Bloomberg Hong Kong’s move to make it easier for first-time home buyers to break into the world’s least-affordable housing market has had an immediate effect, with sales surging in the past two weeks. Sales in the secondary market have more than doubled since mortgage rules for first-time buyers were eased mid-October, Midland Realty Ltd said. Primary home sales are also ...

Bloomberg China’s room to ease monetary policy to aid the slowing economy is being limited further by price rises due the ongoing swine fever epidemic, economists said. Analysts from Nomura International Ltd and Changjiang Securities Co warned that surging consumer inflation has become a major constraint on the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), and the likelihood for major monetary easing ...

Bloomberg Investors are bracing for the dollar to keep appreciating through at least early 2020 even though the Federal Reserve looks poised to cut rates and the risk of a US recession remains elevated. The dollar has already surprised investors by holding steady even after Fed reductions in July and September. Now, with the world’s growth outlook decidedly downbeat, Columbia ...

Bloomberg Kenya should do more than removing interest-rate caps to boost access to finance and credit extension, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Africa director said. “There is also a need to foster more competition in the banking system,” Abebe Selassie said in an interview in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. The sector should “have effective credit bureaus and quick resolution of disputes,” ...

Bloomberg The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) could turn to unconventional monetary policy as soon as February following the decision by lenders to only pass on part of the latest interest-rate cut, according to Citigroup Inc. The central bank is likely to cut again in February, and with lenders’ ability to pass on such reductions now constrained “this date is ...

Bloomberg Swedbank AB faces an increased risk of fines amid allegations its Baltic operations may have handled more than $100 billion in potentially suspicious funds, the lender’s regulator said. Sweden’s financial watchdog gave its strongest indication yet that there’s evidence of serious wrongdoing at Sweden’s oldest bank and biggest mortgage lender. Its findings to date show there could be grounds ...

Bloomberg Thousands of 50-pence coins minted to commemorate Brexit on October 31 will be melted down after Prime Minister Boris Johnson accepted an extension from the European Union, two people familiar with the matter said. UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid had announced plans for millions of coins engraved with the date Johnson pledged to leave the bloc, but ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz said his country is ready to make deeper cuts in oil output than it agreed to with other global producers, according to Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva. “He assured me that they are very ready to even cut deeper,” Sylva told Bloomberg TV in Riyadh. The Opec minister said ...

AL KHOBAR / WAM First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), has expanded its operations in Saudi Arabia with the opening of a branch in Al Khobar. The new branch joins one already operating in Riyadh. Abdulhamid Saeed, Group CEO of FAB, said, “It gives me great pleasure to open our second branch in Saudi Arabia. We look forward to providing the ...

Bloomberg Airbus SE landed one of its biggest-ever deals with the sale of 300 narrow-body planes to Indian budget carrier IndiGo that’s worth more than $33 billion at sticker prices. The contract for A320neo-series jets includes the latest XLR long-range variant and takes IndiGo’s orders for the re-engined aircraft to 730, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. That’s ...