfK said, but ...

U.S. residential mortgage refinancing activity climbed to a six-month high last week, a trade group said on Wednesday, fueled by a third straight weekly drop in borrowing costs on the heels of a pair of major bank collapses that have clouded the outlook for interest rates. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly index of overall home loan application volumes climbed 2.9% to notch a fourth week of gains, the longest up-streak in four years. The increase was led by a 4.8% rise in applications to refinance an existing loan, which brought ...

Greece on Wednesday opened books for a new 5-year bond issue, the country’s debt agency said in a bourse filing. Initial price guidance on the new bond, due in June 2028, was set at about 95 basis points over the mid-swap level. Greece has hired BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and Piraeus Bank as joint lead managers. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Yoruk Bahceli and Lefteris Papadimas)

What’s behind the large liquidity injection by the PBoC? China’s central bank, the PBoC, has injected significant liquidity into the market since 21 March. From the 21st to the 29th of the month, the central bank injected more than CNY850 billion of net liquidity into the financial system. This includes CNY352bn injected through daily open market operations and CNY500bn by lowering the Required Reserve Ratio (RRR) which took effect on 27 March. We believe that there are at least two considerations behind these liquidity injections. These operations are occurring at ...

The recent history of economic growth can be divided into two phases: before and after the 2008 global financial crisis. Prior to 2008, the global economy experienced a period of sustained growth, a Goldilocks period including here in China but also in other developing countries and in the developed world. The global financial crisis marked a sharp turning point in this process. Developed countries have struggled since then to sustain high levels of growth, and emerging markets have been growing more slowly. During this time, a far more significant transformation ...

China’s widely-anticipated Two Sessions unveiled a conservative growth target with an emphasis on job creation, implying a subtle departure from ramping up infrastructure investment – an approach which would have worked should leverage be low and external demand strong. The key question is to what extent the financial turmoil in the wake of SVB’s failure will cast an even bigger shadow over an already challenging external front. Will greater policy support be warranted? If so, would a stronger policy response ignite inflation? Let’s begin with the key metrics set out ...

The White House is readying plans to push federal banking regulators to impose new rules on midsize banks after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank earlier this month, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the preparations. The planned recommendations for Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden would push for rules to be reinstated for banks with between $100 billion and $250 billion that were deregulated by Congress and the Federal Reserve during former Republican President Donald Trump’s administration, the Post said. Representatives for the White House ...

Despite the US-led decoupling push and blockade, China will remain a global manufacturing hub thanks to the country’s vast economy and strong industrial chain, in particular for high-end manufacturers, entrepreneurs and scholars attending the Boao Forum for Asia 2023 said. Industries being relocated from China have been talked about a lot in recent days, but panelists shared the consensus that China will continue to be a hub of global manufacturing for the coming decade or longer, and the so-called “relocation” to the world’s other regions could take a very long ...