Headlines

Hong Kong will file a complaint against the U.S.’s additional 10% tariff with the World Trade Organization, claiming the levies violate WTO rules, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a statement released Friday, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government described the tariffs as “unreasonable measures” and “grossly inconsistent with the relevant WTO rules.” The U.S. measures “ignore our status as a separate customs territory as stipulated in Article 116 of the Basic Law,” and recognized by the WTO, the spokesman said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order delaying tariffs on de minimis, or low-cost, packages from China until the Commerce Department can confirm that procedures and systems are in place to process packages and collect tariff revenue, Reuters reported. Read more.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is counting on a two-pronged stimulus of tax and interest rate cuts to turn around India’s slowing economy, but investors may need more convincing that the measures will be enough, Bloomberg News reported. The decision by India’s central bank on Friday to reduce its key rate for the first time in five years comes less than a week after Modi’s government unveiled historic tax cuts in its federal budget. Taken together, the measures underscore the urgency with which Modi’s government is moving to address the growth slowdown gripping the economy.

Industrial production in Germany sank in December, driven by a fall in output from the car industry, a further weak note for the troubled sector as it faces the threat of U.S. tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported. Output declined 2.4% on month in December, German statistics agency Destatis said Friday. Production fell 4.5% in 2024 as a whole. The fall in December, more than offsetting the 1.3% growth in November, was driven by auto production, which contracted 10%.

Gerresheimer AG, the German maker of packaging for drugs and cosmetics, is exploring a potential sale amid interest from private equity funds, Bloomberg News reported. Dusseldorf-based Gerresheimer is working with advisers to gauge interest from possible buyers asking not to be identified because the information is private. Shares of Gerresheimer jumped as much as 15% in German trading on Friday, giving the company a market value of about €2.7 billion ($2.8 billion). Warburg Pincus, EQT AB and KKR & Co. are among suitors that have been studying the business.

The first central bank interest rate moves of 2025 suggest it will be a year where some important heavyweights, in both the developed and emerging parts of the world, travel in different directions for a while, Reuters reported. Last year was the biggest coordinated global rate cut round in 15 years as inflation got reined in, but this one has kicked off with policymakers navigating some very foggy conditions.

The Bank of England will use newfound Brexit freedoms to shield Britain’s banks from international red tape, Andrew Bailey has said, The Telegraph reported. The Governor said that the Bank was seeking to exclude some domestic lenders from incoming rules that require lenders to hold more money in reserve to help survive a crisis. Mr Bailey said leaving the European Union meant the UK could shield smaller banks from some elements of the stringent Basel rules, which were drawn up internationally in the wake of the 2008 financial crash.

Zimbabwe has started paying reparations to nations and farmers whose land was seized in the 2000s, a step toward the restructuring of its $21 billion debt pile, Bloomberg News reported. Initial disbursements were made to Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and the former Yugoslavia last month for 94 farms that were taken, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said. Fifty-six farmers from those countries, which had bilateral investment-protection agreements with Zimbabwe, were also paid. “Payments are being made to the claimant’s bank accounts of choice,” Ncube said in a statement on Friday.

The European Commission is reviewing elements of its flagship Green Deal environmental policy, as worries over rising costs and a lack of competitiveness with China and the U.S. grow within the continent, the Wall Street Journal reported. Commission officials met on Wednesday and Thursday with businesses and industry groups to discuss broad changes to its sustainability legislation that will start to go into effect this year.

Volvo Cars will not pay Northvolt any money for its 50% stake in their Novo Energy battery venture, which it had agreed to acquire, the automaker's quarterly report said on Thursday, Reuters reported. The automaker last week agreed with Northvolt to take over its stake in the venture, which included a planned Gothenburg battery cell factory, without disclosing the amount involved. Northvolt, once considered Europe's best hope for a battery champion, filed for U.S. chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last November. "The purchase consideration rounds to 0 m SEK.