The annual travel rush for China’s Lunar New Year celebrations officially began on Tuesday, with many taking a mental break from their worries about the future to reunite with family or take a holiday. The peak travel season in the world’s second-largest economy kicked off with a train departing from Beijing minutes after midnight, taking early bird travellers from the capital to Hefei in eastern Anhui province. Most people aim to be with family for the traditional reunion dinner on the eve of the New Year, which falls on Jan. ...

Chinese banks extended 990 billion yuan ($135 billion) in new yuan loans in December, up from November and outpacing analysts’ forecasts as government stimulus measures slowly spur credit demand. Twenty analysts polled by Reuters had predicted new yuan loans would rise to 800 billion yuan last month, from 580 billion yuan in November and compared with 1.17 trillion yuan a year earlier. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) does not provide monthly breakdowns but Reuters calculated the December figures based on the bank’s January-December data released on Tuesday, compared with ...

High government spending and a growing need among big economies – from the United States to Britain and France – to tap bond markets to fund their outlays have shot up the list of concerns for some policymakers and investors. This year has started with a selloff across global government bond markets, with Britain in particular caught in the crosshairs. France’s inability to enact belt-tightening measures due to political instability has also hurt its standing in financial markets. And rising U.S. Treasury yields suggests some sceptism among investors that a ...

For years, pressure on European banks and asset managers to bulk up to better compete with U.S. rivals has been mounting. This year may mark a turning point as more boardrooms explore combinations, say executives, advisers and investors. European banks have enjoyed a run of record profits and soaring shares in the past two years but they, like the region’s asset managers, remain far smaller than U.S. peers after American institutions pulled further ahead. Competition will intensify in 2025 as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office, when he is expected ...

On the morning after Donald Trump’s first inauguration in January 2017, acting National Park Service director Mike Reynolds was at home preparing breakfast when he received a call from the new president. Trump, a Republican, was unhappy with photographs published by media outlets suggesting his inauguration crowd in Washington’s National Mall was smaller than the one that had gathered for former Democratic President Barack Obama’s swearing-in ceremony in 2009, according to two people familiar with details of the call. Trump ordered Reynolds and the Park Service – which oversees the ...

India may record a fiscal deficit for the current fiscal year at 4.7%-4.8% of gross domestic product (GDP), lower than the government’s estimate of 4.9%, primarily driven by lower expenditure, finance daily Mint reported on Monday. Lower spending on planned capital investments and a higher-than-anticipated dividend from the central bank could lead to a smaller fiscal deficit, the report said, citing two people aware of the matter. The plan for fiscal year 2026 is to keep the budget deficit within the government’s target of 4.5%, the newspaper reported, citing one ...

China’s exports gained momentum in December, with imports also showing recovery, though strength at the year-end was in part fuelled by factories rushing inventory overseas as they braced for heightened trade risks under a Trump presidency. Exports have been a vital growth engine for the $18 trillion economy, which is still burdened by a prolonged property crisis and shaky consumer confidence. While policymakers can find solace in recent policy measures keeping the economy on track for an “around 5%” growth target, challenges such as potential U.S. tariff hikes cloud the ...

The global trade landscape has undergone dramatic changes in recent years. Geopolitical tensions, supply chain bottlenecks and the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have created an environment of uncertainty and disruption. Despite these challenges, stable global trade remains crucial for ensuring economic growth and development. The urgency of addressing these issues has never been greater, as the world faces increasing protectionist measures, rising trade barriers and the need for sustainable practices to mitigate environmental and societal impacts. Therefore, it is essential to closely examine the current state of global ...

China and the United Kingdom pledged to build an open world economy during their latest round of economic and financial dialogue, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday. The 11th China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue was co-chaired by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves in Beijing on Saturday. “The two sides reached 69 win-win outcomes,” spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular news briefing when asked about the dialogue. The two sides expressed their common willingness to uphold multilateralism and economic globalization, ...

Euro zone households reduced their savings a touch in the third quarter of last year but still set aside an exceptionally large portion of their disposable income, highlighting a key challenge holding back growth, data from Eurostat showed on Monday. The euro zone savings rate dipped to 15.3% in the third quarter from 15.6% three months earlier, the first decline since early 2022, but stayed well above the 12-13% range prior to the pandemic. Euro zone households have been saving up an unusually large portion of their incomes over the ...

Prospects of sustained wage gains in Japan and the boost to import costs from a weak yen have heightened attention within the central bank to rising inflationary pressures that may lead to an upgrade in its price forecast this month, sources said. Even if the Bank of Japan were to raise its inflation forecast, the upgrade alone won’t lead to an interest rate hike if it is driven by temporary factors such as the rising price of rice and higher import costs, said three sources familiar with the bank’s thinking. ...

India’s annual retail inflation in December eased to 5.22% from 5.48% in the previous month as the rate of increase in food prices slowed, government data released on Monday showed. A Reuters poll had projected retail inflation at 5.3%. COMMENTS RADHIKA RAO, SENIOR ECONOMIST, DBS BANK, SINGAPORE “Improved supplies of perishables and expectations of winter disinflation in food components were reflected in slower rise in the food component. Yet sequential move led by oil & fats plus cereals was uncomfortable. Fuel disinflation extended into December.” “Markets will nonetheless pay attention ...

Large British businesses plan to cut hiring this year at the fastest pace since the COVID-19 pandemic and scale back investment due to big tax rises announced in the government’s October budget, a survey showed on Monday. Deloitte’s quarterly survey of chief financial officers at 63 of Britain’s largest companies echoed other surveys of smaller and medium-sized businesses also hit by the 25 billion-pound ($31 billion) hike in employers’ social security charges. “With cost control to the fore in the wake of the budget, CFOs have trimmed expectations for corporate ...

Greece has hired six banks to sell a new 10-year bond, its first issue this year, the country’s debt agency said on Monday. The new bond will be launched “in the near future, subject to market conditions,” the debt agency said. It added that a bond auction scheduled for Wednesday “will not take place, due to the upcoming 10-year bond syndication”. The country hired BofA Securities, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Bank, Morgan Stanley, National Bank of Greece and Societe Generale as joint lead managers for the new 10-year bond. Greece ...

The number of job vacancies in London’s financial sector dropped by almost a fifth in the last three months of 2024 compared with the previous quarter, to its lowest level since June 2020, Morgan McKinley’s London Employment Monitor on Monday showed. Job postings of 3,664 for the fourth quarter period were also down 12% on the final three months of 2023, while the number of vacancies across 2024 as a whole was down 28% on the prior year. “These stark figures paint a sobering picture of an industry grappling with ...