Headlines

The pace of price growth in the Tokyo metropolitan area unexpectedly held steady in September, but upward pressure remains, keeping an interest-rate hike in play, the Wall Street Journal reported. Consumer inflation in Tokyo, excluding volatile fresh food prices, climbed 2.5% from a year earlier, government data showed Friday. That matched the pace recorded in August and was below a 2.8% rise expected in a poll of economists by data provider Quick. The yen weakened to 149.94 against the dollar after the data. Tokyo figures are considered an early indicator of nationwide trends.

The trustee for a bankrupt unit of Northvolt AB has found no basis to hold board directors personally liable for unpaid supplier claims of 6.8 billion kronor ($720 million), Bloomberg News reported. The report to the Stockholm District Court found no unlawful value transfers, breaches of statutory loan prohibitions, or fraudulent accounting. The board, including founder Peter Carlsson and CFO Alexander Hartman, are likely to avoid personal liability for the unpaid claims.

Russia’s Federal Tax Service has filed a bankruptcy petition against the Tobol Timber Company, the largest timber firm in Siberia’s Tyumen region, over unpaid taxes exceeding 14.6 million rubles ($174,000), Russian media reported Tuesday, the Moscow Times reported. The Federal Tax Service asked a regional arbitration court to initiate bankruptcy proceedings after Tobol’s bank accounts were frozen on Sept. 12, according to Ura.ru.

Switzerland’s central bank left its key interest rate at zero Thursday, ending a sequence of six straight cuts, despite the threat of slower growth as the economy adjusts to one of the highest tariffs set by President Trump, the Wall Street Journal reported. Investors had mostly expected the decision after comments from officials at the central bank that signaled a reluctance to push the key rate back below zero, where it settled for almost eight years until September 2022.

China's Premier Li Qiang and European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen stressed cooperation during their meeting in New York, as the world's No.2 and No.3 economies looked to defuse trade tensions while squeezed by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, Reuters reported.

After signing a trade deal with Indonesia, the European Union is preparing to conclude agreements with the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia by 2027, a top trade official said, the Wall Street Journal reported. Asean’s importance as a partner for Europe is growing, European Commissioner for Trade & Economic Security Maroš Šefčovič said at the Asean-EU Business Summit in Kuala Lumpur. “We are living in turbulent times where you very much treasure true partnership, friendship, predictability and stability,” he said.

Brazil's central bank projected on Thursday that inflation will hover near the official goal in the first quarter of 2028, but still fail to meet it, according to the bank's latest quarterly monetary policy report, Reuters reported. After projecting earlier this month annual inflation at 3.4% for the first quarter of 2027, the relevant horizon for policy decisions, policymakers unveiled a 3.1% forecast for the first quarter of 2028, the final period covered by the report. The bank targets inflation at 3%, with a tolerance band of 1.5 percentage points in either direction.

Factory activity in Canada looks to have stalled, with an early estimate of sales showing a pullback in August following a recovery the previous two months, the Wall Street Journal reported. Manufacturing sales fell an estimated 1.5% from a month prior, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday. The largest declines were seen in transportation equipment and food, the data agency said. There have been signs of stability for Canadian manufacturers that have been hit hard by the sharp shift in the U.S.’s approach to trade and frequently changing import tariffs.

Argentina's economic activity grew 2.9% in July compared with the same month last year, official data showed on Wednesday. The figure for Latin America's third-largest economy came in below the 3.3% figure projected by analysts polled by Reuters. Read more.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) warned investors it has not approved any stablecoin issuers, labeling the marketing of such products as illegal, the SCMP reports, CoinDesk.com reported. The statement came after Hong Kong-based AnchorX announced the introduction of AxCNH, a stablecoin pegged to the offshore Chinese yuan. The company said it held a license from Kazakhstan’s Astana Financial Services Authority and that the coin would support cross-border payments and tokenized real-world assets, according to the SCMP.