Bloomberg Venezuela’s international reserves fell $832 million between December 30 and January 2, reaching a thirty-year low of $6.63 billion on January 2. The country began the week with reserves of $7.47 billion on December 30, according to central bank data. The level of $6.63 billion is the lowest since July 1989, when reserves were at $6.68 billion. “The fall …

Bloomberg Christine Lagarde has a plan for rebutting German criticism of the bond-buying programme she inherited as European Central Bank (ECB) president: Put a German in charge of it. Lagarde has handed one of the ECB’s highest-profile roles to a German who has taken a stand against undue sniping at the institution’s policies. Isabel Schnabel, a University of Bonn economics …

Bloomberg China’s financial regulator said it will implement a series of measures to shore up the nation’s troubled smaller banks and insurers while continuing a clampdown on shadow financing and property speculation. The regulator will introduce measures to eliminate bad loans and promote mergers, capital injections and the restructuring of high risk institutions, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission …