Headlines

China allowed large cities to cut down payments for homebuyers and encouraged lenders to lower rates on existing mortgages in its latest attempts to halt a slide in the country’s residential property market, Bloomberg News reported. The nationwide minimum down payment will be 20% for first-time buyers and 30% for second-time purchasers, according to a joint statement from the People’s Bank of China and National Administration of Financial Regulation on Thursday. The mortgage-rate cuts will be negotiated between banks and customers. Both policies go into effect Sept. 25.

In the beginning, Hui Ka Yan followed a simple formula. Borrow to buy land. Sell homes on the site before they are built. Use the cash to pay lenders and finance the next real estate project. For two decades, starting in the mid-1990s, this approach was enormously lucrative as Chinese home prices soared. It transformed Hui, a former steel industry employee from a rural village, into China’s richest man. And it turned his company, China Evergrande Group, into a vast real-estate empire.

China’s economy limped through August. A prolonged slump in the real-estate market deepened. Factories were hit by sinking exports, and consumers kept a tight leash on spending, the Wall Street Journal reported. A new batch of data on Thursday heaped further pressure on China’s policy makers to do more to revive crumbling growth, with a dizzying mix of targeted measures so far showing little effect. On Thursday evening, the country’s central bank lowered the minimum down payment for some borrowers, an attempt to spur home buying.

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Thursday issued notice to Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) in a plea by IDBI Bank to initiate insolvency proceedings against the company, the Hindu Business Line reported. IDBI Bank, in its plea, said it was unable to recover unpaid dues of around ₹150 crore from Zee. The tribunal instructed both parties to submit replies and rejoinders, setting the next hearing for the matter on October 11.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition is considering selling minority stakes in selected state-owned companies to boost Italy’s public finances, Bloomberg News reported. Government ministers are evaluating the disposal of some assets, including a stake in the state railway, while still retaining control over the businesses, according to people familiar with the discussions, Bloomberg News reported.

Consumer prices in the eurozone rose 5.3 percent in August compared with a year earlier, sticking at the same pace as the previous month and defying economists’ expectations for a slowdown, according to an initial estimate by the statistics agency of the European Union, the New York Times reported. While inflation has slowed materially from its peak of above 10 percent in October, there are signs that some inflationary pressures are persistent, even as the bloc’s economy weakens.

India’s economy registered impressive growth of 7.8% in the first quarter of the current financial year (April-June), attributed to good performance by the agriculture and financial sectors, according to official data released on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The World Bank says India is one of the fastest-growing economies of the world and is poised to continue on this path. India's agriculture sector recorded growth of 3.5% in three months, up from 2.4% in the April-June quarter last year, according to the data released by the government-run National Statistical Office.

Concerns about the shaky US office market ate into Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s earnings, which fell far short of analyst estimates as the lender set aside more than expected for souring loans, Bloomberg News reported. Provisions for credit losses totaled C$736 million ($543 million) in the fiscal third quarter, according to a statement Thursday, more than the C$456 million analysts had predicted. The bank had put aside C$438 million in the previous three months. The Toronto-based bank’s C$1.52 of adjusted earnings per share missed an average analyst estimate of C$1.68.

Mexico’s central bank raised its growth projection for the country’s economy for this year and next, signaling that activity is surpassing policymakers’ expectations in large part due to strong trade with the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. Banxico, as the central bank is known, revised its estimate for 2023’s expansion to 3% from the prior reading of 2.3%, according to its quarterly report released Wednesday. For 2024, the bank now expects a 2.1% GDP expansion compared to the previous 1.6% estimate.

A solicitor at a south Dublin law firm which had its accounts frozen by the High Court earlier this year has secured an order for statutory redundancy worth up to €6,400 against the practice, the Irish Times reported. Amanda Malone told the Workplace Relations Commission in April this year that her workplace had shut down on February 22nd this year, when she was out on sick leave. Ms.