Headlines

China’s wobbly response to the bursting of its stock market bubble, the sudden devaluation of the renminbi and the mystery over the true health of the country’s economy continue to spook investors, large and small, the Financial Times reported. But China’s wealthiest people know exactly what to do in these bewildering times: get some of their money out. More than 60 per cent of wealthy Chinese people surveyed in July by FT Confidential, an investment research service at the FT, said they planned to increase their overseas holdings in the coming two years.

Toshiba again delayed announcing its annual financial results on Monday, as new accounting errors prevented the company from drawing a line under Japan’s worst corporate scandal in four years, the Irish Times reported. Toshiba, which was scheduled to post its earnings for the business year ended in March, said the newly discovered problems included incorrect impairment charges on fixed assets at several subsidiaries and improperly timed booking of loss provisions at a US subsidiary.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss “possible mutual steps” to stabilize the global price for oil at a meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in China on Thursday, a Kremlin aide said, as both countries grapple with lower prices for their main export, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Troubled SVOD player Quickflix has again suspended trading in its shares on the stock market as it attempts a restructure and head off potential financial insolvency, mUmBRELLA reported.

Loans to Irish households fell 2.8 per cent in July, new data from the Central Bank has shown, while lending to companies showed a decline of 6.9 per cent year on year, the Irish Times reported. The figures showed household loan repayments exceeded drawdowns by €346 million during the month, continuing a trend seen the previous month, as the number of loans issued for house purchases fell. During July, the number of loans drawn down for consumption and other purchases fell by €99 million.

The upcoming Greek election may reopen the can of worms that the 86 billion euro bailout deal with creditors was supposed to close, the International New York Times reported. Given that no party is likely to emerge from the Sept. 20 vote with a majority, it may be hard to form a strong government that can implement the program. There’s even a risk that there will be yet more elections, tipping Greece back into crisis. When Alexis Tsipras set the election in motion by resigning as prime minister, he probably thought he would win fairly easily.

To protect jobs and plants, the Chinese government and its state-owned banks sometimes keep money-losing businesses on life support by rolling over or restructuring loans, providing fresh credit or offering other aid. While this may seem like an odd business tactic, it is part of a broader strategy to help maintain social stability, a major goal of China’s leadership. Authorities in China’s provinces and cities also back struggling factories just because they are deemed important to the local economy. Similar strategies have been tried before, with little success.

With Australia on the cusp of a “looming liquidity crisis’’, corporate turnaround specialists have urged so-called safe harbour laws to protect directors and their advisers in informal corporate restructurings, The Australian reported. While the proposed reforms have been long pondered in Canberra’s corridors, Turnaround Management Association director Cameron Belyea said there was a heightened urgency ahead of the likely drying up of foreign capital, especially from the US.

In recent days, an advice column has circulated widely on China’s most popular social media phone app. Titled “Guide on Safe Passage Through the Economic Crisis,” it is aimed at young Chinese urban professionals, the International New York Times reported. Its nuggets of wisdom include: “Work hard at your job so you are the last to be laid off” and “In an economic crisis, liquidity is the number one priority.” Zhang Yuanyuan, 31, a bank teller in Shandong Province, is among the thousands of people who have shared it online.

Japan’s consumer inflation ground to a halt for the first time in more than two years and household spending unexpectedly fell in July, increasing pressure on policy makers to offer fresh fiscal and monetary support to underpin a fragile recovery. The gloomy data, coupled with soft exports that were blamed on China’s slowdown, reinforces the dominant market view that any rebound in Japan’s growth after the contraction from April to June will be modest.