Beijing / AFP China’s finance minister accused international credit-rating companies of ‘bias’ against the country after Standard & Poor’s Rating Services and Moody’s Investors Service lowered their sovereign outlooks on the world’s second-largest economy. “Historically, the market performance of most of China’s sovereign debt was higher than the assessment of the credit-rating agencies,” Lou Jiwei said at a press ...

  Sydney / Bloomberg The Australian federal government’s debt pile is set to increase further without measures to boost revenues, Moody’s Investors Service said. Spending cuts set to be outlined in the May 3 budget “may be modest” and with Treasurer Scott Morrison having excluded steps to bolster income, these “limited” reductions are unlikely to meaningfully advance the government’s aim ...

  Beijing / Bloomberg China’s love affair with physical beauty is helping to fuel a selfie-editing app’s valuation of $3 billion. Meitu Inc. is shooting for at least that much in its latest funding round, according to people familiar with the company, a target that would make it one of China’s 10 largest private startups and eclipse household-names like Yelp ...