Headlines

China's industrial output rose 5.4% from a year earlier in November, quickening from October's 5.3% growth, signalling tentative stabilisation in the world's second-largest economy as recent stimulus measures start to gain traction, Reuters reported. Data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics beat expectations for a 5.3% rise in a Reuters poll of 26 analysts. Retail sales, a gauge of consumption, grew 3.0% in November, down from a 4.8% rise in October. Analysts had predicted a 4.6% expansion.

China's home prices fell at the slowest pace in 17 months in November, with the crisis-hit property market showing signs of stabilising in some major cities amid government efforts to revive the real estate sector, Reuters reported. New home prices were down 0.1% in November from a month earlier, the slowest decline since June last year, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data on Monday. Prices dropped 0.5% in October from a month earlier. In annual terms, new home prices fell 5.7% after a 5.9% drop the previous month.

The European Central Bank is likely to continue to lower its key interest rate as the threat of U.S. tariffs clouds already weak growth prospects, President Christine Lagarde said on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported. Policymakers at the eurozone’s central bank lowered the key rate for their third straight meeting Thursday. In a speech in Lithuania, Lagarde said further cuts are on the way. “The direction of travel is clear and we expect to lower interest rates further,” she said.

Germany's economic downturn eased slightly in December but business activity still contracted for a sixth month running, according to a survey published on Monday, Reuters reported. The HCOB German flash composite Purchasing Managers' Index, compiled by S&P Global, rose to 47.8 from 47.2 in November, but remained in contraction territory. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a reading of 47.8. The business activity index for Germany's services sector rose to 51.0 in December from 49.3 in November, beating the forecast of 49.4. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion.

Private-sector business activity in France shrank for a fourth month as the fall of the government over a budget dispute sapped confidence, Bloomberg News reported. S&P Global’s Composite Purchasing Managers Index came in at 46.7 in December, staying below the 50 threshold separating expansion from contraction. Still, it’s an improvement from last month and also a bit better than the median estimate among analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Manufacturing and services also stayed in contractionary territory, though the latter exceeded expectations.

Pakistan cut its benchmark interest rate to the lowest in more than two years as easing inflation provides room for the central bank to boost growth, Bloomberg News reported. The State Bank of Pakistan lowered the target rate by 200 basis points to 13%, the central bank said in a statement Monday. All the 41 economists surveyed by Bloomberg predicted the move, with 26 forecasting the exact measure. Interest rate has dropped to the lowest since April 2022.

Japan’s biggest bank apologized Monday for the alleged theft by an employee of more than 1 billion yen ($6.6 million) from customers’ safe deposit boxes, the Associated Press reported. The bank, formally known as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., said Monday that it was investigating and that verified thefts from about 20 of the 60 clients thought to have been affected amounted to 300 million yen (nearly $2 million). Compensation was being worked out, it said.

Thames Water is offering sweeteners to its most senior creditors in exchange for their support for its plan to raise £3 billion ($3.8 billion) of emergency cash, Bloomberg News reported. The beleaguered utility has modified its restructuring plan and has now offered to pay additional fees to the providers of its interest rate and index swaps, according to a statement by Thames Water on Friday. With these additional premiums the company is expecting — based on previous discussions — a sufficient majority of its derivatives counterparties to give the green light to its proposal.

A Surrey company director who fraudulently moved £100,000 in Covid-19 loans through his family's bank accounts has avoided jail, BBC.com reported. Muhammadh Chaudhry secured a £50,000 Bounce Back Loan for a media business in July 2020 and then fraudulently obtained another £50,000 loan for UK Media Kit Hire Ltd in September 2020, which he claimed was a film and TV production company. The 41-year-old then transferred the funds through savings accounts held by close relatives, the Insolvency Service said.

Britain's economy shrank for a second month in a row in October in the run-up to the government's first budget, the first back-to-back falls in output since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a setback for new finance minister Rachel Reeves, Reuters reported. Gross domestic product contracted by 0.1% month-on-month in October, as it did in September, the Office for National Statistics said. It was the first consecutive drop in monthly GDP - which is volatile and prone to revision - since March and April 2020, when Britain enforced its first coronavirus lockdown.