Britain should have an “eyes wide open” approach to its relationship with China and remain robust in standing up for its values, finance minister Rishi Sunak said on Friday. Relations between China and Britain have been strained in recent months over Hong Kong and the role of China’s Huawei in Britain. Asked by LBC Radio if President Xi Jinping was a reliable partner, Sunak replied: “We should have an eyes wide open relationship with China, obviously it’s important to us in many ways, because of the supply of things and ...

China saw its foreign trade rise 6.5 percent year-on-year in July, with exports and imports up 10.4 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, official data showed on Aug 7. Foreign trade stood at 2.93 trillion yuan (about $422.14 billion) last month, resulting in a trade surplus of 442.23 billion yuan, the General Administration of Customs said. In the first seven months of this year, foreign trade of goods went down 1.7 percent year-on-year to 17.16 trillion yuan, narrowing by 1.5 percentage points compared with the decrease for the first half. Source: ...

Britain’s top minister overseeing Brexit talks said on Friday that progress had been made with the European Union so he believed the two sides would clinch a free trade agreement. The United Kingdom left the EU on Jan. 31 but the main terms of its membership remain in place during a transition period until the end of this year, during which time both sides hope to negotiate a new free trade deal. “All the evidence is that we are making progress with the European Union,” Michael Gove told reporters in ...

India’s labouring poor have largely disappeared even from the inner pages of newspapers and from television screens. It is as though, after the country has gradually unlocked and most migrants have returned home, the wrenching distress of mass hunger and sudden unemployment that racked their lives has somehow passed. The reality is entirely the reverse. The devastating impact of the unprecedented closure of the entire economy, which was already in recession, will endure for a long time. However, the immense suffering of the poor has been rendered invisible by the ...

Brazilian inflation in July rose for that month the most in four years, figures showed on Friday, driven by transport and housing costs, although the annual measure remained significantly below the central bank’s year-end target. The IPCA index rose 0.36% in July, government statistics agency IBGE said, almost exactly in line with the 0.35% that economists in a Reuters poll had expected. Prices rose 2.31% in the 12 months through July, exactly matching the median forecast of 2.31% in the Reuters poll. According to IBGE, the biggest drivers in July ...

A planned link-up of the EU and Swiss carbon markets will be operational from September, the European Commission said, giving companies a broader pool of potential partners with which to trade emissions permits. The EU carbon market is the bloc’s flagship policy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, which it does by forcing power plants, factories and airlines to buy permits to cover some of the pollution they emit. The EU-Swiss emissions trading link has been years in the making, but an initial launch date in May was delayed due to ...

China’s economy appeared to be gathering pace in July as exports rose the most this year while some raw material imports hit record highs, adding to hopes for a more sustained recovery. The economy is gradually emerging from a record contraction in the first quarter but the recovery remains fragile as rising coronavirus cases around the world and renewed lockdowns could hit demand. Chinese consumer spending also remained subdued amid job losses and concerns about a resurgence in infections. The country’s export performance, however, has not been as severely affected ...

Britain’s banks hold enough capital to keep on lending to the country’s companies and also to absorb billions in losses likely to arise due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank of England said. Companies could suffer a cash flow deficit of up to 200 billion pounds, and banks could be hit by credit losses of less than 80 billion pounds, the BoE’s Financial Policy Committee (FPC) said on Thursday. “It remains the FPC’s judgement that banks have the capacity, and it is in the collective interest of the banking system, ...

She said there could be various models to achieve minimum four PSUs in case of those falling under the strategic sector. The government will soon come out with a new public sector enterprises policy that will define strategic sectors which will not have more than four PSUs, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday. As part of the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ package, the Finance Minister in May had announced that there will be a maximum of four public sector companies in strategic sectors, and state-owned firms in other segments will ...

Europe is braced for its second wave of coronavirus, as infection rates rise in numerous countries, including Spain, France and Germany. Covid-19 has sucked up the political capacity of virtually every European nation, leaving every other area of policy playing second fiddle as the world tries to fight this invisible threat. This has created a uniquely difficult problem for Boris Johnson, the UK Prime Minister, who faces the harrowing prospect of two unprecedented crises taking hold simultaneously before the end of 2020. Brexit might not be at the top of ...

Brazil has preserved 11 million jobs thanks to government measures taken to support the economy since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the initial hit to employment is almost over, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes said on Wednesday. Speaking in virtual testimony to lawmakers, Guedes also said the economy faces another difficult month or two “but we are recovering.” Source: Reuters (Reporting by Marcela Ayres and Jamie McGeever, Editing by Franklin Paul)

India’s central bank kept interest rates on hold on Thursday, amid a recent rise in retail consumer prices and said it would ensure inflation remains within target going forward. The repo rate currently stands at 4.0% and the reverse repo rate at 3.35%. Two-thirds of analysts in a Reuters poll had predicted a 25 basis point cut in the repo rate while the rest saw no change. The Reserve Bank of India has already reduced the repo rate by a total of 115 basis points since February, on top of ...

Fitch Ratings-London-23 July 2020: The EUR750 billion recovery fund agreed by EU leaders is net supportive for EU sovereign ratings, Fitch Ratings says. We think it could become a more permanent feature of the EU’s institutional set-up, which would bolster the architectural underpinnings of the eurozone. The agreement on 21 July to create the ‘Next Generation EU’ fund authorises the European Commission to borrow in the capital markets on the EU’s behalf. The additional funds raised will be disbursed to member states as grants and loans. EU leaders also agreed ...

Reports of bank runs among China’s small lenders have increased this year, fuelled by persistent online speculation over funding crunches and poor corporate governance in an economy weakened by COVID-19. China has more than 4,500 small banks, many with strong ties to local businesses and opaque stakeholdings. Last year, at least two small lenders were hit by bank runs. Below is a snapshot of five smaller lenders that saw a rush of withdrawals this year. BANK OF HULUDAO Based in northeastern Liaoning province, the bank is owned by 28 shareholders ...

With the completion of the final post-Brexit transitional period around the corner, the UK is scrambling to secure multiple trade deals before the end of 2020. The Japan-UK free trade agreement (FTA) holds significance in boosting investments and diversified supply chain mechanism for both the countries with market growth opportunities, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. The investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provision, which enables the countries to settle disputes with foreign investors, was mutually excluded from the negotiation talks with an aim to reach the desired deal at ...