Headlines

China’s central bank has warned investors to expect more “two-way volatility” in renminbi trading when foreign exchange markets reopen on Monday, less than a week after a 2 per cent downward “adjustment” sparked a week of roller-coaster trading for the currency, the Financial Times reported. In a statement issued on Sunday, Ma Jun, chief economist at the People’s Bank of China, said the Chinese government had “no intention or need to participate in a ‘currency war’”.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but in the middle of a forest deep in the Bavarian countryside it comes pretty close. An hour’s drive south of Munich hidden by spruces is Louisenthal, the mill and printing presses that help produce banknotes for about 100 currency zones, the Financial Times reported. Giesecke & Devrient, owner of Louisenthal, is one of a few companies competing to make the 160bn banknotes printed each year.

The Nigerian government has resorted to chopping down trees lining the streets of its capital to thwart black market money changers, one of a range of unorthodox measures it is deploying to defend its weakening currency, the Financial Times reported. On an August morning in Abuja, a labourer who said he was hired by the city government cut branches from a towering tree with a chainsaw. Nearby other workers hacked away at smaller trees with machetes.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced optimism that the eurozone’s bailout of Greece was moving in the right direction in a television interview on Sunday. “One cannot yet speak of certainty,” Ms. Merkel told ZDF public television. But, she added, there was a “certain amount of hope,” in part because the Greek government had been performing better in recent weeks than it had in previous months. Ms.

New Zealand's debt-laden state-owned coal mining company Solid Energy Ltd was put into administration on Thursday to ward off its creditors as it looks to organise a sale of assets. The government refused to pump in any more money to support the company, which has been crippled by a slump in prices and demand, amassing a mountain of debt. "It is no secret that Solid Energy has faced significant financial hurdles - both from the falling international coal price and its debt burden," Finance Minister Bill English said in a statement.

The European institutions overseeing Greece’s bailout have expressed “serious concerns” over the sustainability of the country’s debt, bringing them into line with the more pessimistic assessment of the International Monetary Fund, the Financial Times reported. Both the European Commission and the European Central Bank argue in a new analysis that debt relief measures, including extending repayment periods, would allow Athens to achieve debt sustainability, a solution advocated by the IMF. They say such moves would avoid the need for a full-scale debt haircut.

For years, China looked like the principled noncombatant. As other countries, seeking to secure an economic advantage, let the value of their currencies slide on international markets, China held firm on the value of its money, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. But this week, China jumped into the fray. In a surprise decision on Tuesday, the country’s authorities devalued its currency, the renminbi, which has now fallen by 4.4 percent against the dollar this week, a huge drop for China.

Frankfurt prosecutors have charged eight current and former Deutsche Bank employees in connection with €220 million in sales tax evasion following a long-running investigation into Europe’s carbon emission certificate market, the Irish Times reported on a Financial Times story. Prosecutors did not identify the bank, but people familiar with the case say the accused are mid-ranking employees of Deutsche Bank, which was raided in 2012 as part of the investigation. Seven of the eight accused are still employed by Deutsche. A court must now decide whether to hear the case.

Dutch engineering services company Royal Imtech has been declared bankrupt and its Marine and Nordic divisions are being sold to private investors, the company and its administrators said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Imtech, which employs 22,000 people in 35 countries and has annual sales of roughly 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion), filed for protection from creditors on Tuesday after its German unit filed for insolvency.

New Zealand's debt-laden state-owned coal mining company Solid Energy Ltd was put into administration on Thursday to ward off its creditors as it looks to organise a sale of assets. The government refused to pump in any more money to support the company, which has been crippled by a slump in prices and demand, amassing a mountain of debt. "It is no secret that Solid Energy has faced significant financial hurdles - both from the falling international coal price and its debt burden," Finance Minister Bill English said in a statement.