Headlines

China’s economy suffered a setback as surveys showed factory orders shrank and construction activity slowed, reigniting growth concerns just as activity appeared to be stabilizing, the Wall Street Journal reported. The closely watched surveys show the world’s second-largest economy isn’t out of the woods as it contends with challenges including a slowdown in growth overseas and a drawn-out property bust at home.

An interim artificial intelligence report by the United Nations will lead governments and the private sector to think more about governance, risks and opportunities, tech envoy Amandeep Singh Gill told Reuters. The U.N. last week created a 39-member advisory body to address issues in the international governance of AI. The body expects to submit a preliminary report by the end of this year and a final one next year.

Italy plans to crackdown on landlords who do not pay taxes on short-term flat rentals such as those made through platforms like Airbnb, politicians said on Monday, in a move that could boost fiscal revenue by 1 billion euros ($1.06 billion), Reuters reported. After a meeting between key coalition figures over the 2024 budget, the co-ruling Forza Italia party said in a statement that Italy planned to introduce a national identification code to be used for short-term rentals. "That code will bring out the revenue of those who rent flats without declaring them.

The Bank of Canada's monetary policy is working to cool the economy and relieve price pressures, but the central bank is prepared to raise interest rates further if inflation persists, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Monday, Reuters reported. "We held our policy rate steady (last week) because monetary policy is working to cool the economy and relieve price pressures, and we want to give it time to do its job," Macklem told the finance committee in the House of Commons.

The South African Reserve Bank urged the government to address structural impediments such as record power cuts and poor infrastructure that are undermining its work by constraining supply, restraining economic growth and rapidly pushing up prices, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank is “meant to respond to short term cyclical issues — but if the structural issues don’t change, what happens in this economy is that it behaves all the time like it is over-heating,” Deputy Governor Fundi Tshazibana said in an interview on Saturday.

The Bank of Japan further loosened its grip on long-term interest rates by tweaking its bond yield control policy again on Tuesday, taking another small step towards dismantling its controversial monetary stimulus of the past decade, Reuters reported. While it kept ultra-low interest rates steady, the BOJ watered down its 1% cap on the 10-year bond yield which it set just three months ago to allow long-term borrowing costs to rise more.

The question of how Britain will respond to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the $369 billion landmark legislation offering deep subsidies for green investment, has followed Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s finance minister, for most of the past year, the New York Times reported. Mr. Hunt urged patience and promised an answer when he updates the country’s budget in a few weeks. But as that speech approaches, expectations that he will offer anything as generous as the American largess have been squashed.

China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted developer, won a final chance to set what could be the nation’s biggest ever restructuring back on track, as a Hong Kong court pushed back a winding-up hearing, Bloomberg News reported. Judge Linda Chan in Hong Kong’s High Court adjourned the proceedings to Dec. 4, the latest in a series of delays since they began last year. “This is really the last adjournment,” Chan said. Evergrande must have a concrete restructuring proposal by the next hearing, otherwise the court is “very likely” to issue a winding-up order, she said.

German inflation slowed markedly — and more than expected — in October as Europe’s biggest economy struggles to grow, Bloomberg News reported. At 3%, price pressures are the weakest since June 2021, the statistics office said Monday. Economists had predicted a moderation to 3.3%. The result underpins the European Central Bank’s argument that a record bout of interest-rate increases is starting to show its effects. A sharp retreat is also expected in Italy and, to a lesser extent, in France and in the 20-nation euro zone, with data due Tuesday.

Sweden’s economy was stagnant last quarter, as rising borrowing costs and growing unemployment hurt spending in the Nordic region’s largest country, Bloomberg News reported. Gross domestic product, adjusted for seasonal swings, was unchanged in the third quarter from the previous three-month period, according to preliminary data published by Statistics Sweden on Monday. The development was weaker than expected by economists, who had penciled in growth of 0.3%, following a slump in the second quarter.