Bloomberg Hong Kong’s new leader, John Lee, declared the city must balance reducing travel inconvenience with limiting the spread of Covid-19, signaling a cautious virus approach. Lee said Tuesday that he’d asked Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau to assess the “evidence and statistics to see how we can, while on the one hand, contain the spread of the pandemic and, ...

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) is exploring ways to prevent banks from earning windfall profits from the subsidised lending program it launched during the pandemic, once it raises interest rates later this month, according to a report by the Financial Times. The ECB provided €2.2 trillion of subsidized loans to banks during the Covid-19 crisis to avoid a ...

Bloomberg UniCredit SpA is considering selling its Russian unit through a structure that would allow the bank to repurchase the subsidiary if the geopolitical situation stabilizes, according to people familiar with the matter. Italy’s second-largest lender is looking at several possible deal arrangements, including one that would give it the option of buying back the unit depending on market and ...

Bloomberg Zimbabwe’s central bank plans to sell gold coins to the public from July 25 as a store of value to stabilise the nation’s tumbling currency and offer an alternative to the US dollar. The one-troy-ounce gold coins will be called Mosi oa-Tunya Gold Coin, Governor John Mangudya said. The term means “Smoke that Thunders,” a reference to Victoria Falls, ...

  Bloomberg The euro slid to a 20-year low against the US dollar as traders bet that the European Central Bank will go slower on raising interest rates as the economy risks being tipped into a recession. The common currency fell as much as 1.4% to $1.0281, its weakest level since December 2002. The losses came as money markets continued ...

  Bloomberg Barclays Plc said it will give a $1,460 pay raise to 35,000 of its UK-based staff, the latest lender to boost wages as the cost-of-living crisis deepens. Employees in customer-facing, branch and junior support roles will receive the increase to their annual pensionable salary from August 1. The bank said it will continue “to monitor the economic situation ...

  Bloomberg US index futures and European equities fell as concern over the possibility of a recession outweighed optimism over US-China talks aimed at tariff reductions. The euro falls to a 20-year low. Contracts on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes dropped at least 0.6% each as US markets were set to return after Independence Day holiday. In Europe, ...

  Bloomberg Warnings from Indian crypto exchanges that a controversial new transaction tax would erode trading are coming true, with volumes evaporating since the levy took effect. Three exchanges — ZebPay, WazirX and CoinDCX — suffered declines of between 60% and 87% in the value of daily trading immediately after the 1% tax deductible at source became effective on July ...

  DUBAI / WAM Al Hosn National Health System, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP), has launched an online Hajj permit service on Al Hosn App in cooperation with the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments. The service aims to facilitate Hajj procedures, save pilgrims’ times and efforts and enhance their confidence in the ...

  BEIJING / WAM China’s digital economy logged rapid expansion in recent years, with its scale increasing from 11 trillion yuan ($1.65 trillion) in 2012 to over 45 trillion yuan in 2021, official data showed. According to the state news agency (Xinhua), the proportion of the digital economy in China’s GDP rises from 21.6 percent to 39.8 percent in the ...