Headlines

China has opened a criminal investigation into Hywin Wealth Management Co. for alleged involvement in illegal fundraising, with “coercive measures” taken against multiple suspects at the firm, according to Shanghai police, Bloomberg News reported. The police didn’t specify on the measures in a statement that it released, but in China, “criminal coercive measures” could typically take the form of seizure or detention.

China's state council on Wednesday said it will issue concrete guidelines to strengthen supervision and prevent risks in the country's insurance industry, according to a statement, Reuters reported. The broad move will strictly approve the establishment of new insurance agencies, and improve the overall quality of the sector.

The Bank of Japan will continue to raise interest rates if inflation moves in line with its forecast, policymaker Junko Nakagawa said, signalling that last month's market rout has not derailed the bank's plan to hike borrowing costs steadily, Reuters reported. But the central bank must take into account the impact that such market moves could have on the outlook for the economy and prices when considering whether to raise rates, she added. Her comments pushed up the yen as markets took them as a renewed sign the BOJ could raise rates in coming months.

The Reserve Bank of Australia said it continues to anticipate the unemployment rate to rise only gradually over the coming months and for conditions in the job market to remain relatively tight, the Wall Street Journal reported. “Conditions in the labor market have eased since late 2022, but our assessment is that the labor market is still tight relative to full employment,” Sarah Hunter, RBA’s chief economist and Assistant Gov., told a financial markets conference Wednesday.

Britain's shift towards a services-dominated economy is accelerating, pushing manufacturing's share of economic output to a historic low and setting the nation apart from its global peers, Reuters reported. Recent data show the make-up of the world's sixth-biggest economy is changing fast, driven by global trends but also domestic factors such as Brexit and increasingly London-centric growth.

Hosting the Olympic Games gave a boost to France's service sector in August but the country's political crisis still clouds the economic outlook, the central bank said on Tuesday in its monthly business survey, Reuters reported. The euro zone's second-biggest economy is on course for underlying growth of 0.1-0.2% in the third quarter from the previous month, the Bank of France said, leaving its estimate unchanged. The Olympics could add another quarter percentage point of growth as the Games increased activity in hospitality, event management and security, particularly in the Paris region.

The number of corporate bankruptcies with debts of at least ¥10 million in Japan in August dropped 4.8% from a year earlier to 723, down for the first time in two years and five months, Tokyo Shoko Research data have shown, the Japan Times reported. The figure stood below 800 for the first time in four months, according to the data, released Monday. Growing moves by companies to pass on higher costs reflecting a rise in inflation are believed to have led to the decrease in bankruptcies.

Europe must increase public investment by nearly $900 billion a year in sectors like technology and defense, according to a long-awaited report published Monday in response to growing anxieties about the continental economy’s lagging behind that of the United States and China, the New York Times reported. The challenge for the European Union is “existential,” Mario Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank, said on Monday in Brussels.

Brazil’s annual inflation eased roughly in line with expectations in August, offering limited relief to a central bank that’s under pressure to lift interest rates to contain above-target price increases, Bloomberg News reported. Official data released Tuesday showed prices rose 4.24% from a year earlier, just below the 4.27% median estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. On the month, inflation stood at -0.02%. The robust pace of growth in Latin America’s largest economy has investors betting that a hike to the benchmark Selic from its current level of 10.5% is imminent next week.