Bloomberg Chinese President Xi Jinping’s mantra that homes should be for living in is falling on deaf ears, with tens of millions of apartments and houses standing empty across the country. Soon-to-be-published research will show roughly 22 percent of China’s urban housing stock is unoccupied, according to Professor Gan Li, who runs the main nationwide study. That adds up to …

Bloomberg India’s government is asking the central bank to hand over a part of its surplus reserves and loosen liquidity norms for lenders — demands that are likely to escalate a standoff with the monetary authority that’s fiercely protective of its independence. The matter is pending before the board of the Reserve Bank of India and may be taken up …

Bloomberg It’s time to start loading up on “cheap” yen. Using options to bet on gains for Japan’s currency is a smart wager for 2019, according to Societe Generale. The yen reached its weakest since early October, before recovering as concern over China’s economy fuelled declines in global equities and eroded risk appetite. The yen traded at 113.85 per dollar …