Bloomberg President Xi Jinping issued an unusually upbeat assessment about China’s future, noting that “time and the situation” were on the country’s side in a new year marked by domestic turmoil in the US. The Chinese leader told a gathering of provincial and ministerial-level officials that he saw “opportunities in general outweighing challenges,” a marked shift from his sometimes dire-sounding ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration put Cuba back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, reversing an Obama-era decision and making it harder for President-elect Joe Biden to quickly revive diplomatic ties with Havana. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said he’s designating Cuba because the country continues to harbour American fugitives including Joanne Chesimard, convicted of killing a New Jersey ...

Bloomberg Malaysia’s king declared a nationwide state of emergency for the first time in more than half a century, suspending parliament in a move that allows embattled Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to avoid facing an election until the pandemic is over. The emergency decree gives Muhyiddin’s administration more power to tackle a surge in Covid-19 cases, including over the operations ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson set himself on a collision course with the Chinese government with a thinly veiled attack on traditional medicine, which he said was to blame for the coronavirus pandemic. The practice of using scales from the endangered pangolin to aid virility is “demented,” Johnson said at a meeting of world leaders focused on protecting nature. ...

Bloomberg India’s Supreme Court put on hold the implementation of three controversial farm laws, a setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sharad A. Bobde also formed a panel to facilitate talks with tens of thousands of farmers staging protests on the outskirts of the national capital for nearly two months. ...

Bloomberg India’s central bank expects banks’ bad-loan ratios to almost double this year and warned that soaring markets and a weakened economy threaten financial stability. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) forecasts non-performing assets will rise to 13.5% of total advances by the end of September from 7.5% a year ago, according to its semiannual Financial Stability Report. If the ...

Bloomberg India will seek to narrow its budget deficit next financial year, amid expectations of improved revenue collections and economic rebound, according to Standard Chartered Bank Plc. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will likely target fiscal deficit — the gap between income and expenditure — at 5.3% of gross domestic product in the budget for the year starting April 1, the ...

Bloomberg UBS Group AG plans to lower the threshold for customer deposits that will be subject to a charge as the bank deals with the prospect of low and negative interest rates for the foreseeable future. Starting in July, the fee will apply to clients with deposits of more than 250,000 francs ($280,000) or the same amount in euros, according ...

Bloomberg Sandeep Uberoi, the former head of technology, media and telecom for Southeast Asia at Bank of America (BofA) Merrill Lynch, has joined Jungle Ventures as a strategic adviser. He will lead strategy and corporate development at the Singapore-based venture capital firm and overseee its portfolio companies across Southeast Asia and India, Uberoi said. His focus will include fundraising, partnerships ...

Bloomberg A group of HSBC Holdings Plc shareholders filed a resolution urging the bank to cut its support to the fossil-fuel industry. Amundi SA, Europe’s largest listed asset manager, and Man Group Plc, the world’s biggest publicly traded hedge fund firm, were among 15 institutional investors overseeing a combined $2.4 trillion that are backing the move, according to a statement ...