Headlines

Liquidators of China Evergrande, once the country's largest property developer, have asked a Hong Kong court to appoint receivers to identify and preserve the assets of founder Hui Ka Yan, who has not disclosed his worldwide properties, Reuters reported. The move is the liquidators' latest effort to recover $6 billion in dividends and remuneration paid to Hui and other former executives, as they fight court battles to freeze offshore assets of the founder and his former spouse, among others.

The Quebec government is pulling the plug on a $7-billion electric-vehicle battery project near Montreal and trying to recoup some of its investment, BNN Bloomberg reported. Economy Minister Christine Fréchette announced Tuesday that the government is cutting its losses on the planned Northvolt battery factory after spending $510 million on the troubled venture, once touted as the largest private investment in the province’s history. The Quebec government pledged up to $2.9 billion in financing for the project, while Ottawa committed up to $4.4 billion.

The government will pursue "every option" to keep steel-making in South Yorkshire, an industry minister said after Speciality Steel UK went into insolvency last month, BBC.com reported. Sarah Jones said she "very much believes" that the steelworks have a future in South Yorkshire as well as the West Midlands. In a statement to the House of Commons, Jones said that the government "stands with" all those affected and that there would be no immediate changes to jobs.

The euro zone economy kept expanding at a snail's pace in August as weaker services growth offset improved manufacturing output, despite the first rise in overall new orders since May last year, a survey showed on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The HCOB Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI), compiled by S&P Global, inched up to 51.0 in August from 50.9 in July, marking a 12-month high but still indicating only modest growth. The 50.0 threshold separates growth from contraction.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz offered Germany’s support for Switzerland in its bid to reduce the punishingly high trade levy US President Donald Trump imposed on the export-dependent nation last month, Bloomberg News reported. The 39% tariff Trump slapped on Switzerland is the highest for any developed country and officials in Bern are trying to persuade his administration to accept a new offer by October.

Poland’s central bank cut borrowing costs on Wednesday, lowering its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 4.75%, matching forecasts, EuroNews.com reported. This came after inflation eased to 2.8% in August, marking the lowest level since summer 2024. The total is also dramatically lower than the peak of over 18% seen in 2023. The public sector deficit for this year has been revised up to 6.9% of GDP, from a previous 6.3%. In 2026, the budget creates a projected deficit of 6.5%, notably as Poland plans to spend more on defence.

Turkish inflation continued to ease as the third quarter progressed, clearing the way for the country’s central bank to keep trimming interest rates despite still-hot growth in the economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer prices were 33% higher on year in August, a rate of annual inflation that eased from 33.5% in July, figures from statistics office Turkstat showed Wednesday. Turkey’s central bank at its last meeting renewed cutting interest rates as inflation eases, having earlier in the year been forced to lift rates in response to market concerns over Turkish politics.

Venezuela's government is slowly allowing the use of dollar-tied cryptocurrencies in currency exchanges for the private sector, a dozen sources said, as U.S. restrictions on oil exports reduce available foreign currency, Reuters reported. Sanctions by the United States, which the Venezuelan government has characterized as "economic war," prevent many business transactions, forcing companies seeking to buy raw materials from abroad to exchange local bolivars for dollars that are generated by the oil trade and foreign card transactions and are injected into exchanges by the central bank.

European Union legislators should demand safeguards and robust equivalence regimes from foreign issuers of stablecoins to prevent the risk of runs on reserves held in the EU, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The EU has put in place one of the world's strictest regimes on crypto assets, requiring that stablecoins, which are pegged to an official currency, be fully backed by reserves. But Lagarde said legislators should hold companies that issue stablecoins both in the EU and abroad to the same, high standards.

Australia's central bank is exploring how emerging technologies like artificial intelligence could influence the economy, with possible implications for inflation and the labour market, its governor said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. In a speech in Perth, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Michele Bullock said there was a lot of uncertainty about how the technological change will affect the economy, but policymakers needed to be alert to different possible impacts. "Technological change has always reshaped the labour market, and AI is no exception," said Bullock.