Headlines

Italy’s interior minister Matteo Salvini has vowed to reform the European Union by giving member states more control over their economic policies, The Daily Express reported. In a stinging attack on Brussels, Mr Salvini claimed the Eurozone was responsible for soaring levels of public debt in Italy. And he said it was time for EU member states to be take back their "freedom" from unelected bureaucrats. Mr Salvini, the head of Italy's right-wing Lega party, said: "The word 'populism' is a compliment to me.

The number of UK companies suffering "significant" financial distress has increased nearly 10pc compared with last year and London-based firms are feeling the biggest strain, new research shows. More than 470,000 businesses felt the pinch at the end of June, according to insolvency specialist Begbies Traynor, an increase of 9pc on last year, The Telegraph reported. Those based in London are struggling the most. The capital was the country's worst performing region, with the rate of firms facing serious financial difficulty rocketing 17pc compared with June last year.

The economy of South Korea, which is very reliant on China, may see more adverse impact than previously expected from China’s plan for deleveraging, the Bank of Korea said in a report on Sunday, Bloomberg News reported. South Korea’s gross domestic product growth could be 0.3 percentage point less than expected in 2018 and maybe 1.2 percentage point less in 2020 because of Chin’s plan to cut financial risks by deleveraging, the central bank said in its report, citing data from Oxford Economics and Fitch.

Two United Arab Emirates airlines have held talks with South African Airways about a partnership that it says is needed to revive its business, City Press reported, citing the U.A.E. ambassador to South Africa. Talks between Emirates Airline and SAA, which have been going on for some months, are being facilitated by the U.A.E.’s embassy in Pretoria, the Johannesburg-based newspaper cited Mahash Alhameli as saying, Bloomberg News reported. Etihad Airways has also been holding separate negotiations with SAA, he said.

Analysts are taking note of the struggles in China’s banking industry, which is being battered by an official deleveraging drive, Bloomberg News reported. At least five smaller lenders have been downgraded by credit-rating companies this year, a record pace for the sector. Spikes in the volume of non-performing loans and an increase in loans overdue are among the reasons. One of the lenders -- Guizhou-based Guiyang Rural Commercial Bank Co. -- saw its bad debt balloon nearly tenfold in the space of two years, according to the assessor that slashed its rating.

India needs a strategy to get the government out of banking. Non-performing loans among state-owned banks -- a legacy of India’s socialist past which account for nearly 70 percent of deposits -- have crossed 5 percent of GDP, a Bloomberg View reported. The central bank has restricted lending at 11 of them and forced one, IDBI Bank Ltd., to sell itself to the government-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India. State banks have repeatedly been a burden on the exchequer and will almost certainly continue to be so.

China’s economic policy could be in line for a rethink, Bloomberg News reported. A slew of negative headlines from the escalating tension with the Trump administration and slowing growth to a bear market in stocks is prompting renewed focus on if and how policy makers will respond. Whether that’s a softening in Xi Jinping’s signature anti-leverage campaign or an official shift to monetary easing to match tweaks already made, upcoming meetings of the top political leadership provide an opportunity for a change of direction -- or an affirmation of the course already set.

A group of landlords have filed a legal challenge to House of Fraser’s company voluntary arrangement (CVA) after creditors approved the plan to close more than half of its stores, the Financial Times reported. The group, which is advised by the property agents JLL and restructuring group Begbies Traynor, said it “believes that certain landlords have been unfairly prejudiced during this process and that there have been alleged material irregularities in the implementation of House of Fraser’s CVA”.

A wave of defaults is sweeping across China’s Rmb1.3tn ($190bn) peer-to-peer lending industry, causing investors to withdraw funds and platforms to collapse, the latest casualties of Beijing’s broader crackdown on debt and financial risk, the Financial Times reported.  About 150 online lending platforms have suffered “problems” since the beginning of June this year, compared with 217 such cases in all of 2017, according to Online Lending House, a research group that tracks the industry.

In Dubai's posh Jumeirah Beach Residence district, luxury apartment rents are down about 15 percent from a year ago - a sign, some fear, that the wealthy emirate's recipe for economic success is getting stale, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. For over two decades, Dubai prospered as one of the world's most international cities, attracting people and capital from across the globe. Nine years ago, it needed a $20 billion bailout from oil-rich Abu Dhabi to escape a debt crisis caused by collapsing property prices.