Headlines

China Vanke Co. won more support from authorities as its largest state shareholder agreed to provide up to 2.8 billion yuan ($383 million) to help the struggling developer repay outstanding debt, Bloomberg News reported. Shenzhen Metro Group Co., which holds a 27% stake in Vanke, signed a three-year secured loan agreement with the firm on Monday, according to a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange. Under the deal, Vanke will provide asset collateral worth up to 4 billion yuan to Shenzhen Metro through an 18% stake in its property management unit Onewo Inc.

Country Garden Holdings Co.’s sales slump dragged on in January, as new residential transactions countrywide resumed falling on weak sentiment. Contracted sales dropped 59% from a year earlier to 2.26 billion yuan ($309 million), following a 51% year-on-year decline in December, according to Bloomberg calculations based on corporate filings. Country Garden’s slide in home sales substantially surpasses the 3.2% posted by the 100 biggest real estate companies tracked by China Real Estate Information Corp. The market is dented by weak domestic demand and a worsening job market.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has terminated the corporate insolvency resolution process (CIRP) against Logix Infrastructure Pvt Ltd — the developer of Blossom County in Sector 137 — citing "fraudulent intent" in the petition, the Times of India reported. In its Feb 6 order, the tribunal asked the resolution professional (RP) to allow Logix Infrastructure's former directors to take back control of the company's management.

Sweden’s state-owned pension fund AP2 has written down its entire stake in bankrupt battery maker Northvolt AB, according to the fund’s annual report, Bloomberg News reported. AP2, which has been a shareholder of Northvolt since 2021, said the stake was worth 1.5 billion kronor ($137 million) at the beginning of 2024, corresponding to 17% of its investments in sustainable infrastructure. Northvolt filed for chapter 11 protection in the U.S. in November after a bid to secure rescue funding fell short, leaving the company with little cash and $5.8 billion in debt.

China’s consumer inflation accelerated for the first time since August, caused by a burst of household spending around the Lunar New Year holiday even as deflationary pressures persist, Bloomberg News reported. The consumer price index rose 0.5% in January from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday, compared with a 0.1% gain in the previous month. A temporary spending boom during the eight-day break briefly masked the extent of the deflationary challenge facing the world’s second-biggest economy.

Mexico's inflationary environment is expected to allow policymakers to keep cutting the benchmark interest rate, the head of the Bank of Mexico told Reuters, as the fight to bring down inflation has entered a new phase, Reuters reported. Banxico, as the Mexican central bank is known, cut the key rate by 50 basis points to 9.50% on Thursday, double the 25-basis-point cuts it had made since it began lowering borrowing costs from a record high of 11.25% in March 2024. "Our work is not over.

Brazil analysts revised up 12-month inflation expectations to further above the central bank’s goal, even after policymakers increased the benchmark interest rate by a full percentage point last month and pledged another hike of the same magnitude in March, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices are forecast to rise 5.87% in the 12 months, compared with 5.74% in the previous report, according to a weekly survey of economists published on Monday.

Europe is prepared to act in response to possible restrictions to trade, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Monday, after holding discussions with industry lobbies and the EU's top trade representative about the threat of tariffs from the U.S., Reuters reported. "Europe must and can only react unitedly and decisively to unilateral trade restrictions. And we are prepared for this," Habeck said in a statement.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will introduce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S., on top of existing metals duties, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul, Reuters reported. Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on his way to the NFL Super Bowl in New Orleans, said that he will announce the new metals tariffs on Monday. He also said he will announce reciprocal tariffs on Tuesday or Wednesday, to take effect almost immediately, applying them to all countries and matching the tariff rates levied by each country.