Bloomberg China’s central bank pledged financial support for logistics firms and truck drivers to ensure the country can maintain supply chain stability amid the worst Covid outbreak in two years. The People’s Bank of China will ask lenders to “reasonably” extend and renew loans for the industry, it said in a statement, following a central bank meeting on coordinating …

  Bloomberg Standard Chartered Plc plans to cut half of its existing office space in Singapore’s financial district, according to people familiar with the matter, in what is set to be the biggest floor reduction by a bank in the city-state in recent years. The London-based bank is giving up nine of the floors it leases at Marina Bay Financial …

  Bloomberg The Bank of Japan (BOJ) is likely to consider notable changes in its inflation and growth forecasts later this month mainly due to soaring oil and commodity prices, gains that aren’t viewed as sustainable, according to people familiar with the matter. The central bank will probably raise its projection for growth in key consumer prices to between around …

  Bloomberg The Bank of Korea (BOK) added to a wave of global action against inflation this week by raising its key interest rate, brushing aside concerns about a leadership vacuum at the bank and global risks to the export-dependent economy. The central bank raised its seven-day repurchase rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.5% in the board’s first-ever …

  Bloomberg The former boss of one of Switzerland’s top banks was sentenced to three years and nine months in jail after being found guilty of multiple charges including embezzlement, fraud and forgery of documents. Pierin Vincenz, ex-chief executive officer of Raiffeisen Switzerland, and bank consultant Beat Stocker were convicted for making unlawful gains during Vincenz’s 15-year tenure as CEO, …

  Bloomberg British banks plan a sharp cut in mortgage lending over the next three months amid fears that borrowers will start to default on their debts. The Bank of England’s (BOE) quarterly credit conditions survey showed lenders plan to reduce the supply of mortgages at the fastest rate since the start of pandemic in early 2020. Excluding the Covid crisis, …

  Bloomberg Elon Musk moves. An army of devoted traders listens. Retail investors piled into Twitter Inc. stock, after the world’s richest person and head of Tesla Inc. roiled the financial world with an audacious bid to purchase the company for $43 billion. Musk later expressed doubt about whether the blockbuster deal will succeed, but that didn’t do much to …

  Bloomberg Stocks fall in Asia Friday as China unexpectedly opted against cutting a key policy interest rate, a reduction that had been widely expected to support an economy hamstrung by Covid-19 lockdowns. Equities were mixed on the mainland and fell in Japan and South Korea, among the few markets open amid Easter holidays. China has indicated it will reduce …

Bloomberg The world needs to be preparing for downside scenarios relating to Covid-19, the deputy chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, calling for billions of dollars in grants to bolster pandemic preparedness. “What I’m worried about is that everybody’s hoping for the best-case scenario, which is that this is a mild, endemic virus — but what experts tell …

  Bloomberg The majority of China’s massive desert renewable power project will be built after 2025, and most of the capacity in the first phase will come from solar, according to a researcher from the country’s largest grid operator. The details fill in some gaps about the country’s plans to build 455 gigawatts of wind and solar power across the …