Bloomberg Southeast Asia is set for another year of low inflation, generating difficult choices for the region’s central banks. S&P Global Ratings sees inflation remaining below central bank targets in most cases in 2020, according to Shaun Roache, S&P’s chief APAC economist in Singapore. Policy makers may soon have to think about using tools other than interest rates to achieve ...

Bloomberg Google searches for “Operation Twist” surged in India after the central bank announced its version of the US Federal Reserve’s unconventional monetary policy. Most searches for the term came from Maharashtra, the state that’s home to the financial hub Mumbai, and could climb through the day. The benchmark 10-year yield plunged following the RBIs announcement.

Bloomberg Japan’s cabinet approved a record budget for next fiscal year, with social security costs pushing up the bill for a government already struggling to rein in the developed world’s biggest public debt load. Spending by the Japanese government will increase by about 1.2% to 102.7 trillion yen ( in the year starting April, the Finance Ministry confirmed. Outlays on ...

Bloomberg The former head of HSBC Holdings Plc’s North American interest rates business was sued for fraud by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Christophe Rivoire helped manipulate the price of an interest rate swap between the bank and a bond issuer, the CFTC said in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court. The agency claimed the issuer had ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp, which tops the league table for US leveraged-loan issuance, is watching that market closely for signs of stress. “The real concern is: Is there too much leverage in the system in certain companies, and if they have trouble, will that impact the economy?” Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We ...

Bloomberg China’s central bank injected the most liquidity via open-market operations since January, in a push to ensure ample cash supply ahead of seasonal tightness at year-end. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) added 280 billion yuan ($40 billion) into the financial system with 7 and 14-day reverse repurchase agreements , while keeping the interest rates unchanged. That came after ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) signalled it will focus on the next phase of Brexit negotiations as two policy makers continued to push for an immediate interest-rate cut. Officials said it was too early to tell whether the clearer path for the UK’s departure from European Union (EU) on the back of Boris Johnson’s election win will improve sentiment. ...

Bloomberg Germany will join European peers like France and Poland next year in selling green bonds, tapping rising demand and favourable issuance costs for such debt as it boosts investments to cut carbon pollution. Europe’s benchmark issuer will sell about 10 billion euros of the bonds from mid-year via auctions, “twinning” emissions with regular bonds of the same maturity and ...

Bloomberg With European banking mergers at their lowest on record — and profits slumping — politicians are finally getting more serious about the need for consolidation. German finance minister Olaf Scholz is seeking to persuade European colleagues of the need for a banking union. He called publicly last month for a deposit insurance system that works across the region, a ...

The financial markets had a rude awakening on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s first day back at the office. Instead of using his new parliamentary majority to push for an ambitious trading relationship with Europe post-Brexit, Johnson doubled down on his election pledge to rush ahead and complete trade talks next year, suggesting there will be either a bare-bones deal or ...