General Motors Corp. considers Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. "a formidable bidder" for its Adam Opel GmbH unit, whose offer could threaten an earlier bid by Magna International Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported. GM, which in recent weeks has described Magna as the front-runner to take over the European business, is increasingly attracted to the offer from Beijing Auto, which the Chinese state-owned car maker submitted last week, said a person close to GM.

China's Beijing Automotive Industry Holding, or BAIC, made a concrete offer for General Motors Corp.'s Adam Opel GmbH unit, a GM spokeswoman said. A person familiar with the situation said Friday that BAIC handed in a nonbinding offer valued at €660 million ($924 million) for an equity stake in GM's Opel and Vauxhall businesses, The Wall Street Journal reported. Under the plan, BAIC would own 51% and GM would keep 49%, the person said. No plants would be closed in Germany, but jobs would be cut, including staff at Opel's headquarters.

China's Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. plans to present a detailed bid for General Motors Corp.'s Opel unit in Europe within the next few days, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday, a move that could complicate the U.S. auto maker's effort to sell Opel to Canadian supplier Magna International Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported. In May, GM signed a memorandum of understanding to sell a majority stake in Opel and its U.K. sister brand, Vauxhall, to Magna, whose bid is backed by Russia's Sberbank Rossia and auto maker OAO GAZ Group.

The International Monetary Fund approved plans on Wednesday to issue its own debt to strengthen its capacity to fund bail-outs, the Financial Times reported. Meanwhile, the World Bank said it committed a record $59 billion in loans and guarantees to developing countries in the year to June 30.

Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, said Tuesday that an official he had appointed had secured lines of credit worth $950 million from China, President Robert Mugabe’s longtime ally, The New York Times reported. Mr. Mugabe’s party has mocked Mr. Tsvangirai for failing to bring home much aid from his three-week tour of the United States and Europe. Zimbabwe’s government — a virtually bankrupt contraption led by Mr. Mugabe and his rival, Mr. Tsvangirai — needs an estimated $8 billion to rebuild the country’s ruined economy.

General Motors Corp. and the Chinese firm that has agreed to acquire the bankrupt automaker's Hummer unit are both denying earlier news reports that China will move to block the deal over pollution concerns, Bankruptcy Law360 reported. Read more. (Subscription required.)

China's central bank renewed its call on Friday for the creation of a super-sovereign reserve currency to reduce the dollar's global domination, which it said had worsened the financial crisis, Reuters reported. In its annual financial stability report, the central bank did not mention the dollar by name but said it was a serious defect that one currency should tower over all others. "An international monetary system dominated by a single sovereign currency has intensified the concentration of risk and the spread of the crisis," the People's Bank of China said.

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. held discussions this week with General Motors Corp. about the possibility of buying Adam Opel GmbH if an existing bid for the European unit of GM falls through, a person familiar with the situation said, The Wall Street Journal reported. GM executives in Europe met with representatives of Beijing Auto after the Chinese government-owned company expressed interest in Opel for a second time, the person said.

Western consumers are buying fewer luxury goods, and demand for cashmere has plunged, The New York Times reported. The painful effects of this are being felt all the way to these nearly empty plateaus of Inner Mongolia, by goatherds and factory workers and owners — showing how ripples from markets in the United States, Europe and Japan can reverberate to some of the most remote corners of the world. The problem is not just the collapse of the cashmere market, but also a government ban on Kashmir goats across much of Inner Mongolia for environmental reasons.

Beijing is diversifying its overseas investments and pressing U.S. officials for an "exit strategy" from the ultra-loose fiscal and monetary policies that China fears will eventually inflate away the value of its U.S. bond holdings and fell the dollar. But China's pragmatic policymakers also know there is no practical alternative to the dollar as the world's main reserve currency.